Manny Pacquiao At Odds with President Obama

Some of you may recall a few weeks back I wrote a mini-series on ESPN NY which touched on the theme of: Do we treat Floyd Mayweather fairly?

The thought popped into my head yesterday, when I came across the statements by Manny Pacquiao, the Congressman from the Philippines who has recently undergone what appears to be a somewhat radical transformation, from a religious being, to a super-religious person who says we should all use the Bible as a literal manual for living.

The boxer, who gloves up on June 9 against unbeaten Timothy Bradley, talked with Conservative Examiner reporter Granville Ampong, and put forth his views on a hot-button issue of late: gay marriage.

“God's words first …obey God's law first before considering the laws of man,” Pacquiao told Ampong in a piece which ran May 14. Ampong wrote, “Pacquiao's directive for (President) Obama calls societies to fear God and not to promote sin,inclusive of same-sex marriage and cohabitation, notwithstanding what Leviticus 20:13 has been pointing all along: “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads” and that the boxer-politician “believes the sweeping campaign of Obama favoring the gays and lesbians to legally marry is nothing more than a direct attack on the moral society and against the creative power and will of God.”

The President on May 9 appeared on ABC's News and told reporter Robin Roberts, “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

A great many folks applauded the President for taking what they believe is a moral stand, and noted that with roughly half the American adult citizens against same-sex marriage, according to some polls, this was no political stunt meant to goose his poll numbers. (Disclosure: I support the right for people in love to marry each other, gay or straight, and don't worry that this is a “slippery slope” issue and that men will start marrying ice cream cones, or dogs. I write that not to try to convince anyone, or because I think you should care what my political views are, but because I think you deserve to know where I am coming from when I write on this topic.) A great many came down on the President, believing that their definition of marriage, between a man and a woman, is time-tested and indeed, is God's will.

On Jim Lampley's “The Fight Game,” the HBO boxing news show which debuted Saturday, Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum mentioned that of late he sometimes feels as if he's promoting Rick Santorum, the conservative ex Senator from PA. who made a run at securing the Republican nomination for the Oval Office seat. It is now clear what Arum meant by that quip, as Santorum bangs the drums all the time against the right of gays to marry each other. In 2003, he said: “[Marriage is not], you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality.”

Pacquiao is quoted in the Ampong piece as saying: “God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other. It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old.”

Ampong continued, writing, 'the boxer 'implies Obama must read “the manual of life” for better living, which is the Holy Scripture, and follow the precepts that “God” wants us to embrace' and 'Pacquiao believes same-sex marriage is an abomination and its advancement should be stopped starting from the high offices of the U.S.to block possible legalization.'

Pretty clear-cut stuff. Pacquiao believes same-sex marriage is an “abomination.” Wonder how that makes his homosexual fans feel?

OK, you know how I personally feel about the issue. I don't want to digress into a political polemic here. So I will end by asking everyone: how would the boxing media react if Floyd Mayweather had said the same things that Pacquiao–with his more humble, ever-jovial personality–did on the subject of same-sex marriage?

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