[All-American Medic]

"If there was a 'religion' that esposed pedophilia, enjoined its members to public nudity, drunken orgies, etc, are you telling me that the local community is powerless to act against it?" Pedophilia is illegal and anyone engaging in it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Nudity and Orgies are not illegal, and no the local community should not be able to stop it, if it occurs on private land. Try this, supposing you are a religious conservative, and form a conservative church or group in an area or town dominated by Liberals, Do the Liberals have the right to tell you that you cannot meet or worship?? What you are doing is giving the community rights above the individual based on community norms. The community has a right to comment on what is done in a "public" arena, but not what happens on private land or a private home as long as the behavior is not illegal.

[Antoninus]

What you are doing is giving the community rights above the individual based on community norms. The community has a right to comment on what is done in a "public" arena, but not what happens on private land or a private home as long as the behavior is not illegal.

Uh, I think you have a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of how our system of government works. The local community DOES have rights above the individual based on community norms. For example, if I lived next door to you and opened a sewage treatment plant in my back yard, are you telling me that you and the rest of our neighbors would have no recourse? A local community has an absolute right to set standards. The beauty of it is, if you are personally put out by those standards, you can chose to live anywhere you wish. I'll bet Ithaca, NY would have no problem with drunken pagan orgies.

Also, who decides what's illegal? If the local community in this case decided that 'playing drums ourside after dark" was illegal, is that proper in your mind?