The owners of the small pizzeria in Indiana, which has become ground zero in the debate over Indiana's controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, have temporarily closed the business, telling a conservative radio host that they may shut down for good.
Memories Pizza in tiny Walkerton was thrown into the harsh national spotlight after one of the owners told a local news station that they agree with the RFRA and, as a Christian establishment, would refuse to provide pizzas for gay weddings.
In an interview with The Blaze's Dana Loesch, co-owner Crystal O'Connor said they have not opened their doors since the controversy began.
"How long do you think -- will you reopen them? How long do you think it will take for .. for you to get to that point?" Loesch asked.
"I don't know if we will reopen or if we can, "O'Connor replied.
"You had said as well before that you, I mean, that your family is considering leaving. Like leaving town, like leaving Indiana because of all of this," Loesch asked with O'Connor replying, "Yeah."
Loesch mentioned Jess Dooley, a coach at Concord High School in Elkhart, Indiana who was suspended from her job after tweeting, "Who's going to Walkerton, IN to burn down #memoriespizza w me? Agree with #FreedomofReligion bill? "That's a lifestyle they CHOOSE" Ignorant."
"How do you feel when you see stuff like this? I mean you go from this small family business in a small town, and now you've got people threatening to burn your business down." Loesch said. "You said that there have been other threats."
"Um, we're very hurt and confused and we stood up for what we believed and the news took it totally out of proportion," O'Connor explained. "They lied about it, I mean we said that we would serve anyone that walked in that door -- even gays -- and we would not condone their life. We would not cater to that because that's against our religious beliefs."
After noting the family is undergoing financial hardships, Loesch announced the formation of a GoFundMe account -- Support Memories Pizza -- online, which had raised more than $24,000 after 3 hours.
Signing off, Loesch told O'Connor, "God bless you. God bless you for being fearless and for standing up for your faith. And, as Christ said, y'know, 'If they persecute you, remember they came for me first.' So you did nothing wrong here. You did nothing wrong."
Watch the video below, uploaded to YouTube by The Blaze:
