[MACVSOG68]

You do not have a God-given right to shack up.

Well, I guess I don't specifically have a God-given right to play chess either, but then in the God-given privacy of my home, neither you nor the state has a God given right to prevent me from doing so. Same for other activities between consenting adults.

[Antoninus]

Well, I guess I don't specifically have a God-given right to play chess either, but then in the God-given privacy of my home, neither you nor the state has a God given right to prevent me from doing so. Same for other activities between consenting adults.

Is that so? OK, here's a scenario for you: You live in a twin. Your neighbor is into bestiality with skunks. As a result, your house smells like skunk 24-7 and you rarely get a good night's sleep. Are you violating his "right to privacy" by convincing your local town council to outlaw the keeping of skunks on private property within city limits?

The "right to privacy" is abstract and difficult to define--which is why it wasn't included in the BoR. The notion that local govenment doesn't have the power to enforce local standards of decency as agreed upon by the majority of citizens is a liberal-tarian notion which had its coming-out party in the 1960s. I reject it completely. For those of you who accept it, I reckon your "enlightened" notions of privacy will be extinct the second the skunk-lover moves in next door.

[teawithmisswilliams]

...but then in the God-given privacy of my home, neither you nor the state has a God given right to prevent me from doing so. Same for other activities between consenting adults.

Sorry, but there's no "God-given" right to privacy. That's a "gift" from the Supreme Court in overturning state laws restricting abortion.

The everything-is-permitted-between-consenting-adults theory leads to some pretty disgusting and degrading results. No civilization anywhere has survived under such a decadent philosophy.