The boxing champ and legislator Manny Pacquiao after his controversial stance on same-sex marriage, followed by an eventual apology, later wrote on Facebook that he was “not condemning LGBT”, while still voicing his opposition for gay marriage,[1] writes on Instagram early Thursday morning to say that homosexuals must be "put to death,"[2][3] linking his statement on Luke 6:22-23 (which narrates about blessedness of the persecuted Jesus' advocates, Leviticus 20:13 (which speaks about Mosaic law of capital punishment on homosexuality) and 1 Corinthians 6:-9-10 (forfeiture of entrance to the kingdom of God by those who indulged in homosexuality - bu not the homosexuals per se. The Instagram post, which showed a photo of the boxer-politician with his wife Jinkee, garnered more than 18,000 likes before it was deleted at around 3 a.m. on Thursday, which was online for about two hours.
Running for a Senate seat, the World Boxing Icon and Politician is
currently facing criticism around the globe for his "worse than
animals"[4] remarks towards LGBTs.[5]
Marquez
points out that Pacquiao's legacy will not get tarnished by this as this is
something separate and he's about to finish writing the final chapter. He made
a mistake and he will pay. Undoubtedly, he
is a quality fighter, but there are occasion when the fish dies by its mouth,
pointing to Manny’s Nike sponsorship that was lost after the people behind made
a decision.
The
reputed Mexican slugger, who is best known for his four epic battles with
Pacquiao, also comments that Manny must pay the price for his controversial
statements.
The
$30 billion sports apparel company who finds Manny Pacquiao’s comments as
repugnant made a bold statement under pressure from the LGBT community by terminating its relationship[6] with the 37-year-old boxer,
in opposition against discrimination of any kind, and who has has a long
history of supporting and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community.”
Nike
asserts that the benefits of sponsoring a professional athlete draw both
from his talent within his chosen sport and his aptitude to go beyond from this
craft. Manny can oppose with gay marriage but a view impacts his general
popularity which turns to be Nike’s problem, the sports apparel says.
Pacquiao’s
apology while standing with arms crossed in front of a camera is perceived to
be an utterance of a surface-level admission of guilt for hurting people’s
feelings than genuine apology.Nevertheless,
even if his apology was more sincere, it would’ve taken a lot for it to fly
with Nike, a proud supporter of the LGBT community in its own right, the source narrates.
In an interview, the Sarangani representative
said that, coming from a religious background, he could not support same sex
marriage, asserting same-sex marriage is not sanctioned as
woman was made for man, man was made for woman.
Although
it’s not believable when Manny says, “For me, it’s common sense. Will you see
any animals where male is to male and female is to female? The animals are
better. They know how to distinguish, male or female," because I myself has
seen some dogs in our neighbourhood which practices homosexuality. And to make sure that no one thinks that this
is simply self serving just for the sake of finding a loophole, I made a research on this which
affirms indeed that this
behaviour is likewise extremely common across the animal kingdom, from insects
to mammals[7]. I agree with him in his adage, “If
we approve male on male, female on female, then man is worse than animal,” because
at least animals are animals whose mental power is limited for them to be aware
of what they’re doing unlike humans who are created in the likeness and image
of God and therefore has all the flexibility to repair values. Again this is not to generalize LGBT
community as there are also among them who are against gay marriage – at least 7 percent of LGBT Americans said they oppose same-sex
marriage based on 2013 data.[8]
Although
Nike is not a huge loss on Manny Paquaio anyway considering that he’s not paid
here, whose sponsorship deal with them involves only with providing clothes for
fights,[9][10]
Nike being a mega sponsor and as the vehicle to enact the change people want brought
by its brand acceptance worldwide and media appearances, it may receive a round of
applause from the LGBT community who took Manny’s gesture as a bigotry because of its gesture that implies toleration than neutralization of coldness.
Contrary to negative impressions, opposition
of gay marriage in itself is not a form of chauvinism but expression of dislike
of community or particular individual who’s into illicit sexual relations – same
sex marriage which is not acceptable in Christianity. Like heterosexuals,
homosexuals are also God’s creation and it is just right that they should be
loved than rejected. And although Manny
does not come from a country of racists,[11]
generally what Manny found as objectionable here is the act - homosexuality
than the homosexuals per se.
Manny’s
quoting of Leviticus 20:13 is immaterial[12]
as this pertains to a Mosaic Law as narrated in the Pentateuch (the first five
books of the Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy ) are
partly of an historical, partly of a legal character, which provide the history
of the Chosen People from the creation of the world to the death of Moses, and
acquaint us too with the civil and religious legislation of the Israelites
during the life of their great lawgiver, Moses. So it’s not God's desire that
homosexuals should be put to death for abominable deeds, but should be given
the freedom to reform ways: When a virtuous man turns away from virtue to
commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he
must die. But if a wicked man, turning from the wickedness he has committed,
does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned
away from all the sins which he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not
die (Ezekiel 18:26-28).
On the other hand, the country’s most popular gay comedian, Vice
Ganda remarks by saying “Some people think they can judge people like God just
because they’ve attended a prayer meeting and read the Bible. The senate needs
experts on politics and law, not blind prophets” is not judging either as what his comment tries to imply because
judging a person is tantamount to saying that everything is a hopeless case,
considering that everybody is equally given with freedom to amend ways by
God. A person or institution’s refusal
of something that opposes God’s values is not being judgmental but simply an
expression of loyalty to the Word,
nothing less, nothing more.
Basically,
it follows that in a culture that worships sex and approves of every sexual
practice, Christians are attacked and persecuted for following a Bible centered
approach to sex and sexuality. Because of this, Christians more often than not turns to be a cause of offense, and be called killjoy and be branded as
bigots and homophobes.
The
false teaching on sexual ethics is a misrepresentation of grace into
“sensuality” and is also to be viewed as a denial of Jesus. Getting things right over sexual ethics is
assertion of faith that was once delivered” - to fight for godly sexual
morality is to preserve and fight for the gospel. Those who teach sexual
immorality are therefore denying that faith, that gospel. (Jude 5)
Toleration of immorality brought by homosexuality (again not the homosexual per se) is a teaching that can be compared to the fallen
angels and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah whose sin is blatantly clear -
they “indulged in sexual immorality”.
In
this reality, Christians (not the Christians by name) suffer of persecution in
the guise of hate crimes, hate speech and anti-discrimination, is a clear
attempt of the evil spirit to infiltrate Churches with nihilistic culture,
false teachers and false doctrine (2 Peter 2;1-3).
It is better to be called as bigots as long as you know in your heart you’re not a
bigot than be called as bigots of Jesus’ teachings. Tolerating of the wrong thing on sexual ethics
is tantamount to rejection of Jesus Himself.
Identity
crisis which brought to homosexuality needs not enhancement through repairing
of masculinity to femininity but through re-formation of values to re-store
manhood. Testimonies of transformations from homosexuals who become transsexuals who needed to pay
about £14,000 to restore their manhood hint enough that re-formation of values
is possible than hopeless.
[1] Mark Dobson, Manny
Pacquiao’s Nike contract terminated after homophobic slurs, http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/feb/17/manny-pacquiao-gay-comments-nike-boxing
[2] Aaron Lozada, ABS-CBN News, Posted at 02/18/16 4:53 AM | Updated as of
02/18/16 6:51 AM, http://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/02/17/16/pacquiao-posts-deletes-bible-verse-on-gays-put-to-death
[3] Justin Tasch, Manny Pacquiao, after being dropped by
Nike, posts Bible verse that says men who have sex with men ‘are to be put to
death’, http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/pacquiao-quotes-bible-homosexuals-put-death-article-1.2536015
[4] APG, GMA News, Pacquiao's views on same-sex marriage won't hurt his legacy — Marquez, http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/556047/sports/boxing/pacquiao-s-views-on-same-sex-marriage-won-t-hurt-his-legacy-marquez
[5] Manny Pacquiao’s stand on
same-sex marriage: ‘Mas masahol pa sa hayop ang tao’, http://www.interaksyon.com/interaktv/manny-pacquiaos-stand-on-same-sex-marriage-mas-masahol-pa-sa-hayop-ang-tao
Melissa Hogenboom,
Lots of animals engage in homosexual behaviour, but whether they are truly
homosexual is another matter entirely, http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150206-are-there-any-homosexual-animals
[8] Aaron Blake January 27, 2015 , Meet the LGBT
Americans who oppose gay marriage, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/01/27/meet-the-lgbt-americans-who-oppose-gay-marriage/
[9] Dino Maragay, Pacquiao okay with Nike's
decision, Updated February 18, 2016 -
1:47pm, http://www.philstar.com/sports/2016/02/18/1554386/pacquiao-okay-nikes-decision
[10] Aaron Flanagan, Manny Pacquiao accepts Nike's
decision to drop him after he claimed gay people are "worse than
animals, http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/manny-pacquiao-accepts-nikes-decision-7394502
[11] David Grant, The 10 Most Racist Countries in the World, http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/most-shocking/the-10-most-racist-countries-in-the-world/
[12] David Ould, Sexual Immorality is a Rejection of Jesus, http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/30291
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