It takes approximately two hours to read in full. Religious belief systems usually have two related components. Arguably everyone has a belief system about the nature of reality but not all deem them sacred. Legally what is meant in the USA is that the state should not sponsor religion either overtly by declaring an official state religion or covertly by enacting laws that favor particular religions or persecute members of certain religions. This is a difficult ideal insofar as people generally have difficulty distinguishing their religious and beliefs about the nature of reality as being personal and they tend to effectively enforce their religious beliefs onto the general population through force of law.
Free society is based on a practical social contract between free men.
At minimum a free society guarantees freedom of religion, communication, and the right of association. These are the essential freedoms in respect to the right to form opinions and beliefs and act on them insofar other's similar rights are not abridged in doing so. A religious ritual is a action that connects the individual with the sacred. It is the object or means of a religious ritual through which an individual communes with the sacred. Any attempt by individuals, groups or especially government to deny individuals that right by direct persecution of other means is immoral, illegal and profoundly destructive to free society and religious freedom.