Hi,
Are you using the Apple X11 or XFree86?
Also, do you have the BSD layer installed (if not, you can install it with your Mac OS X CDs).
Next, if you could do the following and report what it says.
1) Start your X11 program
2) Open a terminal
3) type "cd <path-to-openoffice>/program" (without quotes of course, and replace the <path-to-openoffice> with where its installed on your machine)
4) type "setenv DISPLAY localhost:0" (no quotes again)
5) type "./swriter"
In my case, its:
cd /ooo11install/program
setenv DISPLAY localhost:0
./swriter
And copy down the text in the terminal and post it back here.
Thanks!
Dan