Folau links bushfire crisis to same-sex marriage, abortion
Sacked rugby union star Israel Folau has linked the NSW bushfire crisis and drought to legalising same-sex marriage and abortion, warning the disasters are a ‘‘little taste of God’s judgment’’.
Speaking at his church in north-west Sydney, Folau said his remarks were a ‘‘message mainly for the people that are outside [the church], within the world’’. The video footage was posted online on Sunday.
‘‘I’ve been looking around the events that’s been happening in Australia the last couple of weeks, all the natural disasters, the bushfires, the droughts, all these things that are currently happening,’’ Folau said.
‘‘I’m doing this all out of love, for people to hear this message and hopefully be able to receive it with open hearts and they may come to know the truth of [God’s] word.’’
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has blasted
Folau’s ‘‘appallingly insensitive’’ comments, while opposition leader Anthony Albanese called the sacked Wallabies star ‘‘reprehensible’’.
The footage of Folau preaching to the congregation at his church was posted to the Facebook page for The Truth of Jesus Christ Church Sydney in
Kenthurst as more than 50 fires burned across NSW.
Six people have died and 476 homes have been destroyed in fires throughout the state since the start of this year’s bushfire season.
Folau said: ‘‘God’s word says for a man and a woman to be together, one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage. The world, I’m speaking to Australia right now, they’ve come and changed this law. They’ve changed that law and now they’ve legalised same-sex marriage.’’
He also said of abortion, which was decriminalised in NSW in October, that ‘‘in the eyes of God it’s evil, in society today it’s good’’.
‘‘Look how rapid, these bushfires, these droughts, all these things have come, in a short period of time. You think it’s a coincidence or not? God is speaking to you guys, Australia, you need to repent.
‘‘What you see right now in the world is only a little taste of God’s judgment that’s coming, it’s not even a big thing.’’
Folau said the natural disasters were ‘‘no coincidence’’ and the solution was for people to ‘‘turn from their wicked ways’’.
Rugby Australia sacked Folau after he wrote a post on Instagram saying drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolators would go to hell unless they repented. – Nine