Israel Folau saga: Pastor Gino Jennings slams Rugby Australia

A controversial American pastor who described women wearing tight clothes as “prostitutes” has slammed Rugby Australia’s treatment of sacked footballer Israel Folau.

A prominent American pastor who inspired sacked footballer Israel Folau has likened his treatment by Rugby Australia to that of a dictatorship and said he should not have lost his job.

“He should not be cut from a team,” said firebrand religious leader Pastor Gino Jennings.

The fundamentalist preacher said Folau, who is understood to be in the US following the fallout from his controversial homophobic social media post, was a brave man whom he wholly supported.

Israel Folau’s sacking has been slammed by a controversial pastor. Picture: AFP

“He should not be reprimanded for standing up for what’s right,” Pastor Jennings said.

Pastor Jennings said he didn’t personally know Folau but he invited him to visit his church in Philadelphia.

“I have thousands of followers from around the world who I’ve never met personally,” he said.

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Pastor Gino Jennings has invited Israel Folau visit his church in Philadelphia.

The pastor sparked his own public backlash last year when he described women who wore jewellery and tight clothes to church as “Christian-looking whores”.

It is understood Folau has been deeply moved by Pastor Jennings’ sermons on YouTube and has posted Jennings’ sermons on his Instagram.

Pastor Jennings added: “But I would love to get together with him. Yeah. Let’s sit and have a hardcore rap session about this without pulling any punches. He has put his cards on the table. I commend that.”

Pastor Jennings sparked his own public backlash last year when he described women who wore jewellery and tight clothes to church as “Christian-looking whores, jumping in some church, flapping your ankle chains around’.

“A Christian with skin tight pants showing the very shape of your birth canal. You’re nothing but a prostitute,” he said.

Israel Folau, with his and his wife Maria, has been deeply moved by Pastor Jennings’ sermons.

As a practitioner of “holiness”, Christianity that adheres literally to the Bible, he said he agreed with what Folau had done in posting a partial scripture quote promising hell for homosexuals, adulterers and other “sinners”.

The preacher, whose live streamed sermons attract tens of thousands of views and whose church has spread into a dozen countries since he started 35 years ago, has reportedly been an inspiration to Folau.

The First Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in North Philadelphia. Picture: Rachel Wisniewski

Pastor Jennings said that although he believed homosexuality was wrong, he did not believe homosexuals were evil.

“It’s like when you have a child who is on drugs. You don’t hate the child, you hate the drugs,” he said.

Jennings said Folau’s treatment was part of an international movement against religious freedom and compared it to “slavery”.

“It’s like a dictatorship,” he said.

“I can’t pray unless I get permission from the government. I can’t serve God. Then if I get permission from the government, I can’t go to church unless I get permission from the government. I mean, wait a minute: that’s what Stalin was doing and Russia and Germany and Mussolini was doing in Italy.

“We are in the 21st century and we should not subject ourselves to the same emotional and mental abuse from a government.”

Shirley M, Smith, a North Philadelphia native, engages in individual prayer at The First Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Picture: Rachel Wisniewski

Pastor Jennings was speaking from his home, where he is currently on bed rest with bronchitis. News Corp Australia joined his First Church of our Lord Jesus Christ church at a service yesterday, where one of his deputies explained the church was drawing many new followers, many of them young men, from around the world.

“The way the pastor speaks is in a way that’s down to earth, that people can truly understand,” Minister Steve Williams said ahead of the four-hour service.

Joshua Mills sings and claps along to the band at The First Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Picture: Rachel Wisniewski

“He is explaining the scriptures in a way that people can grasp what he’s saying, especially young people.

“If a preacher doesn’t know how to bring the message in a way that young people can grasp it just goes out the other side.

“But the pastor helps them in dealing with the current problems of drug abuse, problems with marriage, economic issues. Things that are really causing problems in young people’s lives that they just don’t know to handle.

“He’s able to talk to them in a way that gives answers that are from the Bible.”

About 200 congregants were gathered at Pastor Jennings’ headquarters in a rundown, multicultural, working class neighbourhood in northeast Philadelphia.

Women, who were modestly dressed in head coverings and long skirts, were separated from men during the Sunday morning worship. It started with an hour of prayer, during which some sat and called out hallelujahs, while others wept and shook in their seats. There was then an hour of gospel style music, with the audience leading songs, accompanied by a four piece band, before a sermon and baptisms.

Pastor Jennings is set to preach in Australia at the end of October.