Editor, Times-Union: The following is my sixth letter in my series of letters on the various positions that one’s government can have on religious liberty. The previous five letters were printed in the Times-Union on March 23, April 6, May 9, July 15 and Oct. 3.
The fourth letter, which was printed July 15, gave a slightly modified definition of freedom of religion from earlier ones. While the fifth letter listed part one of my explanation of that definition/principle, by going over the meaning of the phrase “inalienable rights,” the meaning of “each person whether alone or with others” when it comes to who has the right to make a decision about one’s religious practices or no practice of religion. It also discussed what does not constitute legitimate profession and/or practice of religion or no religion.
This letter will briefly explain what the open and free profession of and/or practice of religion or no religion means, along with what are examples of real acts of religious persecution.
Explanation - Part Two
4. The “open or even closed profession and/or practice of a religion or no religion” means one does not have to conceal their activities from bureaucrats, police and informants out of fear of being punished for such activities.
5. To “freely profess belief in and engage in the practice of a religion or no religion” means to be free from undue restrictions on one’s activities so long as they are peaceful and do not infringe upon the rights of others to do the same or engage in other personal freedoms.
6. “Acts of persecution” by the government include such heinous practices as: war or acts of war, extermination campaigns, executions, torture, imprisonment, segregation, forced manual labor, deportation, deportation, monetary fines, property confiscation, the compulsory registration and special identification as a member of a particular faith, sham court trials, censorship, the targeted de jure or de facto removal or restriction of basic civil rights and/or privileges because of one’s faith or non-faith, etc. These actions are usually directed against persons who are not of the majority faith or the faith of a powerful minority, groups that have unpopular or strange but peaceful beliefs, or those whose beliefs are considered detrimental to the well-being of society. Acts of persecution are the means of coercion that ensure compliance from those unwilling to go along with the new order or old order.
Part three of my explanation, which will briefly touch on the meaning of the following phrases: “acts of forced conversion,” “acts of intrusion into the internal affairs of one’s congregation, denomination or faith” or “incremental or outright establishment of a universal state church/state religion or militant state atheism” from that definition/guiding principle printed earlier in the Times-Union , will follow at a later date in the letters to the editor column.
