Israel Folau

Israel Folau. a rugby player who represents Australia, has had something to say about where he sees Gays in relation to God. It turns out he's a Christian and a devout one at that. Good for him you'd expect people to say, but it turns out that inclusiveness and diversity only extends to certain people who espouse views that are acceptable.

Folau has been pilloried and his views totally misrepresented and the worst treatment has been at the hands of the media who don't seem capable of intelligent thought. On top of that he's been called in for a talk by Rugby Australia who seem more motivated by commercial considerations than by respecting the man's religious beliefs.

Read about it here: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/israel-folau-breaks-silence-says-he-would-walk-away-from-australian-rugby-criticises-raelene-castle-20180416-p4z9zh.html


A reader of the SMH story I find myself totally agreeing with so include their whole comment below. 

Now, this is a freedom of speech issue and as much as I hate to use the term, because it's become the last refuge of alt-right nut jobs, the bad side of political correctness.
Sadly, the general level of understanding of what the freedom entails is so wrong it's beyond belief. IF"s comments didn't contravene RA's inclusivity policy, this wasn't RA's fight, and it's handled the whole thing very badly. This is a very good example of trial by media of the wrong person for the wrong reason on the wrong issue of importance.
What RA needed was a philosopher, not a spin doctor. They jumped the wrong shark at the wrong time.
I don't agree with IF, or with christian literalists - they are no different to any other kind of literalist interpretation of a religious book which usually borders on, or wades fully into, fundamentalism. But then, they are also no different from atheists screaming from the sidelines about empirical proof and other straw men.
IF is entitled to speak his "truth" as the saying goes, and present a case for why, whether we agree with him or not. He's not refusing to play against gay people, he's not saying they can't play rugby, he's not telling RA to bad gay people - he's not demanding temporal discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender.
The saddest thing of all, part from the slow tearing apart of a fellow human by the ravening mob, is that "society", or more narrowly "us" in the digital echo chamber through the MSM and social media, has turned on him and "we" are learning nothing about diversity, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance - some of the things the book he defers to was actually written for to teach humans how to evolve - whether we believe in sky faeries, or kindly benign old men in white gowns living in the clouds, or aliens, or the scientific method, or miracles caused or wrought by supernatural being(s), or nothing.... ....or not.