Few will be surprised NRL club St George-Illawarra hastily abandoned plans last week to sign former Wallaby Israel Folau for a two-year contract. Most are surprised the club made the offer in the first place. When then ARL Commission chair Peter Beattie was asked in 2019 about a return by Folau – then facing disciplinary proceedings which would result in Rugby Australia terminating his employment – he dismissed the possibility.
“We are an inclusive game, and we want to make certain that everybody feels part of rugby league,” he said, referring to Folau’s Instagram meme that proclaimed homosexuals and other ‘sinners’ were destined for hell unless they repented. “Israel’s comments are not part of that inclusiveness.”
Beattie’s successor, Peter V’landys, has repeated those sentiments. Both are right in that league is an inclusive game. It includes many current players who during the last few years were found guilty of a diverse range of criminal offences, including domestic violence, assault, offensive behaviour, drug possession, and damaging property.
Last week Broncos forward Payne Haas added to their number after pleading guilty to two counts of intimidating police. During his expletive-ridden spray at Tweed Heads last month he said to a female officer “Why you looking at me like that? ‘Cause you’re a woman? ‘Cause you’re a woman you think I won’t touch ya?” The NRL has fined him $50,000 and suspended him for three matches.
Unlike Folau, he gets to keep his job. But in defence of the NRL, whatever Haas and these other thugs did – whether it was threatening or bashing women, or snorting coke, or punching on in a carpark, or pissing in the street, or trashing another’s property, or filming a woman without consent during sex, or committing a home invasion while terrified occupants, including a nine-year-old, barricaded themselves inside a bathroom – none of these players, to their credit, posted non-inclusive biblical tracts on social media. And as V’landys stressed in 2019, “We need to make sure we’re not punishing people twice.” Except of course if that person is Folau, in which case he must be forever banished, despite having broken no law.
Folau’s wrongdoing is compounded by the fact he has not shown obeisance to his accusers, nor sought their forgiveness. He has not acknowledged to his betters he is fundamentally flawed, nor has he shown penitence. He challenges truths which must never be questioned, thus corrupting and poisoning the minds of our young people. It is not so much his indifference to his detractors that is provocative but that he seemingly relishes being shunned. In short, he has failed to recognise his archaic beliefs have no place in a tolerant and secular society.
No one is suggesting that Folau’s contract with Rugby Australia meant he had to stop publicly espousing his beliefs as a Christian, far from it. All he was asked to do was stop posting the fire-and-brimstone stuff and to be a progressive Christian. You know, like Father Rod Bower of the Gosford Anglican Church and his non-discriminatory and measured billboard messages such as “Scott Morrison: pack your bags for The Hague,” or “[Peter] Dutton is a Sodomite,” or “Manus is how the Holocaust started”.
But regrettably, Folau continues to show intolerance. Witness for example his refusal last August to join his fellow Catalans Super League players in showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. How ignorant would you have to be to deprive spectators the sight of the team unanimously taking a knee in the name of equality and anti-racism? Ditto English Rugby international Billy Vunipola, who last year refused to kneel with his Saracens teammates, saying “Though I am a person of colour, I’m still more a person of Jesus”.
I get that Vunipola and Folau believe one should kneel only for the Almighty, but it is disappointing they have no gratitude for the magnificent symbolic gestures that mostly white athletes make for people of colour. As Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons wrote of Vunipola’s stance, “Let’s say Jesus’ second coming occurs at a BLM protest in Alabama while they’re being shouted at by white supremacists. Here’s the question, Billy. Who will Jesus stand with?”
Indeed. Jesus the peace lover no doubt would have stood with the protesters as they burned down police stations, attacked bystanders and destroyed shops. He would have applauded those who shot and killed retired St. Louis Police captain and African American David Dorn during a BLM protest. “Loot, kill, and destroy,” would be his creed. And Jesus, were he still here, would have sat alongside BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who told Time Magazine in 2018 she was inspired by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong.
Enough with this charade and spare me this posturing. When announcing that St George-Illawarra had withdrawn its offer to Folau, Nine’s Gabrielle Boyle was emphatic. “Well, it seems people power has reigned supreme,” she declared. “There’s been backlash from fans … online and through social media, people expressing their disgust …”
Boyle’s attribution is typical of the tendency for journalists and commentators to rely largely on social media to gauge public sentiment. This is a mistake, as well as being a factor in the dissonance between the views of mainstream Australians and those of the media. Platforms such as Facebook and especially Twitter are the domain of the outraged, the entitled, the narcissist, and the nutcase. They are also a haven for activists such as Sleeping Giants, who strongarm businesses into withdrawing their advertising from conservative news outlets by falsely purporting to be many in number.
A poll by the Weekend Australian of online readers in May 2019 that attracted 21,700 responses revealed 89 per cent believed Rugby Australia should not terminate Folau’s employment. And in June 2019 an online appeal to fund Folau’s appeal to Fair Work Australia for his sacking quickly accumulated $2.1 million in contributions. And in March 2020, the Sydney Morning Herald sounded out influential figures at NRL clubs on the question of whether they would support Folau’s return to the game under strict conditions. Forty per cent answered in the affirmative, up from just ten per cent only six months before. Clearly, many people regard Folau’s treatment as unfair.
This is not to say those same people support Folau’s biblical beliefs. But on that note, many who take issue with how he has been treated often preface their objections with statements such as “I don’t agree with what he posted on social media”. A tip – do not do that, as a needless apology simple enfeebles one’s argument.
As for those who mind-numbingly repeat the “words have consequences” mantra to justify Folau’s exclusion, you should put to them this hypothetical. “A” and “B” argue about which of their teams deserves to win the premiership. “I hope your team gets flogged,” says A, whereupon B knocks him to the ground and beats him senseless. “Why did you do that,” asks a disbelieving A when he recovers consciousness. “Well,” shrugs B, “words have consequences”. It is the reasoning of the bully as well as well as those who accuse their opponents of so-called hate speech, although to be honest I have trouble distinguishing the two.
It is not just conservative Christians who should fear the neo-fundamentalists. Think of British lesbian and feminist author Julie Bindel, who has made statements such as “My view on transsexuality is that trans women are trans women, as distinct from natal females,” and “It is impossible to change sex, it is only possible to live as the opposite sex”. This week Melbourne bookseller Readings issued a grovelling apology for having hosted Bindel in 2018, saying it regrets “any hurt caused by highlighting the work of an author whose current stance is to divide our community”.
— Readings (@ReadingsBooks) February 9, 2021
Capitulating to this lunacy is to perpetuate lunacy, but many are reluctant to call it out. It has given rise to an ideology that is militant, punitive, and demands conformity. It holds power over government, academic institutions, and now the private sector. You will observe its tenets, else suffer the social and financial consequences.
You could not blame religious zealots if they turned to Revelation 13:16-17 to see parallels. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark…” Wokeness is a beastly thing, isn’t it?