“WARREN: The issue to me, I’m not opposed to that [some partnership rights] as much as I’m opposed to redefinition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage.

Now wait a minute here. Bishop James Ussher showed Earth was created in 4004 B.C. What was marriage like in the first 1013 years? I’m particularly interested in the kind of marriage Cain and his wife had.

“WARREN: The issue to me, I’m not opposed to that [some partnership rights] as much as I’m opposed to redefinition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage.

Now wait a minute here. Bishop James Ussher showed Earth was created in 4004 B.C. What was marriage like in the first 1013 years? I’m particularly interested in the kind of marriage Cain and his wife had.

I have to agree with Cindy, Hoverfrog, and others. Warren is simply wrong.

Some quick research produced this information regarding just one of his subjects: polygamy. WARNING: long post. But it’s interesting reading.

In about 80 percent of the world’s societies, some form of plural marriage, called polygamy, is also allowed. The most common form of polygamy is polygyny, in which a man is married to two or more women.

Some global examples of polygamy:

Polygyny is permitted in Judaism. According to Talmudic law, Abraham had three wives, and Solomon had hundreds of wives. The practice continued till Rabbi Gershom ben Yehudah (960 C.E to 1030 C.E) issued an edict against it. The Jewish Sephardic communities living in Muslim countries continued the practice till as late as 1950, until an Act of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel extended the ban on marrying more than one wife. The State of Israel has made polygamy illegal, but in practice the law is not enforced, primarily so as not to interfere with Bedouin culture, where polygamy is common. Provisions were instituted to allow for existing polygamous families emigrating from countries where the practice was legal.

In Islam, polygamy is allowed for men, with the specific limitation that they can only have up to four wives at any one time. In the modern Islamic world, polygamy is mainly found in traditionalist Arab cultures — Saudi Arabia, and parts of West and East Africa (In Sudan it is encouraged from the president as female population is high)[44]. Among the 22 member states of the Arab League, Tunisia alone explicitly prohibits polygamy.

In Christianity, polygamy has been uncommon, but not unheard-of. On February 14, 1650, the parliament at Nürnberg decreed that, because so many men were killed during the Thirty Years’ War, every man was allowed to marry up to ten women. The men were admonished to behave honorably, provide for their wives properly, and prevent animosity among them.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, there has often been a tension between the Christian churches’ insistence on monogamy and traditional polygamy. In some instances in recent times there have been moves for accommodation; in others churches have resisted such moves strongly. African Independent Churches have sometimes referred to those parts of the Old Testament which describe polygamy in defending the practice.

Early leaders of the LDS (Mormon) church practiced and in some cases encouraged polgyny, which they called “plural marriage.” The practice caused controvery, and was officially denounced by the mainstream LDS church in 1890, though splinter groups are known to continue the practice.

Polygamy existed all over Africa as an aspect of culture or/and religion. Plural marriages have been more common than not in the history of Africa. Many African societies saw children as a form of wealth thus the more children a family had the more powerful it was. Thus polygamy was part of empire building. It was only during the colonial era that plural marriage was perceived as taboo. It is very common in West Africa (Muslim and traditionalist).

In South Africa, traditionalists commonly practice polygamy. The leader of the ANC, Jacob Zuma is also openly in favor of plural marriages, being married to numerous wives himself. The wives live in small houses in a circle around the master compound.

In India, it was legal for Hindu men to have multiple wives until the 1954 Hindu Marriage Act.

Polyandrous marriages (women with multiple husbands) have been recently documented in Tibet, Bhutan, and Ladahk.

In Mongolia, there has been discussion about legalizing polygamy to reduce the imbalance of the male and female population.

In Thailand, until polygamy was outlawed by King Rama VI in the early 20th century, it was expected that wealthy or upper-class Thai men were historically recognized to maintain mansions consisting of multiple wives and their children in the same residence. Among the royalty and courtiers in the past, wives were classified as principal, secondary, and slave. Today, the tradition of minor wives still remains, but the practice is different from that of the past. Due to the expense involved, minor wives are mostly limited to the wealthy men.

It is such a shame that Rick Warren doesn’t have access to the Internet or, you know, books. If he did he’d be able to check out things called “facts” which might support or contradict his opinions.

Just showed be BeliefNet is not for me, infact, I posted on he article that I threw his book in the trash…I was planning on reading it because he seemed to have a lot of information about the founders relatioship with religion.

I havent looked at any follow-up he has to his defense of Rick Warren, but I lost all interest in him and BeliefNet.