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Putnam County residents create response to RFRA

Friday, May 15, 2015
By KYLE HOLLINGER Staff Writer
Joe Buser can be seen as just one of the myriad of Putnam County residents participating in a local video response to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Buser and a group of Putnam County citizens decided to create the video and issue a challenge to the other 91 counties of Indiana to create similar campaigns. (Courtesy Image)

Hoosier Hospitality is alive and well, and Joe Buser would like to see Putnam County take this ideal forward to encourage tourism to the region on a larger scale, so he has created a new promotional video called "My Putnam County."

The video is a localized response to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and, Buser hopes, the beginning of a series of video projects that aim to highlight what the greater Putnam County region has to offer.

When the bill passed, Buser thought "Oh my gosh, what have we done? Everybody is going to think of Indiana as just a place where we discriminate against people."

"That's not who we are and that's not acceptable," he said.

With "My Putnam County" Buser aims to highlight that everybody is welcome here.

Buser collaborated with locals within the county, Brian Boswell of Clean Slate Films (who is filming a movie in Greencastle) and even tracked down a Putnam County native who currently resides in South America to participate in the project remotely.

When Hoosier Gov. Mike Pence signed the RFRA, it spurred a nationwide backlash and included conventions, musicians and corporate entities backing out of engagements planned to take place in Indiana.

Tourism is not a new venture for Buser, who moved back home to Roachdale from Boston to found the not-for-profit Roachdale Revitalization Cooperative Alliance (RRCA). The RRCA aims to help beautify Roachdale, create growth in local business and encourage tourism not just through advertising but through creating local events such as the Rib and Blues Fest held in October.

"I had the idea of doing a video response, a Putnam County response stating, 'This is my county, and we are open for business. We do not discriminate here in Putnam County, please come and see us,'" Buser explained.

As part of the response, Buser is challenging the 91 other Indiana counties to create similar campaign videos and media to highlight "Hoosier Hospitality" at its finest.

"We just want to make sure that we stand in solidarity," he said.

While the video was created in direct response to the RFRA, it represents what Buser hopes is an ongoing project of short videos and media pushes that can highlight what Putnam and its surrounding counties have to offer.

"(The RFRA legislation) brought the idea up and thinking 'Oh my gosh, what kind of opportunities we might have missed?'" he said regarding plans to move forward with the video series.

"We want to say, 'No, we're here, we believe in freedoms,'" and that the county is more than happy to welcome travelers to the region.

The inaugural video, "My Putnam County," can be found at https://goo.gl/Kt3rHc or by searching for "My Putnam County1" online.

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  • Actually the law was written to protect people who want to refuse service because of their religious beliefs could not be sued for that reason. People who believe this was just to discriminate against other people are uninformed. Go into a place of business that is owned by muslims and ask them to cater a wedding for a gay couple and see what happens. It has already been tested and no one said that they were discriminating because they said no...people always call foul when it doesn't apply to everyone like it should, so one sided.....

    -- Posted by magoo55 on Sun, May 17, 2015, at 2:02 PM

  • Magoo55: This law just happened to be passed almost immediately after Indiana's attempt to ban gay marriage failed. Suddenly the state's religous business owners need "protection."

    You're half-correct. Someone is indeed uninformed.

    -- Posted by thingsfallapart on Sun, May 17, 2015, at 5:59 PM
  • *

    thingsfallapart, you are right in that "someone" is uninformed...its just not who you think it is.

    Indiana had a ban on gay marriage for a number of years before it was FORCED on us by an unconstitutional court ruling.

    "A law enacted in 1997 forbids the recognition of same-sex marriages established in jurisdictions outside Indiana.[2] "IC 31-11-1-1 Same sex marriage prohibited, Sec. 1 (a) Only a female may marry a male. Only a male may marry a female. (b) A marriage between persons of the same gender is void in Indiana even if the marriage is lawful in the place where it is solemnized. As added by P.L. 1 1997, Sec. 3. Amended by P.L. 198-1997, Sec. 1." [3]" (From Wikipedia: same sex marriage in Indiana)

    Magoo55 is correct, which you would know if you actually read the law and not simply commented out of ignorance or bias.

    RFRA was partly in direct response to a number of CHRISTIAN businesses (bakers, photographers,etc) in other states being targeted by the HOMOSEXUAL community for legal/judicial harrassment b/c they refuse to support same-sex marriage, as well as the HOBBY LOBBY case where a Christian-owned business fought against being forced to supply abortifacients against their religious beliefs.

    As for Mr. Buser - that's all well and fine to promote Roachdale, the state of Indiana, or anything else you wish to promote...but please do so honestly and stop misconstruing RFRA in order to further your own agenda.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Mon, May 18, 2015, at 2:48 PM

  • Yet, after dreadpirateroberts' lengthy posturing, the same two points remain:

    1. RFRA's coincidental passage after the "unconstitutional" ruling speaks clearly to its motives.

    2. The entire argument hinges on the ludicrous notion that the Christian community urgently needs protection from the hostile gay community out to secularize the country.

    -- Posted by thingsfallapart on Tue, May 19, 2015, at 1:19 PM
  • *

    It is obvious that thingsfallapart did not read the bill... or that they have their own particular agenda to push.

    the bill - as originally passed - simply protected businesses from having GOVERNMENT force them to violate their religious beliefs, and where it was necessary to do so, it would be done in the least restrictive way possible.

    The language of the bill - and the purpose of the bill - was not simply Christian protection from being terrorized by homosexual activists, but to protect religious rights of conscience.

    The cases where the bakers and the photographers were harrassed & bullied by the homosexual activists clearly show that the local/state governments were siding with the homosexual bullies in order to destroy Christian businesses.

    But as I said before, this was not the only thing, as it also protected businesses like Hobby Lobby from being forced to supply abortifacients against their conscience.

    Also, you may want to keep in mind that correlation does not equal causation.

    And finally, it is not a ludicrous notion that the Christian community is singled out and harrassed by homosexual activists. There are many verified stories that attest to this fact.

    Now, if you can show me where Christians target homosexual businesses...

    Perhaps you should go protest the Muslims. I don't ever hear the homosexual activists speaking against Muslims, who have no problems killing homosexuals.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Wed, May 20, 2015, at 2:15 PM

  • So many homophobes, so little time. ;)

    I'm not gay or a homophobe, but here is the bottom line ..

    The bakery was not being asked to SUPPORT gay marriage, they were being asked to BAKE A CAKE for a couple, which is what they do EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE WEEK.

    They bake cakes for pedophiles, murderers, rapists and yes, even Christians, without knowing who (or what) they are, so to wave the Christian flag as a badge of honor ONLY WHEN IT ALLOWS YOU TO OPENLY CONDEMN AND JUDGE ANOTHER's way of life is why Christians are often referred to as Hypochristians .. and rightly so.

    Now, if the bakery was being asked to attend a gay wedding, they could politely decline for religious reasons .. but they weren't asked to attend. They were asked to PERFORM A SERVICE to a CUSTOMER and they turned it into a gay-bashing platform.

    God doesn't turn away anyone, but you do? You're worshipping the wrong God.

    -- Posted by Emmes on Thu, May 21, 2015, at 11:09 AM

  • People turn away from God as he allows us to pursue our own devices.

    -- Posted by beg on Mon, Oct 5, 2015, at 7:52 AM
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