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Israel Folau is an Australian professional rugby player who has previously played professional rugby league and Australian rules football. He recently broke the Super Rugby try-scoring record. He has now however come under fire for his so-called anti-gay comments and Rugby Australia wants to end his professional career.
Following what the mainstream media calls anti-gay comments he made on his social media accounts, Rugby Australia announced their intention to rip up his rugby contract and remove him permanently from the Australian national team. At the same time, the chairman of the Australian Rugby League, Peter Beattie, announced that Folau will be banned from any NRL team in the future. So what did Folau do to earn such rebuke? He simply preached a message that is straight out of the Bible, a message that has been held as a belief by Christians for thousands of years. Among other quotes, the following one is probably the one that got him into the most trouble.
“Those that are living in Sin will end up in Hell unless you repent. Jesus Christ loves you and is giving you time to turn away from your sin and come to him.
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these , adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 KJV.”
Whether you agree with the message or not or whether you agree that he said this in the wrong spirit or not, the following video analyses what is really going on here and why Rugby Australia seeks to ban Israel Folau. What do you think of this analysis?
Before commenting on this, it should be pointed out that his comment was an answer he gave to a question he was asked and further, he points out that he was on the list of sins himself, but was saying that he and all need to repent. Another important point is that he has been condemned for anti-gay comments, while the list of sinners mention includes liars, atheists, adulterers etc. Isn’t that interesting. Anti-gay comments are condemned because of the lack of inclusiveness for gay community, so the penalty is to exclude Israel Folau. In other words inclusiveness being the buzzword also seems to mean exclusiveness for Christian teachings and beliefs. The video also points out how similar pagan Rome was to western societies today.
Just last week, Wallabies director of rugby Scott Johnson backed Rugby Australia’s move to axe Folau, saying “we want a game that includes everyone”.
That is an oxymoron right there.
T8…… watched it all, he was right on. Very good post brother.
Peace and love to you and yours. ……..gene
Israel Folau Legal Action Fund
This story gets more interesting each day. Gofundme deleted his page because they bowed to public pressure. He had nearly A$800,000 raised. As disappointing as that was for religious freedom, it annoyed many people in Australia as they felt their religious rights and freedom of expression was being stamped on.
But a new campaign was launched it’s taking off and seeing $860 per minute being donated. This is good news for freedom and rights, but is also bad news for gofundme. People can now see there are other platforms and their competitor is getting free publicity too. Another point to consider is the Christian population which is not an insignificant market. Here is a quote from the Herald today:
“A new page on the ACL’s website was created overnight and had sped past $A700,000 by 3.30pm (NZT) as Australians donated in stunning fashion — a rate of about $A820 ($NZ860) per minute.”
This is the page where donations can be made. At the time of this post, he had raised more than the gofundme page reached. He is up to A $880,000 already.
If Rugby Australia had existed in the first century of the Christian era, and Paul had had enough talent to be a contracted player, the sport’s national governing body presumably would have ripped up his contract once his first letter to the Corinthians, with its injunction against homosexuality, became public. Just ask star fullback and born-again Christian Israel Folau.
PETER SINGER
“Folau paraphrased the Bible, and there’s no way to get around the fact that the Bible lies at the very heart and soul and core of the Christian faith.”
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