Gay activists bully business that did nothing, now they've shut their doors

April 02, 2015

WRITER

A local news reporter went trolling businesses in small town Indiana and chose to enter a small pizza shop, Memories Pizza. She asked the store owners what they thought of the RFRA bill. When they said that they believe anyone has a right to believe whatever they want, but they were a Christian establishment and wouldn't be catering gay weddings, well...let's just say the liberal media made the story go viral in the worst possible way. Now they've been forced to close their doors amidst a series of threats from the tolerant left.

ABC57 reported:

So, when Governor Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law, the family was not disappointed.

“We definitely agree with the bill,” says O'Connor.

When ABC 57 asked O'Connor about the negative backlash the bill has been getting for being a discriminatory piece of legislation, she says that's simply not true.

“I do not think it's targeting gays. I don't think it's discrimination,” says O'Connor. “It's supposed to help people that have a religious belief.”

After receiving threats for simply stating their beliefs, they've been forced to close their doors.

In response to the story, Dana Loesch and her team set up a GoFundMe page for the pizza joint last night. By this morning, it had raised over $60,000. And as of publication, people have donated over $210,000.

On radio this morning, Glenn interviewed Memories Pizza owner Kevin O'Connor.

Below is a rush transcript of the full interview:

GLENN: We have a great show for you today. Mark Levin will be on with us in just a few minutes. Top of hour two. Kevin O'Connor is with us now. He is the owner of Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana. He was on Dana's show last night trying to explain himself, if he was on other networks. That's exactly what they would approach him with. I want to find out how he's doing and how his business is doing today. His daughter Crystal was quoted on local television saying if a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, I guess we would have to say no. We're not discriminating against anyone. That's just our belief and anyone has a right to believe in anything. I don't think it's targeting gays. I don't think it's discrimination. It's supposed to help people that have a religious belief. Let's go to Kevin now. Hello, Kevin, how are you?

KEVIN: Hi, Glenn. Fine, thank you.

GLENN: How are you holding up, and how is the family? How is your daughter?

KEVIN: We're holding up. Emotions are pretty raw. But we're starting to get so much support other than all the first explosion of negative stuff. So that's helping a lot. People have been really great.

PAT: Are you guys closed for today, or are you going to open the shop?

KEVIN: I think we're going to be closed today. We were closed yesterday. And I think we'll be closed today too.

PAT: And that's because of the -- of the backlash of hatred you got. Right?

And threats?

KEVIN: Yeah. Yeah.

GLENN: Kevin --

KEVIN: The phone at the store, just it was constant ring. I don't think there was a two-minute break between -- that was probably the longest break of the whole time. It just was constantly ringing. So there was no way we could do business that way. So we're going to probably keep it closed a couple of days here, and Crystal is a little afraid. So I'll give her some time to get herself back together and work up the courage to go back in and get it rolling again.

GLENN: So, Kevin, you are -- you're a local pizza place.

KEVIN: Right.

GLENN: You've never had a problem with anybody before, I take it.

KEVIN: No. No.

GLENN: How and why did this local television station decide to target you?

KEVIN: The reporter that came in said they wanted to talk to the people out in small towns. And I asked, well, how did you pick us? And she said, well, I just Googled, and your pizza place came up first and that's -- so that's where I came. And that's where it all began.

GLENN: But I find that hard to believe because I know how slimy these reporters are. And this reporter might have been fine. But you do have religious paraphernalia you -- I assume that you have pictures or something, it just says that you're a restaurant that is festooned with Christian paraphernalia. So I don't know what kind of slam that is supposed to be. But I imagine --

KEVIN: We have a piano in there, an old upright piano. And Crystal had decorated that for Easter. And then we have a sign up there --

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

KEVIN: -- that we do prayers, and that's it.

PAT: Oh, no. Oh, my gosh. So that's festooned.

GLENN: That's festooned. Easter decorations up. Okay. So I find it hard to believe that you weren't targeted because you had something about prayer up in your pizza place.

KEVIN: Oh. I have no way of knowing that.

GLENN: You're a better man than I am. You are a better man than I am. Have you -- I mean, if a gay person comes into your establishment, you don't turn them away, do you?

KEVIN: No. No. We've never turned anyone away.

GLENN: Okay.

PAT: So you don't ask anybody that comes in the door, excuse me, are you gay? Are you heterosexual? Are you atheist?

GLENN: Are you Muslim?

STU: You don't have certain toppings for each sexual preference?

KEVIN: No. We don't do any of that, no.

STU: But --

GLENN: So your daughter was just answering the question of, you being asked -- and I've never been to a wedding where a pizza place served. I find it amazing that she was going to -- just by random, just Googling, I'm looking for a small town pizza place, and she found you. Because when I think of someone catering a wedding, I immediately think of my local pizza shop.

STU: Have you ever catered a wedding, gay or straight?

KEVIN: No, we've never catered --

GLENN: Anything?

KEVIN: No. It was just a metaphor --

PAT: A hypothetical.

KEVIN: -- on Crystal's, part.

GLENN: So I want to make it clear. You've never catered anything, let alone a wedding.

KEVIN: Well, we have done for the school. They do a festival, and we run pizzas down to them.

PAT: Did you make sure there weren't any gays in the school before you catered to them? So stupid.

GLENN: Kevin --

PAT: This is so ridiculous.

GLENN: Kevin, can I ask you, because you must have thought of this in the last 24 hours, can you believe this is America? Can you believe this is the United States of America the way you're being treated?

KEVIN: No. And I thought of that before. I just -- it's hard to believe the way things have gone in such a short time.

GLENN: Can you tell us just so -- because we have people who listen to us on the left and they're not crazy, and I think what's happened is, they have turned a blind eye, all the normal friends who are Democrats and everything else, they've turned a blind eye to who is really running the show here. And they are -- they are really dangerous people. Just like if the right would just shut their mouth and turn a blind eye to dangerous fringe people on the right. What are the -- what are the kind of responses? I saw a teacher in Indiana, a high school teacher said, who will join me tonight to go to Memories Pizza to burn it down.

KEVIN: Yeah, I seen that. That's -- I don't -- I don't know what to say about it. I don't know what to think about it. It's just -- I can't believe the anger. The anger -- I don't think the anger is placed so much at us, but we became a place to vent.

GLENN: Are you getting death threats?

KEVIN: I haven't seen any. I've heard. But I haven't seen. And to be honest with you, I really got off the social internet here for the last day or two.

STU: That's a good idea. Although, there are some places that are nice on the internet right about now. Dana, on the Dana Show on this network, created a GoFundMe page for Memories Pizza that has $63,000 in it. You don't have to give us all the business details. But how many weeks of profit is $63,000 for a small pizza place?

KEVIN: Several.

GLENN: Yeah. Right. Kevin, we feel for you. We want you to know that our families are praying for you.

KEVIN: That's more important than anything.

GLENN: Well, we feel for you. And my father ran a small bakery. And I know what shutting a small bakery down for two days would mean. And you may be closed longer than that. And I just want you to know that there are millions of people who are hearing you right now who will include you in their with the families at night.

KEVIN: Well, I covet those prayers. That's the strength. So --

GLENN: Listen to this guy. He's coveting. That's against a commandment. These Christians. Oh. Kevin, God bless you, sir, we wish you all the blessings that you and your family stand in need of.

KEVIN: Thank you.

GLENN: You're welcome. Thank you.

STU: The address is GoFundMe.com/MemoriesPizza.

PAT: What a nice guy. They just don't deserve it. You just can't make a comment at all anymore.

GLENN: We're not these people. We're not these people. And we can't be mad about it. If we respond in anger, we lose. We must listen to him. Listen to him. We have to respond in kindness, in gentleness, because when you put good versus evil side by side, if we're screaming and we're saying the same things that they're saying, kill them, burn them down, if we approach this with anger, we lose. We lose. We have to follow the teachings of our master. It's the only way to win.

[Music playing]

GLENN: Wow. Listen -- listen to the mocking.

PAT: No. What? That's reinforcement, my friend.

GLENN: I will let God be your judge on that one. Back in just a second.

Is Mayor Bass HIDING the real reason behind LA’s riots?

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Protesters wore Che shirts, waved foreign flags, and chanted Marxist slogans — but corporate media still peddles the ‘spontaneous outrage’ narrative.

I sat in front of the television this weekend, watching the glittering spectacle of corporate media do what it does best: tell me not to believe my lying eyes.

According to the polished news anchors, what I was witnessing in Los Angeles was “mostly peaceful protests.” They said it with all the earnest gravitas of someone reading a bedtime story, while behind them the streets looked like a deleted scene from “Mad Max.” Federal agents dodged concrete slabs as if it were an Olympic sport. A man in a Che Guevara crop top tried to set a police car on fire. Dumpster fires lit the night sky like some sort of postapocalyptic luau.

If you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

But sure, it was peaceful. Tear gas clouds and Molotov cocktails are apparently the incense and candles of this new civic religion.

The media expects us to play along — to nod solemnly while cities burn and to call it “activism.”

Let’s call this what it is: delusion.

Another ‘peaceful’ riot

If the Titanic “mostly floated” and the Hindenburg “mostly flew,” then yes, the latest L.A. riots are “mostly peaceful.” But history tends to care about those tiny details at the end — like icebergs and explosions.

The coverage was full of phrases like “spontaneous,” “grassroots,” and “organic,” as if these protests materialized from thin air. But many of the signs and banners looked like they’d been run off at ComradesKinkos.com — crisp print jobs with slogans promoting socialism, communism, and various anti-American regimes. Palestinian flags waved beside banners from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and El Salvador. It was like someone looted a United Nations souvenir shop and turned it into a revolution starter pack.

And guess who funded it? You did.

According to at least one report, much of this so-called spontaneous rage fest was paid for with your tax dollars. Tens of millions of dollars from the Biden administration ensured your paycheck funded Trotsky cosplayers chucking firebombs at local coffee shops.

The same aging radicals from the 1970s — now armed with tenure, pensions, and book deals — are cheering from the sidelines, waxing poetic about how burning a squad car is “liberation.” These are the same folks who once wore tie-dye and flew to help guerrilla fighters and now applaud chaos under the banner of “progress.”

This is not progress. It is not protest. It’s certainly not justice or peace.

It’s an attempt to dismantle the American system — and if you dare say that out loud, you’re labeled a bigot, a fascist, or, worst of all, someone who notices reality.

And what sparked this taxpayer-funded riot? Enforcement against illegal immigrants — many of whom, according to official arrest records, are repeat violent offenders. These are not the “dreamers” or the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. These are criminals with long, violent rap sheets — allowed to remain free by a broken system that prioritizes ideology over public safety.

Photo by Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg | Getty Images

This is what people are rioting over — not the mistreatment of the innocent, but the arrest of the guilty. And in California, that’s apparently a cause for outrage.

The average American, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, is supposed to worry they’ll be next. But unless you’re in the habit of assaulting people, smuggling, or firing guns into people’s homes, you probably don’t have much to fear.

Still, if you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

The left has lost it

This is what happens when a culture loses its grip on reality. We begin to call arson “art,” lawlessness “liberation,” and criminals “community members.” We burn the good and excuse the evil — all while the media insists it’s just “vibes.”

But it’s not just vibes. It’s violence, paid for by you, endorsed by your elected officials, and whitewashed by newsrooms with more concern for hair and lighting than for truth.

This isn’t activism. This is anarchism. And Democratic politicians are fueling the flame.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck's 'No King but Christ' merch: Will faith STOP the chaos?

On Saturday, June 14, 2025 (President Trump's 79th birthday), the "No Kings" protest—a noisy spectacle orchestrated by progressive heavyweights like Randi Weingarten and her union cronies—will take place in Washington, D.C.

Thousands will chant "no thrones, no crowns, no king," claiming to fend off authoritarianism and corruption.

But let’s cut through the noise. The protesters' grievances—rigged courts, deported citizens, slashed services—are a house of cards. Zero Americans have been deported, Federal services are still bloated, and if anyone is rigging the courts, it's the Left. So why rally now, especially with riots already flaring in L.A.?

Chaos isn’t a side effect here—it’s the plan.

This is not about liberty; it's a power grab dressed up as resistance. The "No Kings" crowd wants you to buy their script: government’s the enemy—unless they’re the ones running it. It's the identical script from 2020: same groups, same tactics, same goal, different name.

But Glenn is flipping the script. He's dropping a new "No Kings but Christ" merch line, just in time for the protest. Merch that proclaims one truth: no earthly ruler owns us; only Christ does. It’s a bold, faith-rooted rejection of this secular circus.

Why should you care? Because this won’t just be a rally—it’ll be a symptom. Distrust in institutions is sky-high, and rightly so, but the "No Kings" answer is a hollow shout into the void. Glenn’s merch begs the question: if you’re ditching kings, who’s really in charge? Get yours and wear the answer proudly.

Truth unleashed: 95% say media’s excuses for anti-Semitism are a LIE

ELI IMADALI / Contributor | Getty Images

Glenn asked for YOUR take on the rising tide of anti-Semitism, and you delivered. After the Boulder attack, you made it clear: this isn’t just a news story—it’s a crisis the elites are dodging.

Your verdict is unmistakable: 96% of you see anti-Semitism as a growing threat in the U.S., brushing aside the establishment’s weak excuses. The spin does not fool you—95% say the media is deliberately downplaying the issue, hiding a cultural rot that’s all too real. And the government’s response? A whopping 95% of you call it a disgraceful failure, leaving communities exposed.

Your voices shatter the silence. Why should we trust narratives that dismiss your concerns? With 97% of you warning that anti-Semitism will surge in the years ahead, you’re demanding action and accountability. This is your stand for truth.

You spoke, and Glenn listened. Your bold response sends a message to those who’d rather ignore the problem. Keep raising your voice at Glennbeck.com—your input drives the fight for justice. Take part in the next poll and continue shaping the conversation.

Want to make your voice heard? Check out more polls HERE.

JPMorgan Chase CEO issues dire warning about America's prosperity

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Jamie Dimon has a grim forecast for America — and it’s not a recession. He sees a fragile nation drifting into crisis while its leaders fight over TikTok.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase — one of the most powerful financial institutions on earth — issued a warning the other day. But it wasn’t about interest rates, crypto, or monetary policy.

Speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California, Dimon pivoted from economic talking points to something far more urgent: the fragile state of America’s physical preparedness.

We are living in a moment of stunning fragility — culturally, economically, and militarily. It means we can no longer afford to confuse digital distractions with real resilience.

“We shouldn’t be stockpiling Bitcoin,” Dimon said. “We should be stockpiling guns, tanks, planes, drones, and rare earths. We know we need to do it. It’s not a mystery.”

He cited internal Pentagon assessments showing that if war were to break out in the South China Sea, the United States has only enough precision-guided missiles for seven days of sustained conflict.

Seven days — that’s the gap between deterrence and desperation.

This wasn’t a forecast about inflation or a hedge against market volatility. It was a blunt assessment from a man whose words typically move markets.

“America is the global hegemon,” Dimon continued, “and the free world wants us to be strong.” But he warned that Americans have been lulled into “a false sense of security,” made complacent by years of peacetime prosperity, outsourcing, and digital convenience:

We need to build a permanent, long-term, realistic strategy for the future of America — economic growth, fiscal policy, industrial policy, foreign policy. We need to educate our citizens. We need to take control of our economic destiny.

This isn’t a partisan appeal — it’s a sobering wake-up call. Because our economy and military readiness are not separate issues. They are deeply intertwined.

Dimon isn’t alone in raising concerns. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has warned that China has already overtaken the U.S. in key defense technologies — hypersonic missiles, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence to mention a few. Retired military leaders continue to highlight our shrinking shipyards and dwindling defense manufacturing base.

Even the dollar, once assumed untouchable, is under pressure as BRICS nations work to undermine its global dominance. Dimon, notably, has said this effort could succeed if the U.S. continues down its current path.

So what does this all mean?

Christopher Furlong / Staff | Getty Images

It means we are living in a moment of stunning fragility — culturally, economically, and militarily. It means we can no longer afford to confuse digital distractions with real resilience.

It means the future belongs to nations that understand something we’ve forgotten: Strength isn’t built on slogans or algorithms. It’s built on steel, energy, sovereignty, and trust.

And at the core of that trust is you, the citizen. Not the influencer. Not the bureaucrat. Not the lobbyist. At the core is the ordinary man or woman who understands that freedom, safety, and prosperity require more than passive consumption. They require courage, clarity, and conviction.

We need to stop assuming someone else will fix it. The next crisis — whether military, economic, or cyber — will not politely pause for our political dysfunction to sort itself out. It will demand leadership, unity, and grit.

And that begins with looking reality in the eye. We need to stop talking about things that don’t matter and cut to the chase: The U.S. is in a dangerously fragile position, and it’s time to rebuild and refortify — from the inside out.