Wednesday, May 16, 2012

DOES FOX'S NEW HERO THINK GAY PEOPLE SHOULD BE PUT TO DEATH?
(Apparently not -- see the updates)


Fox Nation regularly cheers efforts by legislators to ban the use of foreign law in American legal decisions (Eeek! Sharia!), but apparently Fox Nation believes that America should makes its decisions on gay marriage based on the opinion of ... a Filipino boxer.

Well, a Filipino boxer who's now a legislator. Fox News and Fox Sports are reporting:

Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has come out swinging against US President Barack Obama's personal endorsement of same-sex marriage.

In an interview with the National Conservative Examiner, the religious Pacquiao said Obama's view was nothing more than a direct attack on the morals of society and the will of God.

"God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other," he said.

"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," he added, citing the Bible....


That Examiner.com interview is here. Reporter Granville Ampong's prose is somewhat hard to follow -- is Pacquaio really endorsing Leviticus here?

Pacquiao's directive for 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."

...he 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.


Pacquaio isn't calling for the death penalty for gays in the Philippines, though he is opposing a popular reproductive health services bill; he says he opposes all use of contraception even though his wife says she uses contraception. His recent turn to religion follows rumors of adultery.

But, of course, Fox, in its relentless desire to beat Barack Obama, will pick up any stick and use it.

(Oh, and let's not overlook the fact that Politico also thought this was a legitimate story.)

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UPDATE: Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams chides those who, like me, accused Pacquaio of taking Leviticus literally; Williams points out that the Examiner doesn't say that Pacquaio quoted or invoked Leviticus. I'd argue that it's impossible to tell one way or another, and that Fox leapt on the story despite that ambiguity. Gay groups attacked Pacquaio and urged Nike to drop him as an endorser, Williams says, and now he's saying he has a gay relative and Leviticus is the furthest thing from his mind. I'll take him at his word, though under the circumstances, that's just what you'd expect him to be saying.

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UPDATE: Granville Ampong says in an Examiner.com update that "Pacquiao never said" anything in reference to Leviticus, "nor recited, nor invoked and nor did he ever refer to such context." Well, fine. But I wrote this post primarily to target Fox for praising this guy based on an ambiguouis article that could reasonably be interpreted as suggesting that Pacquaio agrees with Leviticus. I'm sorry, but given Ampong's prose style, no one can be blamed for being confused about that point. And I don't think Fox bothered to get a clarification before valorizing the guy, because any Obama critic is a good Obama critic.

6 comments:

  1. Leviticus has a whole shitload of do's and don't's.

    It has whole chapters on the ritual sacrifice of animals at the altar.
    Does anyone pay any attention to that?
    No.
    When's the last time Father O'Malley speared something other than an Altarboy at the Altar?

    Also, about what to eat and not eat, and how to eat it.
    Attention paid?
    Zip.

    What and how to plant, and when to reap.
    Attention paid?
    0.

    What to wear, and what not to wear?
    Attention paid?
    Nodda.

    When and how to boink the missus, and when not to.
    Attention paid?
    Zilch.

    And when boinkin' someone other than your spouse, how that's not a Godly act, and the proper punishment.
    Attention paid?
    Ok, some, here. Otherwise, divorce lawyers would have to find another line or work.
    But no one's stoned for wrongful boinkin'.

    Hundreds and hundred of rules - probably compiled over centuries:
    http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/KjvLevi.html

    Ah, but the only one the good Jesus-freaks know, or pay attention to, is the one about the boinkin' of same-sex couples.
    ATTENTION MuST BE PAID!!!

    And if they're eating bacon-covered lobster, wearing a cotton shirt, polyester socks, and wool pants, at their mistresses house, while they're railing against it, that's ok.
    At least they ain't lusting after, or boinkin,' her brother.

    And they'll listen to some punchdrunk boxer-turned-politician on same-sex boinkin', while they ignore that his "Come-to-Jesus" moment probably came at the end of his missus's frying pan upside of his head, while she was telling him if he boink's someone other than her again, he can kiss at least half of his hard-earned fortune goodbye.

    No attention must be paid to that.
    Nope.
    Zip.
    0.
    Nodda.
    Zilch.

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  2. Oh for God's sake (literally)! Anyone who wants to quote the Bible at me about Sodom and Gomorrah better not leave out this verse from Ezekiel: "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." Do y'all see anything there about homosexuality? Me neither.

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  3. Kathy,
    No one reads the nice and kind parts of the Bible.

    All they're interested in is the boinkin', the begatting, and the smiting.

    And, of course, the "Thou Shalt Not's" - which don't pertain to them, because they're good and pure, and God will forgive them their sins.
    But he won't forgive THEM - NO! THEY must be punished!
    So sayeth the smiting part. Or, so their preacher says...

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  4. Well, Orthodox Jews take seriously the Leviticus command not to cut your hair "roundwise" or trim your beard, but I don't know any Christians who do.

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  5. ZZ Top is Jewish?

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  6. Remember that Fox News has always enthusiastically supported the application of foreign precedents in the United States.

    Oh, wait--I meant enthusiastically opposed. Never mind.

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