Commentary: I will not ‘park my faith or convictions at the door’

News flash: I am a Christian man who believes in traditional marriage. I won’t shy away from my convictions because the politically correct are crying foul.

Tolerance needs to be a two-way street. The LGBT community appears to be intolerant of my deeply held views.

The 1st Amendment is what makes us the greatest nation in the history of humanity.

When I first included my comments about gay marriage in my newsletter this week, I had no idea the controversy that it would create.

I know gay marriage has been an issue for years. But two weeks ago, the Supreme Court just overruled some 33 million people in 30 states who have voted in laws defining marriage as being between one woman and one man.

In fact California, not exactly a conservative bastion, voted it in twice, the latest being Proposition 8 by a margin of 52% to 48%.

“You will be made to care.”

Erick Erickson of RedState.com coined that phrase, so let me tell you about some of the implications of the Supreme Court decision we know because there are already several examples in various states.

Elane Photography owner Elane Huguenin in New Mexico declined to use her artistic talents to shoot a same sex-wedding. Her business was fined for discrimination.

Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Oregon refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple because owners felt it violated their religious beliefs and have been fined $135,000 with threats to lien their house if they don’t pay by Monday.

Masterpiece Bakeshop in Lakewood, Col., was taken to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission last week, because the owner refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding. It is yet to be decided on.

What’s next? Will your church lose its tax-exempt status if it doesn’t perform same-sex marriages?

Maybe your pastor will have to make sure his scheduled sermon passes the thought police’s politically correct rules or it will be considered hate speech, punishable by imprisonment.

Or maybe you will have to simply keep your “sincerely held religious beliefs” in the church building, where they belong, and not bring them into the public square or certainly not the ballot box.

You will be made to care!

These are discussions we should be having.

So what happened after I sent out my little newsletter questioning the Supreme Court decision?

I have been called a racist, a homophobe and intolerant by the very people who have earned their living allegedly fighting hate, name-calling and promoting tolerance. Many of the emails that I have received by the LGBT movement against me are not repeatable.

Whose rights are more important?

Isn’t it ironic that the Supreme Court “found” an unwritten constitutional right to homosexual marriage and now we have to give up our clearly written constitutional 1st Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of religion in order to comply?

Democracy requires different opinions. This is a debate a free society should have. I have my views, the LGBT community has theirs.

I don’t expect to park my faith or convictions at the door because I am elected official, nor would I expect the LGBT community to do so either. Thankfully, we live in a society where we get to air these views forcefully and, hopefully, respectfully.

I will not apologize for my views, nor will I be intimidated by a couple of my colleagues seeking a political advantage over my views. I have removed the city seal from my future email newsletters just in case someone mistook my personal opinion as the city’s opinion.

SCOTT PEOTTER is a Newport Beach city councilman.