Israel Folau’s cousin dumped from school job for expressing religious beliefs
The Folau family has been embroiled in another controversy involving religion with the cousin of sacked rugby international Israel Folau being let go from his job at a Catholic school.
NSW
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The cousin of Israel Folau has lost his job at one of Sydney’s most well-known Catholic schools after calling the Catholic Church “a synagogue of Satan”.
Josiah Folau, a 20-year-old preacher at the family’s Truth of Jesus Christ Church, had been working as a casual boarding supervisor at St Gregory’s College before his comments surfaced, 2GB’s Ben Fordham reported yesterday.
He reportedly described Catholicism as “masked devil worship”, the Catholic mass as “paganistic ritual rooted in heresy, evil and devil worship,” and said “the Catholic Church is a synagogue of Satan”.
Mirroring his famous cousin’s condemnatory social media posts he also posted on Instagram on July 18: “If it was a sin 100 years ago, it’s still a sin today. Don’t water down the gospel for this offended generation.”
St Gregory’s is a Marist school famous for turning out an assembly line of junior footballers who have gone on to become stars including current Wallaby half Nic White and rugby league greats Tim Sheens and Trent Barrett.
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Headmaster Lee MacMaster said yesterday: “We have met with Josiah recently and in our discussions, Josiah has made the decision to discontinue his casual employment at St Gregory’s College. We respect Josiah’s privacy in this matter.”
Folau refused to comment last night.
The development comes as insiders revealed the Folaus would be unemployable at most Christian schools and organisations due to their ideology. The family’s church, with 30 members, is at odds with mainstream Christian doctrine and were unlikely to be on the same page as Christian schools or organisations which require employees to sign a “statement of belief”.
Christian Schools Australia spokesman Mark Spencer could not comment specifically about the Folau case, but did confirm all employees must sign a statement of faith in their employment contract.
“We do have a statement of faith, most orthodox schools would have a statement of faith around our core beliefs,” Spencer said. “We expect all of our staff to be able to share our faith and respect our faith.”
Israel Folau is seeking $10 million in damages and the reinstatement of his contract, taking Rugby Australia to the Federal Circuit Court in Melbourne claiming he was wrongfully sacked due to religious discrimination.
Presbyterian minister Nathan Campbell has followed the Folau case closely and said the denial of the Holy Trinity calls into question their validity as Christians.
“Any institution that has one of the classic Christian creeds as their doctrinal statement, and that requires someone sign up to such a statement, would not be able to employ Israel Folau, and we’ve seen that today with his cousin,” Campbell said.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff responded to the controversy saying all faiths needed to be treated with respect.
“While every religion has a right to preach consistent with its teachings, according to Judaism there is no such entity as a synagogue of Satan,” he said.
“We consider describing the Catholic Church as such is extremely offensive.”
“We encourage all people of faith to treat everyone with respect and dignity and stand with our Catholic friends in defending them against this gratuitous slur. “
While the former president of the NSW anti-discrimination board Stepan Kerkyasharian said Josiah Folau’s apparent dismissal was not a religious discrimination issue.
“If an employee denigrates his or her employer publicly, that is quite a separate issue than the expression of beliefs,” he said.
“This does not appear to be an issue of religious belief, but rather an issue of an employee’s confidence in his employers, and conversely the employer’s confidence that the employee acts and reflects the competence of the organisation.”