Pacquiao gets criticized for using bible to justify death penalty

Senator Manny Pacquiao has once again received backlash after he delivered his first privilege speech which he used to talk about death penalty and used the bible to back it up.

Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, one of Catholic Church’s stop Bible scholars, said that the senator’s belief about death penalty being a useful deterrent for criminality is his personal opinion and that he has a right to express it by the power of democracy but he wished that “he didn’t have to justify it using the Bible,” he said in a statement on Radyo Veritas, August 9.


He also reiterated the need to understand the Scriptures in the proper context and with Jesus as “our criterion and standard for reading the Bible as Word of God.

Photo by Noli Yamsuan and Ted Alijibe

“If we use to Bible as a mere justification for our personal opinions (such as on death penalty) then we might as well turn to the morality of slavery, misogyny, death penalty for homosexuals, and the ancient laws of purity and impurity, just because we also have them in the Bible.”

Furthermore, he said that “The Bible has been used much too often to justify even the most inhuman and ungodly things.”

The senator cited specifically the verse Genesis 9:6 which states “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God, has God made mankind.”

According to Pacquiao, he having read the Bible on a regular basis, he is convinced that God is both a God of mercy and a God of justice.

David expressed the difficulty in discussing the Bible with fundamentalists (Pacquiao was a former Catholic), or those “who would quote a verse or two from the Scriptures, and not mind the other passages that may not be supportive of their opinion.” ASCS

Must Read: Pacquiao to give cash reward to Hidilyn Diaz

Source: Rappler

Love this article? Sharing is caring!