Folau’s career goes up in smoke
Israel Folau is finished. There was always a slim chance that an NRL club, and the league itself, would eventually soften and be tempted into offering Folau a lifeline. It happens all the time, unless an individual has tarnished themselves repeatedly and to a dire extent.
Folau now checks both of those boxes. No Australian sporting organisation in its right mind would want to be associated with the sacked Wallabies star. He is toxic.
Folau’s latest sermon, which claimed that Australia’s drought and bushfires were God’s wrath for the legalisation of same-sex marriage and abortion, was beyond abhorrent.
It was idiotic and, to all but the most fanatical Christians, smacked of a man not in his right mind. It was delusional.
Not even one of Folau’s most ardent supporters, Alan Jones, could offer any support. Instead, he said what all of Australia was thinking, if somewhat more politely.
‘‘Israel is a lovely human being, I know him well,’’ Jones said on 2GB on Monday.
‘‘Israel, button up. Button up. These comments don’t help.’’
No, offering twisted biblical condemnation to people who have lost loved ones and homes to devastating bush fires does not help. And it certainly doesn’t help when the fires are still raging and more tragedy seems inevitable.
Nor was is particularly helpful of Folau to tell gay and transsexual people, among society’s most maligned and vulnerable groups, that they are ‘‘evil’’ and damned to hell.
That, of course, is how Folau got himself sacked from his A$5 million Rugby Australia contract in a World Cup year.
Gay sporting pioneer Ian Roberts said it back then: kids die because of the kinds of homophobic things that Folau posted on social media. Australian cricketer Megan Schutt repeated the warning on Monday after Folau’s latest rant, writing on Twitter: ‘‘This absolute s..t is exactly why kids (and adults), still figuring themselves out, commit suicide. Go back into the hole you crawled out of.’’
It’s one thing attacking a minority group; a despicable and cowardly thing. It’s another yet to sink the boot into Australia at large when the nation is burning.
Folau exists, of course, far beyond the concerns of one’s only home being burnt to the ground. The Sydney
revealed this year that he owns a real estate portfolio worth more than A$7 million, spread across nine properties.
Folau’s assertions were so ludicrous that they would be meme-worthy if they weren’t so hurtful. Same-sex marriage and abortion scorched the homes of innocent Australians and left people dead? Come on.
Folau, who preaches at his father’s church, is especially hardline in his views. It is important to note that he does not speak for all Christians.
Outspoken minister Rod Bower attacked Folau’s latest rant as ill-informed on all levels.
‘‘FFS (for faiths sake) PEOPLE DIED LAST WEEK Mr
Folau!’’ Father Bower wrote on Twitter.
‘‘Your comments are devastatingly insensitive, psychologically damaging and theologically ill-informed. Climatechange is the consequence of HUMAN not Divine activity.’’
Folau retained a vocal minority of support over his homophobic rants. The same-sex marriage plebiscite saw nearly
40 per cent of Australian voters –
4,873,987 people – vote ‘no’. Yet whatever support Folau had in attacking gay and trans people has vanished over his bush fire and drought comments.
A man firmly in Folau’s camp on both the same-sex marriage and abortion issues, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, said that Folau was offering nothing worthwhile amid the crisis. He said Folau was merely making unhelpful noise as good people acted.
‘‘He throws rocks at us so he feels good, we throw rocks back at him so we feel good . . . but not one of those actions is making a sandwich for a person fighting the fires,’’ Joyce said on Seven.
‘‘Not one of those actions is actually in a fire truck trying to stop these fires. Israel can concentrate on what he wants to say and I don’t really care and we’ll concentrate on the fire.’’
It’s a nice idea, that we should simply ignore what Folau says. But rightly or wrongly, that virtually never happens when a high-profile person spouts something outlandish in the modern 24-7 media landscape, where controversy runs even hotter on social media.
Hence, we’re locked in a vicious circle.
Folau says something
outrageous, Australia is duly outraged. Rinse, repeat. At least he gets called out rather than going unchecked.
And for Folau, the circle is a downwards spiral from which his career cannot recover; at least not in Australia. It’s overseas or nothing.
No sporting club in this country could justify aligning itself with the fallen star. He attacks minorities, then he levels a staggering insult at imperiled communities throughout Australia, all on the basis of extreme religious fanaticism.
If it wasn’t under the guise of Christianity, it would more readily have been branded what it truly is: hate speech.
The NRL had already barred Folau over his anti-gay rants. Perhaps that position might have eased gradually, though it would have required some compromise from Folau.
Instead, the former Melbourne Storm and Brisbane Broncos star has doubled down. The door has slammed shut.
Maybe Folau doesn’t care, with his ministry taking priority and a A$10 million claim against Rugby Australia in the works.
There must have been further head-shaking from RA boss Raelene Castle as Folau’s bushfire rant came to light. And a strengthening of resolve at Rugby League Central.