WaPo | The pizza shop in Walkerton, Ind. — a small town of about 2,200
people about 20 miles south of South Bend — doesn’t look like the
epicenter of a national controversy. The black-and-white linoleum and
red booths are unassuming — the decor of any take-out joint anywhere in
America. A Triple XXX Root Beer will set you back $2. It even has a
piano — and a prayer suggestion box.
“Every day before we open
the store, we gather and pray together,” reads a sign posted in the
store, which also boasts numerous crosses, including one that says
“Glorify the Lord.” “If there is something you would like us to pray
for, just write it down and drop it in the box.”
But Memories
Pizza — “a Walkerton mainstay,” according to local media, for more than a
decade — is feeling the heat of a great debate about religious freedom
and gay rights. Memories has been billed by a local ABC affiliate as the
“first business to publicly deny same-sex service” after Gov. Mike
Pence (R) signed the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)
into law. Many feel the law, which advocates say is intended to protect
religious freedom, will result in discrimination against homosexuals.
The affiliate was looking for reactions to RFRA — and it made some memories at Memories.
