Mike Pence was on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.  Stephanopoulos, with a dreamy smile that made him look like he was still high on antipsychotic drugs, repeatedly asked Pence if the recently passed Religious Freedom Act would enable a baker or a florist to refuse to participate in a gay wedding.  Pence refused to answer, simply repeating, over and over, that the act promoted religious freedom, and that President Obama had once supported a similar law, without describing what the law does.  His dry, abstract, and very evasive answers to a simple question were very unflattering both to him and the conservative movement.  It looked as if Pence were afraid of defending the very law he had signed.

How else could Pence have answered the question?  Well, he could have been honest and direct.  He could have said, "Yes, this law will permit bakers, florists, and wedding planners to feel free to decline being involved in gay weddings.  That was the intent of the law, and I'm proud of it."  But he didn't say that, perhaps because he isn't proud of that.  You could have watched the entire interview and not understood whether Pence had signed the law to protect people whose religious conscience went against participating in gay marriage.

Stephanopoulos kept pressing him, calling it discrimination.  But discrimination is a legal term.  It applies to protected classes, like people of a certain race or religion.  If you refuse service to a Jew, or a black, that's discrimination.  If you refuse service to a Hindu or a Baptist, that's discrimination.  But if you refuse service to a guy because he has long lady's hair, that's not discrimination, because having long hair isn't a protected class.  If you refuse service to a lady because you don't like the look of wild animal lust in her eyes, that's not discrimination, either.  Businesses have a right to refuse service to anyone they don't like, as long as it's not related to race or religion (or in some circumstances a few other things, like disability).

Gay marriage is against the laws of most major religions, and has been for thousands of years.  It's deeply offensive for many people to be forced to participate in it.  And if federal judges hadn't improperly created a right to marry, overriding the decisions of the voters, this wouldn't be an issue.

Mike Pence has talked about running for president.  I hope he doesn't, because he doesn't have the guts to openly defend conservative principles.  He signed the Religious Freedom Act, but from his behavior, it's obvious he wasn't happy doing it, making me think of how unhappy Scott Walker was signing the Right to Work law.  If Pence is not comfortable speaking out against the radical gay agenda, I question whether he can be aggressive in speaking out about anything conservative, and wonder whether he would make a good presidential candidate.  I'm looking for a candidate like Ronald Reagan who will proudly speak out for what he believes in and not be cowed by the liberal media, and I don't think we should settle for mush.

This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.