Hate Versus Hate

The twitterverse made Manny Pacquiao trend worldwide yesterday due to allegations of homophobic comments in his interview with Examiner.com. A barrage of hate tweets were seen soon after his “Leviticus Quote” asking that homosexuals should be put to death.

I love the guy. He’s my boxing hero. But do I take him seriously outside the realm of boxing? Hardly. Whether or not he really mentioned those Leviticus passages, the fact remains that these are only his honest opinions based on how he interprets the Scriptures. These are neither truths nor facts. If so, should I get hurt? If he is a person who I value I just might. But he’s not part of the list of people that mattered to me. Nor is he someone who I look up to in matters of faith. To me he’s just one person who’s simply stating his opinion on a certain subject.

The problem lies when luminaries like Manny are being looked upon as prophets and we forget that what it is we saw in him in the first place. He came from a simple family who worked his way in the boxing industry with his sheer hard work and talent and made it pretty big. We all know about his alleged adulterous, womanizing attitude and his gambling vice. So why would we consider him a role model when it comes to righteousness?

It is indeed sad that to us homosexuals he seemed to be misguided. But just as he does not have the right to impose his way of thinking on us, we do not have the right to impose our way of thinking and beliefs on him. Hate versus hate is pointless.