I saw Jonah Goldberg on Neil Cavuto’s show yesterday afternoon defending Indiana’s RFRA as well as Memories Pizza.

I thought he made an odd argument in its defense when he stated didn’t complain about “bigoted rabbis” when no rabbi would marry him and his Catholic bride. Goldberg would later express his bewilderment that people were not receptive to his argument.

Goldberg’s rabbi argument is a poor one because rabbis are generally affiliated with synagogues which is of course a religious assembly covered under the federal RFRA as it was originally written. There’s a world of difference between rabbi refusing to marry a Jew to a non-Jew in a synagogue and a pizza proprietor refusing to serve food to a same sex wedding. 

Now I don’t agree with the sort of harassment that has been leveled against Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana. Yet it must be noted that owner Crystal O’Connor calls her business “a Christian establishment”. In that case, where does commerce end and religion begin? If businesses deem themselves religious institutions and its owners use their religious conscience to deny people their products and services then where does it end? Will they petition the federal government for tax exempt status?

Indiana’s RFRA, as it was previously written, would have been applied too broadly which would have produced nothing but chaos and mischief. Fortunately, this chaos and mischief has been remedied.