RH Bill finds support from Iglesia Ni Cristo and other religious groups

RH Bill finds support from Iglesia Ni Cristo and other religious groups

Iglesia ni Cristo supports RH Bill | Photo courtesy of qoutednews

Influential religious sect Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) has expressed its support for the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.

According to the letter of Eduardo Manalo, INC executive minister to the committee on population and family relations, “Since modern methods of contraception, by preventing married couples from having any unplanned pregnancies, assist in supporting the Christian principle, we support their use as long as these methods are empirically not abortifacient.”

The group is also against the idea of natural family planning, calling it "unnatural, ineffective and immoral."

“These so-called birth control methods depend upon abstinence on the part of the married couple when the woman is fertile but allows marital relations only when she is not. These methods are not only unnatural and ineffective but they are also immoral, since they contradict the commandments that God has given to married couples,” Manolo added.

The letter further stated that “the Bible instructs married couples not to deprive one another of intimate marital relations for long, extended periods of time; further, any abstinence at all for a married couple is supposed to be with mutual consent of husband and wife and not for purpose of preventing pregnancy.”

Iglesia Ni Cristo has around 6 million members.

Meanwhile, here are the list of the other faith-based groups which are supporting the RH Bill as well. These were enumerated by Bishop Rodrigo Tano, chairman of the Interfaith Partnership for the Promotion of Responsible Parenthoood (IPPRP), to GMANews.tv:

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines;

United Church of Christ of the Philippines;

Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches;

United Methodist Church;

Philippines for Jesus Movement;

Iglesia Filipino Independiente;

Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches of the Philippines;

Seventh-Day Adventist;

Salvation Army;

Catholics for Reproductive Health, and

Episcopal Church of the Philippines.

Below are the said letters of Manalo courtesy of redmeinc (blogspot):