They can still do it, as this woman proved.
It has also been proven that some people can survive deadly attacks by intruders. So, does this mean we shouldn't prosecute or stop intruders into people's homes? May as well just let it go, right? I mean... they
must have had a reason to enter that stranger's home, right? My point being, if harm is being done - I barely care about the reasons. Don't care. ESPECIALLY if the reasons are religious - because, with all the religions there are in the world, it is a fact that most of it is just make believe (it cannot rationally be argued otherwise).
Think of it this way... what if a group of people read Hansel and Gretel, and they got it into their heads that miserly old ladies who lived alone in the woods were witches? They honestly believe this, because of what they read in Hansel and Gretel, and they build a religion around this idea. So they start walking into the woods looking for old ladies who live alone, and they burn them at the stake. They think they are saving little children - according to the FICTION they read, maybe that seems cogent to them. But any of us who understand that to be FICTION (or very, VERY plausibly fiction, without any way to actual prove the validity of their claims) would be looking to put a stop to them, and lock them up for a very, very long time.
As I have mentioned, my own opinion on this is..religious freedom should be sacrosanct (see what I did there?)
Sacrosanct FOR YOU. That's what you're not getting here. No one else is required to observe your faith-based customs, or respect them, or care about them. Not at all. Again, as I stated, they are based on what is most likely fiction, and stuff for which you couldn't provide sufficient evidence to save your life. You want to find something "sacrosanct?" How about gravity? Just try not observing gravity. Go ahead, I'll watch. Or how about the safety of children? You go ahead and try to get away with impinging on that and see what happens. And yes - if your religion was practiced by the vast majority of your region's residents, then you could possibly legislate items of your religion into the code of conduct. You could force people to treat items of your religion as "sacrosanct." But short of that, you have no case for anything you're doing being considered "sacrosanct." If people treat certain practices of yours that way, they do so out of common courtesy, mutual respect or a high level of care for their fellow man. But you'd better be damn sure that those SAME people who are willing to leave you your practices and beliefs will TAKE YOU DOWN the moment those practices or beliefs start infringing upon their lives and livelihoods. In other words, the sanctity of your practices and beliefs is an illusion. Doesn't have to be there at all.
You want to escort me out of church in handcuffs because you disapprove of my beliefs? Er...not so much. (and yes, I did get threatened with that...very odd woman, actually)
It depends on what you had done, obviously. If, within the secular realm of activity, you had practiced some religious teaching of yours and (hypothetically, of course) you had surreptitiously hit someone's dog with your car in order to perform a quick, secret sacrifice to your gods (I know you wouldn't do this, but bear with me). Do you honestly think that authorities are going to stop short at the door to your church for this religion and not enter to haul you away to jail? Sorry to burst your bubble, but they WON'T stop... nor should they. You're going to jail, and you're getting hauled out of your church in front of all your religious buddies.
You raise your kids according to your beliefs, I'll raise my kids according to mine. I'm LDS. I don't have the right to tell atheists, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses or Baptists how to raise their kids, and they don't have the right to tell me how to raise mine.
And for the most part, this works out to varying degrees. But you're wrong about no one having the right to tell you how to raise your kids. The laws of this land say so, directly. They CAN tell you how you need to raise your kids, and if your methods are found to be harmful or wanting to a great degree THEY WILL TAKE YOUR KIDS AWAY FROM YOU. And this is not me saying that your methods should have your kids taken away from you, though I am sure that's what you're hearing. All I am saying is that sometimes this is determined to need to happen - and when it is determined to be necessary, someone's religion DOES NOT give them some "free pass" to come out above the law. It doesn't, and never, ever should. They should go down for their crimes, like anyone else would in the same position. End of story.
And you do NOT get to equate my opposition to laws against things you find distasteful with support for cannibalism, "Satanic culling" and other forms of human sacrifice, and other things at the bottom of that very fallacious slippery slope.
This is not what I am doing, and I knew you thought it was. All I am saying is that IF things like that were happening, the excuse "but it's according to my religion" MEANS NOTHING. So you don't get to say that people just need to mind their own business in these matters. We won't. If you're hurting people we're going to be on you, and won't stop until you do - religion or no. Again - your religion may be innocuous, fine. But you're sitting here advocating no one should ever get to decide what is "too far" if it is part of some religion. And that's just crap. As stated before, it is a depraved outlook. Morally bankrupt.