Pastor Rick Warren, chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to pray at his inauguration, said in a video message to his church that he doesn’t equate homosexual relationships with incest or pedophilia, but opposes redefining marriage just as any conservative Christian would…

“I have in no way ever taught that homosexuality is the same thing as a forced relationship between an adult and a child, or between siblings,” Warren said. “I was trying to point out I’m not opposed to gays having their partnership. I’m opposed to gays using the term marriage for their relationship.” – according to an article in OneNewsNow.

Well, that’s just hunky-dory, but it seems to me that Pastor Warren is missing a couple of points, here. First of all, he’s trying to be nice to the gay community by implying that he’s always believed that homosexuality isn’t really such a serious offense against Christian sexual rules. Then he’s just translating it as if it were a sort of adultery – sad, but not really serious.

However, homosexuality is one of the behaviors that dominates pagan culture. Those Greek myths we read in school – you remember, Zeus becoming an animal in order to seduce beautiful women (swans and bulls, for starters) – weren’t just bizarre symbolic stories. They reflected a culture where all manner of licentiousness was the norm.

Moreover, the ancient Greeks had a culture that glorified homosexuality. “The love of a man is better than the love of a woman,” is a commonly-known hallmark of that culture. And when Plato discusses beauty, in his Republic, he doesn’t use women’s beauty as the standard, but boys’.

Also, when God hands down the complex Law to Moses, with all the varied restrictions and prohbitions on sexual behaviors – which actually elevate heterosexual monogamous marriage to a point of dignity and meaning unprecedented in the otherwise pagan world! – homosexuality is the one sin that is identified as an abomination.

That is one mighty strong word – and the only time it appears is in conjunction with homosexuality.

So Pastor Warren is missing the deep theological layers that informed Christians – and especially Christian leaders! – need to have in mind, if they’re going to adequately teach their congregations.

He is also missing out on the fact that the make-up of the gay orientation and identity are complex and multi-layered. There are serious disorders that attend the simpler, more obvious one of Same-Sex Attraction acted out.

So – if they’re really smart, the gay lobby would sit down and shut up, because Pastor Warren is, in fact, paving the way, through his fairly sentimental approach to the issue, for greater acceptance – unquestioning acceptance – of homosexuality among the evangelical community.

I say, it’s a darn shame.