This is a ball game talking about.
Israel Folau has been getting a lot of press lately and it has got me thinking. For starters we need to put the issue in context by looking at the kind of person he is; he is a football player. He is not a theologian or a philosopher or intellectual or politician or diplomat or social activist; he is a football player. His great contribution to society is that he can catch, throw and kick a football. From this perspective any right minded person would conclude that his homophobic posts were the ignorant rants of a meat headed jock strap who really ought to stick to playing football.
But people took his posts seriously, including the team he played for. His teem told him his posts were making them look bad and that if he didn’t stop making homophobic posts they would terminate his contract, he didn’t stop. He claims that he had got his inspiration from the Bible so he can legally claim freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The Bible May be the word of God but it doesn’t give the reader supernatural powers to know right from wrong. You can claim all sorts of crazy stuff by mindlessly grabbing versus from the Bible. Let me give you an example:
Numbers 15:32-36
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done with him. Then the Lord said to Moses “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp”. So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.
This clearly shows that both State Of Origin teams should be stoned to death for playing football on a Sunday, it says so in the Bible after all. But this isn’t how the Bible is read, the Bible is hard to understand and interpret. Bible scholars have studied and debated points of theology for thousands of years and got all sorts of results. Folau was a great and extremely well paid football player; but now he can’t play football because he felt he would make a much better theologian. If he does take his unfair dismissal claim to court; I would advise he remain silent and let his lawyer do the talking. If he opens his mouth he is at extreme risk of putting his foot in it.
I am not saying Folau is not entitled to his view, what I question is how relevant his view is. If a guy who juggles fire sticks while balanced on a giraffe unicycle makes some controversial post about the Middle East crisis; nothing much happens. Maybe a few likes, reactions or comments from friends then it is forgotten about quickly. But a football player makes some controversial posts about homosexuals and it is front page news for weeks on end. Why is a football players comments any more relevant than those of a juggler? The cult of football is hopelessly out of proportion; the outcome of ball games is given excessive relevance, people claim credit for goals based on the colour of the hat they were wearing while they were watching the game on TV and people treat Folau’s opinions on homosexuality like they really matter. This is a ball game we are talking about, put it in perspective.
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Clown Artist Philosopher 