Outrage at Duterte’s remark on God

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte faced spiralling outrage yesterday in his largely Catholic nation after calling God “stupid”, the latest furore he has sparked with an unfiltered broadside.

Duterte took aim at the biblical story about the origin of the human race during a speech, asking why God would create Adam and Eve and then expose them to temptation.

Original Sin is something Christian theologians have struggled to explain for two millennia. Duterte opted for characteristically colourful language as he broached this thorny catechism.

“Who is this stupid God?” Duterte asked. “You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would tempt and destroy the quality of your work.”

Leaders of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, which counts some 80 per cent of the nation’s more than 100 million people as believers, have condemned the statement.

“How can he be a President for all Filipinos if he does not have respect for the Catholic faithful?” Bishop Pablo Virgilio David wrote on Facebook.

The Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches joined in the denunciation yesterday, saying it is “completely inappropriate for our nation’s president to derisively curse at the God of the Christian faith who is deeply worshipped... by a majority of Filipinos.”

Dialogue committee

Duterte defended his comments in a speech on Monday, but his spokesperson yesterday announced that the president had formed a three-person committee for “dialogue” with religious groups about his comments.

“The theme will be how to lessen the rift between the government and Church,” Harry Roque, told reporters.

Duterte has locked horns repeatedly with the nation’s historically powerful Catholic Church, especially over its criticism of his deadly narcotics crackdown.