Rachel Maddow reported on her show last night that Rick Warren's church has removed the statement on its website that indicates that unrepentant homosexuals cannot join as members.  I cannot verify this, as I had never visited the website prior to the apparent removal of the statement.    Rachel Maddow saw it as irrelevant. Patricia Martin would no doubt see it as clever marketing.  Some will no doubt see it as compromise.I am not sure such a conlcusion would be at all warranted.  I do not think it is wise for churches to specify particular sins as barring from membership anyway, since a simple statement about lack of repentance for rebellion against God in general would seem quite sufficient and straightforward.  The Pope, meanwhile, has come out swinging.  While the Catholic Church has made some concessions to modern consumerism (the fast-track to sainthood being the most obvious), this does not seem to apply to the area of sexual morality.

The most surprising response so far has to be that of Melissa Etheridge.   Warren now has a huge potential opportunity to speak the gospel of God's grace to this talented, high profile woman, an opportunity to demonstrate both commitment to biblical sexual ethics and to gospel love towards those outside the kingdom.  We should all pray that he holds firm on both.  The temptations of `cool', to borrow Al Mohler's term, in a cool-driven society are huge; whether Pastor Warren can resist such at this point, given his huge influence, could prove a real straw in the wind on the immediate to mid-term future for the evangelical churches in America.