Perhaps the most important protection is from the thought police. Any average citizen may, at some point in the future, be taken in for questioning because of his or her beliefs in conspiracy theories. This could happen as a result of being spotted at a protest march or due to government tracking of book purchases, for example. If that average citizen is just an average citizen then such activities would, by the government's definition, put him or her squarely in the "seditious behavior" camp. If however, that average citizen could prove that his or her activity was in fact not seditious but merely the practicing of his religion, then religious rights and freedom come into play. Basically, there is no law that says that a person cannot be arrested for seditious behavior, in fact, there are laws that demand that he be arrested. There ARE laws however that say that each person has a right to religious practice, however that is defined, presuming that it does not conflict with other laws. Of course, there IS a conflict in the example I gave, but that is a much better position to be in than to have no justification at all for your apparently seditious behavior.
Here are a few generally accepted religious rights. See if you can think of ways that they could be used to allow all of us continue doing what we do under most aggressive government controls
* Every person has the right to determine his or her own faith and creed according to conscience.
* Every person has the right to the privacy of his belief, to express his religious beliefs in worship, teaching, and practice, and to proclaim the implications of his beliefs for relationships in a social or political community.
* Every person has the right to associate with others and to organize with them for religious purposes.
* Every religious organization, formed or maintained by action in accordance with the rights of individual persons, has the right to determine its policies and practices for the accomplishment of its chosen purposes, which implies the right:
o to assemble for unhindered private or public worship
o to formulate its own creed
o to have an adequate ministry
o to determine its conditions of membership
o to give religious instruction to its youth, including preparation for ministry
o to preach its message publicly
o to receive into its membership those who desire to join it
o to carry on social services and to engage in missionary activity both at home and abroad
o to organize local congregations
o to publish and circulate religious literature
o to control the means necessary to its mission and to secure support for its work at home and abroad
o to cooperate and to unite with other believers at home and abroad
o to use the language of the people in worship and in religious instruction
o to determine freely the qualifications for professional leadership of religious communities, freely naming their religious leaders at all levels and designating their work assignments.
