Folau the Leader

OK, he doesn't lead anything really important but by crikey he finds himself pursued by a pack of baying dogs. He is a Rugger player. A pretty good one by all accounts. But he has been condemned and excoriated for answering a simple question, simply, and in a manner that would not have turned a hair several decades ago before the lights of reasonableness went out.

One more nail in the coffin of western values, one might say, and another rung underfoot for nonebrities who shout the loudest. Like the FitzSimons chap with the bandana head.

Let's look at Israel. The fellow, not the Nation.

Israel Folau (Tongan: Isileli Folau; born 3 April 1989) is an Australian professional rugby union footballer who plays for the Waratahs in Super Rugby. He has previously played professional rugby league and Australian rules football.

Folau played rugby league for the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League (NRL) from 2007 to 2008, where he broke the record for most tries in a debut year. He then played with the Brisbane Broncos from 2009 to 2010. Playing as a wing or centre, Folau represented Queensland in State of Origin and Australia (the Kangaroos), becoming the youngest player to play for both teams. He won eight international caps.


In 2011 Folau joined the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the Australian Football League (AFL) and played for two seasons without great distinction. In December 2012, he announced he was to switch codes again, this time to rugby union, and signed a one-year contract with the Waratahs. He made his international debut for Australia (the Wallabies) in 2013, and has since won 62 caps.

Quite a sportsman, it seems. Well regarded. He plays the manly game. He knows the rules.

But some tweeting personage asked him about homosexuals, and being a Mormon (I think. - barely a Christian in the usual sense) he went to his Bible and read the rules.

As you can imagine, the proverbial hit the fan. The 'news' exploded. The CEO of Qantas had a hissy fit. Rugger chiefs peed their pants and dropped their daks. Media luvvies rushed to the grounds to jostle to the head of the line with whips and cudgels.

Top referee Nigel Owens says Israel Folau’s Instagram post went too far

GAY referee Nigel Owens has penned a highly personal column criticising Israel Folau, saying the Wallabies superstar’s infamous “HELL” Instagram post had the potential to tip a young person struggling with their sexuality “over the edge.”

Welshman Owens is one of rugby’s most respected figures who controlled the 2015 World Cup final between New Zealand and Australia.

He came out as gay in 2007 and has become a leading voice for inclusion in sport.

Well, as Mandy R-D would say: "he would say that, wouldn't he". 

https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/top-referee-nigel-owens-says-israel-folaus-instagram-post-went-too-far/news-story/e5523b5fda465e91bba0c4bfdb818620

Owens praised rugby’s sense of community in dealing with such issues but said Folau’s comments — in which he said gay people would go to hell unless they repent — were a major setback.

“Comments like Israel Folau’s about gay people and all other types of bullying by all kinds of people is what can put people like that young boy in that moment where it’s enough to tip them over the edge, because there is a minority out there who give the impression that you cannot be who you truly are,” Owens wrote.

Owens said he respected Folau’s right to oppose same sex marriage but argued that saying gay people were destined for hell was “something totally different.”

Would you let your son play on his pitch?  Those homo rules have been around for over 3000 friggin' years and he thinks they are 'different? 

Anyway, aren't differences to be cheered? Tolerance and all that. Inclusivity? 

A nonebrity sporty from a different sport altogether chimed in..

Goalkeeping great Mark Bosnich slams Israel Folau ‘hate speech’

GOALKEEPING great Mark Bosnich has urged Rugby Australia and the Waratahs to take decisive action on the Israel Folau controversy, saying the Wallabies star’s ‘gays to hell’ post had crossed the line from freedom of speech to hate speech.

Folau met with RA chief executive Raelene Castle and Waratahs boss Andrew Hore on Tuesday to discuss his use of social media.

Castle and Hore will talk to media at 1pm AEST.

Folau, a devout Christian, caused a firestorm with his Instagram post in which he said gay people were destined to go to hell unless they repent.

Heck, it is not as though it is a personal decision by Folau that buggers will get theirs in the end. He was simply telling what the rules say. 

Well Raelene (who?) and Hore (an apt enough name if spelled slightly  shamefacedly) did meet. 

Rugby bosses Raelene Castle and Andrew Hore speak after Israel Folau meeting

ISRAEL Folau has not been disciplined for his divisive ‘gays to hell’ post after a meeting with his rugby bosses.

But the deeply religious Wallabies star “understands he’s caused some grief.”

Folau and his manager met with Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle and Waratahs boss Andrew Hore in Sydney on Tuesday.

Castle described the meeting as “very open, very calm and very honest.”

What the heck is that woman doing being CEO of a men's club?   Why is Hore not wearing a skirt? Is he a misogynist?

But it was the 'less measured' (if you can call that above as measured at all) media luvvies' comments that took the flag. Or the cup. Or shield. Whatever luvvies play for.  The most strident and demanding voice was of Peter FitzSimons, a nonebrity of enormous ego, not to metion strangely attired head. Mark Powell filled us in.

Fairfax, Folau and FitzSimons

The Fairfax papers has become so strident in their LGBTIQ advocacy that they cannot tolerate anyone having a view other than their own. And what’s more, they’ll publicly name and shame anyone who does. Just take the recent incident involving Israel Folau who unleashed the social media lynch mob recently, simply for expressing—perhaps a little incautiously—the traditional Christian view that sexual immorality will result in God’s judgment (i.e. 1 Cor. 6:9-11).

 https://www.spectator.com.au/2018/04/fairfax-folau-and-fitzsimons/

As the following screenshot—of the since-deleted tweet—demonstrates, Folau was simply answering a question that was directly posed to him in a completely unrelated thread.

 

And to his credit, he gave a straightforward answer as to what he personally believed.

A couple of years ago a statement like this would hardly have raised an eyebrow, 

and even been broadly supported by the media, 

but in this new era of ‘sexularism’, Folau has been publicly condemned by Peter FitzSimons, the self-appointed judge, jury and executioner of Australian sporting celebrities for their offences against political correctness.

Now, an aside for non-Oz folk. FitzSimons, who likes to present himself like an ostentatious bikie, is married to a TV presenter moll who has a gig with Waleed Ali, the  Oz TV favourite Muslim.  I wonder what his reaction (and her's) would be to someone tweeting Waleed and asking what his religion says should be done to homosexuals. It would not be much different from Falau's remark, except Waleed's mates would send them there from the top of a high-rise. The gay referee would be tipped over the edge, for sure, regardless of his affinity for a Muslim airline.

Just take FitzSimon’s article where he self-righteously declared that Folau’s comments were “anathema” to the “greatest of rugby’s values”. 

But I wonder if Fitzsimmons—himself an outspoken atheist—appreciates the irony, or even hypocrisy, in his choice of words? Because the term “anathema” means:

*Something or someone that one vehemently dislikes.

*A formal curse by a Pope or a Council of the Church, excommunicating a person or denouncing a doctrine.

For someone as irreligious as FitzSimons, it’s interesting that he has chosen to take upon himself the role of pronouncing religious heresy—with its subsequent sanction of excommunication and ultimate damnation—upon those with whom he disagrees. 

The question I’d like to ask is, “Who made him Pontiff?” Because I for one certainly didn’t see any white smoke coming out of the Vatican.

Nor the TV media stations. Heck, not even the ABC. 

In comparison, consider the mature and measured comments of Alan Jones. (Yes, I really did just use those two adjectives to explain something that Jones said in the same sentence) It would have been easy for Jones to have gone along with the crowd and condemn Folau for his comments about practising homosexuals. But he didn’t. Instead, he focused his attention on the real issue facing the Wallabies at present:

All most rugby fans know about rugby’s inclusion policy is that it includes too much failure.

Israel Folau is entitled to his view. Let him express it. He will be judged accordingly and would not expect not to be so judged.

The greatest difference between the perspectives of Jones and FitzSimons is what they perceive as being rugby’s “greatest values”. Because whereas for Jones it’s winning—especially against the All-Blacks—for FitzSimons it’s the virtue signalling of identity politics. As FitzSimons states:

The greatest of all rugby values is inclusion. We want everyone on board: white, black, tall, small, fat, thin, abled, disabled, straight, gay, men, women, young, old, etc.

Good grief. And people wonder why Australian rugby is in such a state of crisis. 

The next thing you know FitzSimons will be saying that we need to give everyone a go and the opportunity to pull on a jersey? Somebody needs to remind him that this an elite sport that we’re talking about, rather than working for Qantas.

You see, while Fitzsimons thinks that the most important thing to be done is to affirm absolutely everyone under the rainbow spectrum, Jones analyses why it is that the National Team is no longer winning. Because let’s face it, they’re a long way from the ‘halcyon days’ of the eighties and nineties when we actually had a chance against New Zealand.

According to Jones, it all comes down to talent, and in particular, the structures that are needed to develop and keep our best players, coaches and support staff from being pilfered by league. As Jones rightly explains:

If we can’t keep the best, we have no hope of being the best. There’s no room for “average people”.

We can’t allow our young people to be demoralised because they’re drowning in mediocrity, surrounded by mediocrity, coached by mediocrity and, as a result, being dismissed as part of rugby’s mediocrity.

Understandably, the ambitious see a system that doesn’t work and go where their talent can be identified, evaluated and cultivated.

Jones is not afraid to name names in outlining his course of action as to what has to take place if Australia rugby is to be saved. And you also get the sense that Jones still has the passion and the skill to oversee the process to make the Wallabies once again successful.

But not so with FitzSimons. 

He’s only concerned with passing eternal judgment upon those with whom he disagrees. 

And as such, it’s FitzSimons really needs to pull his head in, red bandana and all. For if FitzSimons wants to champion the value of “inclusion” then he has to tolerate people having a different opinion to his own.

FitzSimons is, quite frankly, behaving like a bully, especially towards Folau, but also anyone who dares to express an opinion different to his own. Sure, Folau was incautious in the way he expressed his viewpoint in response to an antagonist on his Twitter account, but he is certainly no ‘homophobe’ and has never incited hatred towards LGBTIQ people.

But it seems that we have entered a new era of religious ‘intolerance’, where anyone who disagrees with the current status quo is socially excluded and professionally sanctioned. 

Or where, even more seriously, the greatest ‘sin’ is to believe that there is such a thing as sin itself. 

And as such, FitzSimons would be better off listening to Alan Jones—his former coach—and focusing his energy on fixing Australian rugby then culturally reprimanding everyone else.

I don't hold a brief for Israel Folau. I am not his lawyer. Heck I am not even a mormon. But his very small comment, saying what pretty well all Christians have been saying for several millenia, is not a matter for his excoriation.

Particularly by drongos, gay, (or straight), airline-running, TV nonebritying, sports 'authority' bossing etc.

Drink up.

You may be next.

Pray for the lefty luvvies and society wreckers. 

They are feeding the crocs.

Pax