Catholic Bishops who want the government to do what their own preaching cannot, Lutherans and Episcopalians who disagree with the Catholic bishops, and Virginia Republicans who give new meaning to the term “statutory rape.”

And you thought birth control was a settled issue.

Rick Perry’s claims notwithstanding, not all Christians think LGBTs should be discriminated against. Yesterday’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune carried a powerful pro-equality voice: retired ELCA Presiding Bishop Herbert Chilstrom.

The tide is turning, both inside the church and beyond. And it’s not moving in favor of bigotry, homophobia, exclusion, and hate.

It started last Sunday, when the winds finally stopped and people began to crawl out of their basements and stumble out of their homes and businesses. Or, in far too many cases, what was left of their homes and businesses.

“It” is the Joplin Marathon, and it’s being run by dozens of disaster relief organizations who will be hard at work in southwest Missouri, long after the media has packed up their cameras and moved on.

For many in the US, sports on the Memorial Day weekend means the Indy 500, but for folks in southwest Missouri, the Joplin Marathon is the only race that matters right now.

As I watch the “It Gets Better” videos, I can’t help but remember one of the best concerts I ever attended – the gay a cappella group The Flirtations. The most powerful moment of an incredibly wonderful evening came near the end, as the Flirts sang a lullaby to the audience: “You can be anybody that you want to be, you can love whomever you will . . .”

It gets better. Especially when we hear — and sing — lullabys like that.