‘Who is this stupid God?’ For his latest insult, Duterte aims high
MANILA, Philippines — Disparaging remarks about God by President Rodrigo Duterte have led to his sharpest clash yet with leaders of the Philippines’ politically powerful Roman Catholic Church, who Tuesday accused him of attacking the beliefs held by the vast majority of the country.
“God has been called insulting names — words we always told you not to say or even write,” Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a statement released Tuesday that was addressed to members of his archdiocese. “You are even being challenged to leave this church of your birth, the church of your grandparents.”
The archbishop was responding to a speech Friday in which Duterte cast doubt on the biblical story of creation, asking why God had created Adam and Eve only to let them be tempted and fall from grace.
“Who is this stupid God? This son of a b---- is then really stupid,” Duterte said. “How can you rationalize a God? Do you believe?” Such epithets are routine for the tough-talking president, but applying them to God appeared to be a first for him and the remarks startled even some of his supporters in this highly religious country, which is more than 80 percent Catholic.
Duterte has been at odds with the church for some time. Catholic bishops have campaigned against his government’s bloody crackdown on drugs, which has left thousands of people dead since Duterte took office two years ago — many of them killed by police officers, others by vigilantes.
Duterte has repeatedly accused the church of hypocrisy, suggesting that many of its priests had affairs with women. After a Philippine priest was gunned down this month — the third killing of a priest since December — Villegas urged Duterte to tone down his criticism of the church, saying it could encourage such attacks, but he refused.
On Tuesday, the Philippine Council for Evangelical Churches joined the criticism of Duterte’s remarks, calling on the president to “refrain from issuing insulting statements against the Christian faith.”
In a sign that Duterte hoped to defuse the controversy, his spokesman, Harry Roque, said the government had created a panel to reach out to the Catholic Church in hopes of sorting out their differences.