When I’m wrong I’m willing to admit it, and I’m wrong. All I heard were the sound bites of Pastor Rick Warren on TV, and the Dateline interview and I thought I knew who Rick Warren is. I don’t. I was wrong to judge him on sound bites and first impressions.
Please visit this link to Melissa Etheridge’s article on December 22, 2008 in the Huffington Post:
Pastor Warren visited with Melissa, her spouse and their children at Ethridge’s home after she and Pastor Warren performed at the Muslim Public Affairs Council in California. He said he was sorry for his choice of words in the clip shown on TV. He is against gays calling our unions marriage because he defines it as only between one man and one woman, but he claims to be for gay equal rights if we call our unions something else.
He has changed his website, and I hope that the initial information I got about Rick Warren is not accurate, or at least less accurate than it appears, and that he and his congregation are open to dialogue and better relations with the gay and lesbian community.
I do have a problem with Pastor Warren’s seeming lack of scientific facts and knowledge, as I have the same problem with many on the far right about their beliefs that science and their religions are contradictory. I do not believe that they are contradictory. The Bible was written in a time when most people couldn’t even read and write, let alone understand science. It wasn’t written down for centuries after the stories were passed down by oral tradition. When we don’t understand something, we tend to make up a story that explains it for us. Later, when we have the facts, those stories can become metaphors for what we didn’t understand previously. I believe the Bible stories of creation are wonderful metaphors for the physics that happened before, during, and after the big bang.
But again, how am I going to change anyone’s mind if I walk with a picket sign outside their church? I might have a better chance if I go inside and talk to some of the people who might be willing to have a discussion and at least give my ideas a try.
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