Neophyte Philippine Senator Manny Pacquiao drew criticism from a leading Bible scholar when he quoted passages from the Bible to justify his call for the reimposition of the death penalty in the Philippines.
In his first privilege speech as a senator on Monday, the boxer turned Christian preacher and lawmaker invoked God to call for the revival of the death penalty for convicted drug traffickers, calling the latter's offence as among "the most heinous" of crimes that destroys lives and families, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports.
Pacquiao quoted biblical passages in his speech, citing how God exacts justice and even allows capital punishment to punish crime. One of the verses he cited was 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."
He said, "Having read the Bible on a regular basis, I am convinced that God is not just a God of mercy, but he is also a God of justice."
However, Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, one of the Catholic Church's leading Bible scholars, criticised Pacquiao for using the Bible to support the death penalty, one of President Rodrigo Duterte's legislative priorities, according to Rappler.
"If Senator Pacquiao is convinced that the death penalty is a useful deterrent for criminality, he is entitled to his personal opinion ... But I just wish he didn't have to justify it using the Bible," David said in a statement aired in the Church-run Radyo Veritas on Tuesday.
David underscored the need to interpret the Scriptures in the proper context, pointing out that Jesus Christ should always be "our criterion and standard for reading the Bible as Word of God."
"If we use the Bible as a mere justification for our personal opinions (such as on death penalty) then we might as well return 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," the bishop said.
"The Bible has been used much too often to justify even the most inhuman and ungodly things," he added.
David explained that "the Word of God was gradually revealed to us from the Old Testament to the New Testament, culminating with the incarnation of God's Word in Jesus Christ."
"We were like children who matured in stages. In Jesus, we're supposed to see the highest level of maturity of our humanity. He is our criterion and standard for reading the Bible as Word of God."
The bishop cited John 8:1-11 where Jesus was quoted as telling the scribes and Pharisees who were about to impose capital punishment on a woman caught in adultery, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."
David said, "If Christ were in favour of death penalty, perhaps he would have been the first to cast a stone at the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11. Instead of dying for sinners, he would have just killed them all instead."
He also cited John 3:16, and the verse that immediately followed it: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."
