"I believe that in the eyes of the law, all Americans should be treated equally."

This passage in Barack Obama's mailing today is the only one that matters.

I respect the beliefs of others, and the right of religious institutions to act in accordance with their own doctrines. But I believe that in the eyes of the law, all Americans should be treated equally. And where states enact same-sex marriage, no federal act should invalidate them.

The law. Sarah Posner follows up at Salon:

Today Obama explicitly rejected the idea that religious conservatives have a monopoly, either legally or rhetorically, on defining marriage as a straights-only institution.

Yes, religion has a say in the matter -- insofar as one adheres to the tenets of that specific religion. This is not the same as saying that all the rest of us are bound to adhere to those tenets by a default mechanism in which we have no input. Practice your religion, please -- and leave me alone.

Religion's laws apply to some of us, but the nation based on rule of law is about all of us. Organized religion has its place, and that place is not to define the institution of marriage according to one doctrine of many, precisely because there are so many fractious, competing religious doctrines, not a one of them possessing a system of belief capable of being proven outside of one's personal, subjective faith.

Today, Barack Obama referred to the law that binds us all. That's my belief system, and I'm so encouraged by the president's embrace of reason that for at least a while, the glass is half full. It is disheartening that 60% of North Carolina's voters rejected civil rights yesterday, but it's not nearly as bad as the 98% who rejected civil rights in 1861.

150 years later, we're making slight progress. The president is on the right side of history, irrespective of how long it took him to get there. Let's celebrate, and also make ready to go to work.