Presumably it means that, while before she asserted the Bible left no room for interpreting anything but a literal 6-day creation period, now she still believes in a 6-day creation herself but is willing to admit that there is room for interpretation, something that I'm fine with.
Oh, OK. I thought cushioning something would serve to further protect it, but I guess that's a different usage of the word that I wasn't familiar with.
It's good to be open-minded and teachable. Some people are afraid of that because they think it implies being naive enough to fall for anything.
