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.
