"Today we are making history...We are living up to the ideals of our founder," Chafee said.

With marriages scheduled to begin Aug. 1, Ronald L'Heureux, a Rhode Island man who cofounded a group called the Faith Alliance to Preserve the Sanctity of Marriage as Defined by God, made a last-ditch effort to block the ceremonies.

L'Heureux went to state court and, representing himself, sought a temporary restraining order. He argued that same-sex marriage would somehow affect his ability to practice his faith and thus violated the religious freedom provisions of the Rhode Island Constitution.

Not surprisingly, the court was not persuaded. Superior Court Judge Daniel Procaccini said L'Heureux had fallen "far short" of the standard required to win such an order.

The argument put forth by L'Heurerux is exceptionally weak, but it's one we're seeing a lot of these days from the Religious Right. To hear these groups tell it, somehow the actions of others - whether it's the use of birth control or someone's decision to marry the person he or she loves - can be an assault on a third party's religious liberty.

In fact, all of those same-sex couples in Rhode Island who will get married tomorrow and afterward won't affect L'Heureux's ability to engage in religious activity one iota. He can still attend the church of his choice, pray, read the Bible, sing hymns, proselytize door to door, etc.

L'Heureux sounds like quite a piece of work. When high school student Jessica Ahlquist of Cranston, R.I., sued to have a prayer banner removed from her public school in 2011, L'Heureux was dismayed. He even wrote a letter to a Christian minister who supported Ahlquist, asserting that the cleric does "not know the Christian history of our country."

L'Heureux told the Warwick Beacon that separation of church and state is a "gross misinterpretation of the law." He currently runs something called the Black Robe Regiment of Rhode Island, an entity inspired by a fake piece of history beloved by the Religious Right. It's not much of a "regiment," however. The current duty roster is L'Heureux and two others - one of whom lives in Georgia.

I suspect we're going to see more and more of these arguments as same-sex marriage spreads to other states. People will claim that their "religious freedom" is somehow infringed by what others are doing. But as we've explained many times here at Americans United, the only way that could happen is if churches were somehow compelled to recognize same-sex marriages - and that is not going to happen. No house of worship is going to be forced to perform any religious ceremony it does not want to perform.

Some houses of worship will choose to offer marriage services to same-sex couples. Some will not. Government clerks will be required to issue marriage licenses to all qualified applicants. End of story.

Back in the days of Barry Goldwater, conservatives preached the doctrine of self-determination. They urged folks to mind their own business and not try to run other people's lives. I know there are still conservatives like that around - indeed they are a key component of AU's membership - but alas, these days their voices tend to get drowned out by the strident catcalls of the Religious Right.

I wish that some of those old-fashioned conservatives would sit down and have a chat with L'Heureux. He seems awfully confused.