Floyd Mayweather Jr. Challenges Manny Pacquiao's Opposition to Gay Marriage?
Floyd Mayweather Jr. weighed in on the same-sex marriage debate recently, opposing rival fighter Manny Pacquiao's views on the traditional definition of marriage.
Mayweather, undefeated 35-year-old fighter who won the WBA (Super) Light Middleweight Championship belt earlier this month, stood behind President Barack Obama's support for gay marriage.
"I stand behind President Obama and support gay marriage," Mayweather tweeted Wednesday. "I'm an American citizen and I believe people should live their life the way they want."
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The tweet came days after Pacquiao, 33-year-old Christian Filipino boxer and congressman, reportedly disagreed with Obama's support of redefining marriage to include same-sex couples. In an interview with the National Conservative Examiner while training in Los Angeles, Calif., Pacquiao spoke about the need for society to put "God's words first."
While the 33-year-old boxer said he respected Obama, he told the Examiner that the president should read the Bible, or "manual of life," to better society.
"God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other," Pacquiao 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."
Fans of the two boxers, who have avoided facing one another in the ring for years, reacted to their opposing views. One fan took to Twitter to question when they would finally face one another.
"So Manny Pacquiao came out as anti-gay marriage and Floyd Mayweather is pro-gay marriage," one fan wrote. "Can you guys fight yet?"
However, others recognized Mayweather as someone they did not expect to support the homosexual marriage movement.
"Three marriage equality supporters no one saw coming, 1) Jay-Z 2) Will Smith, 3) Floyd Mayweather," the person tweeted.
The debate on same-sex marriage took a turn when Obama publicly expressed his views on the issue last week. Obama explained his reasoning for supporting a redefinition of marriage, using the "Golden Rule" of loving one's neighbor as justification for ignoring other verses condemning homosexuality in the Bible.
"Do unto others as you would have them do to you," the president said in an ABC News interview. "At a certain point 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."
However, the Rev. Joel Hunter of the 15,000-member Northland Church, who is often referred to as Obama's spiritual adviser, has said he is disappointed with the president's use of the "Golden Rule" to explain his endorsement of gay marriage.
"The Golden Rule is in the Bible but it cannot be used to contradict God's marriage pattern reaffirmed by Jesus in Matthew 19:4-5," Hunter shared in an interview with The Christian Post. "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh?'"
