News Do you care if Israel Folau returns to the NRL?

[Penrose Warrior]

I can't understand why people are being critical of Israel. He is a Mormon. Mormon's believe that all homosexuals go to hell. It has been that way since Joseph Smith made up the book of Mormon in the 1800's. This is what they are taught every week when they go to Church and every time they look at certain chapters of the book of Mormon.

If you ask the likes of Jarryd Hayne and Will Hopoate or countless other Mormons across Rugby League they would probably tell you that they believe the same thing and if they don't tell you that then they are either lying or have stopped practicing their faith.

As long as we recognise Mormonism as a religion, people who practice it will have these beliefs and really, if you dig deep enough, you'd find quite a few fundamentalists of other religions including Christianity that believe the same thing.

The way the media have reacted this last week or so, it's like half of them have never encountered religious nutters before.

But Jarryd Hayne and Will Hopoate have never said that. They don't need to. Yeah, we know they privately believe it. Difference is, they didn't publicly air it. That's the issue, the public part of it. No one can be punished for privately holding a view.

And we've all encountered religious nutters. That's irrelevant. As I said before, you've got the NRL who are very significantly throwing their support behind the gay community with the Pride March etc, the ARU who fined a bloke $20k for using one gay slur, but honestly they couldn't have kissed Israel's arse harder over all this. That's the issue. The media have been absolute right to come down like a tonne of bricks over the hypocrisy and inappropriateness of it.

 

[ReddFelon]

I can't understand why people are being critical of Israel. He is a Mormon. Mormon's believe that all homosexuals go to hell. It has been that way since Joseph Smith made up the book of Mormon in the 1800's. This is what they are taught every week when they go to Church and every time they look at certain chapters of the book of Mormon.

If you ask the likes of Jarryd Hayne and Will Hopoate or countless other Mormons across Rugby League they would probably tell you that they believe the same thing and if they don't tell you that then they are either lying or have stopped practicing their faith.

As long as we recognise Mormonism as a religion, people who practice it will have these beliefs and really, if you dig deep enough, you'd find quite a few fundamentalists of other religions including Christianity that believe the same thing.

The way the media have reacted this last week or so, it's like half of them have never encountered religious nutters before.

Dude isn't a Mormon. The whole Folau family ditched Mormonism in 2012 to switch to the Assemblies of God who are one of those super fundamentalist churches. Mormons have gotten softer on gays over the years, but more importantly they're pretty chill about other people's lives, aside from the door to door stuff they usually keep their religious lives private. AoG on the other hand are like one of those American cults that actively try to convert people, there's a ton of Mormons in the NRL and you'll never see this sort of thing from them.

 

[TheVelourFog]

No

Go, come back, whatever. Don't care.

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

But Jarryd Hayne and Will Hopoate have never said that. They don't need to. Yeah, we know they privately believe it. Difference is, they didn't publicly air it. That's the issue, the public part of it. No one can be punished for privately holding a view.

And we've all encountered religious nutters. That's irrelevant. As I said before, you've got the NRL who are very significantly throwing their support behind the gay community with the Pride March etc, the ARU who fined a bloke $20k for using one gay slur, but honestly they couldn't have kissed Israel's arse harder over all this. That's the issue. The media have been absolute right to come down like a tonne of bricks over the hypocrisy and inappropriateness of it.

Thing is... Other people may not state these beliefs publicly but they still believe it.

If you walk into any number of churches on a Sunday, you'll still hear ministers and priests and Rabbi's and whatever else you want to call them, preaching that gays will go to hell.

You'll also hear any number of other bs statements being made.

Some bloke that dies 2000 years ago is going to come back and judge us all for our sins, or if you kill yourself as a soldier of Allah you will be granted virgins in the after life or some day the spaghetti monster is going to return to planet earth and take all the righteous people to planet spaghetti..

The problem is not Israel and his beliefs. He's just telling everyone what the preacher tells him in Church on Sunday. The problem is that religions of all kinds continue to drag the world back to the dark ages.

 

[Cherry_poppins]

Hope he doesn't make another cent

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Thing is... Other people may not state these beliefs publicly but they still believe it.

If you walk into any number of churches on a Sunday, you'll still hear ministers and priests and Rabbi's and whatever else you want to call them, preaching that gays will go to hell.

You'll also hear any number of other bs statements being made.

Some bloke that dies 2000 years ago is going to come back and judge us all for our sins, or if you kill yourself as a soldier of Allah you will be granted virgins in the after life or some day the spaghetti monster is going to return to planet earth and take all the righteous people to planet spaghetti..

The problem is not Israel and his beliefs. He's just telling everyone what the preacher tells him in Church on Sunday. The problem is that religions of all kinds continue to drag the world back to the dark ages.

They're entitled to believe it. Something that exists in your head is not hate speech. When you air it in public, something like Israel did, it becomes hate speech. That's not the case in a church either, if you walk into that organised group of imaginary friend worshippers you know what you're in for. Same as if you walk into a white fundamentalist group meeting...you don't have to.

But you're right on the last part. The problem is not Israel's beliefs. It's his airing of them in a way that perfectly resembles hate and homophobia. He should never have pressed reply. But hey, it's the religious zealot's way right - EVERYONE HAS TO KNOW.

 

[Coparugby]

Only if it devastates the ARU.

 

[Shorty]

Dude isn't a Mormon. The whole Folau family ditched Mormonism in 2012 to switch to the Assemblies of God who are one of those super fundamentalist churches. Mormons have gotten softer on gays over the years, but more importantly they're pretty chill about other people's lives, aside from the door to door stuff they usually keep their religious lives private. AoG on the other hand are like one of those American cults that actively try to convert people, there's a ton of Mormons in the NRL and you'll never see this sort of thing from them.

Thanks for this thought he was acting a bit battier than the average Mormon.
Just googled it, talk about fundamentalist lol

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

Never heard of the f**ker

 

[Someguy]

Why we even talking about this guy. The player the NRL is missing is Semi Radradra, Israel is just a poor mans Inglis

 

[Barkley]

Folau is a flog...the best thing he could do for RL is stay in union.

 

[Perth Red]

They are welcome to him and his brain washed draconian beliefs. Id rather his $700k salary went to some great young kids out of Fiji.

 

[veggiepatch1959]

But Jarryd Hayne and Will Hopoate have never said that. They don't need to. Yeah, we know they privately believe it. Difference is, they didn't publicly air it. That's the issue, the public part of it. No one can be punished for privately holding a view.

Makes you wonder how many people who purort to support gays privately despise them.

It's all a part of looking good in the eyes of others.

Well f**k looking good. I don't know many people that support the gay movement, including myself and I'm a devout atheist.

 

[Perth Red]

Makes you wonder how many people who purort to support gays privately despise them.

It's all a part of looking good in the eyes of others.

Well f**k looking good. I don't know many people that support the gay movement, including myself and I'm a devout atheist.

Bigotry doesn't require belief in an imaginary idol. It is mostly a learnt trait from parents and peers growing up. Hopefully in generations to come it will eventually diminish until the vast majority really don't care about colour of skin, preferred sexual partners, disability or any other reason to see others as different, abnormal or unworthy to yourself. Shame I wont be around to see it but it will undoubtedly happen eventually, such is human evolution.

 

[Albert Rosenfeld]

The Roosters are interested in signing Israel Folau to play in the centres alongside Latrell Mitchell.
It could happen sooner than you think. That would mean that the Roosters had a serious Muslim and a devout Christian on their right edge.-- playing alongside the very witty second rower Angus Crichton.

 

[OldPanther]

His admission isn't that it's wrong. In fact he's sticking to his guns from what we read. Actually that's 100% fact, because he then tweeted some absolute crap about persecution before the meeting with the ARU. He's completely unrepentant.

Let me put this scenario to you: a Wallabies player, who is an atheist, comes out and delivers gay hate speech. He says gays are disgusting or they're a lesser part of society (which is what sending them to hell insinuates). How much do you reckon said player will be fined or suspended? My guess is shitloads. Jacques Potgieter was fined $20000 simply for calling someone a twig (the F word) on field. That's a throwaway, unconsidered line. Not calculated and targeted like Folau. So why does Israel Folau get defended in press releases by the Waratahs and ARU for 'freedom of speech?" How are those two things different?

Because we're dancing around religion, right?

Actually in most cases religious people don't see gays as lesser, they see them as people who need saving from a terrible fate because they broke the rules set forward by whoever they believe created and have ultimate power over us.

It's a subtle distinction.

 

[OldPanther]

Why we even talking about this guy. The player the NRL is missing is Semi Radradra, Israel is just a poor mans Inglis

Best comment.

 

[DC80]

Bigotry doesn't require belief in an imaginary idol. It is mostly a learnt trait from parents and peers growing up. Hopefully in generations to come it will eventually diminish until the vast majority really don't care about colour of skin, preferred sexual partners, disability or any other reason to see others as different, abnormal or unworthy to yourself. Shame I wont be around to see it but it will undoubtedly happen eventually, such is human evolution.

Absolutely.

I’d add that such backward people often can’t be helped in that having been brainwashed they are too far gone, there is no changing their warped views regardless of how much you try. The most extreme example are those in cults, and they are notoriously difficult to save. Theres a great video on YouTube that shows this in action when Richard Dawkins talks to a young earth creationist nutcase Wendy Wright, he’s talking away but he’s wasting his time as she’s completely dead behind the eyes, disconnected from reality she’s there but she’s not there.

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

The ridiculous part of the whole thing is that if we all think about this hard enough, we would know that this is what the guy believes without him actually saying a thing.

We all tolerate that he and others like him think this way because of religion until he dares say something about it in a public forum and then we all go apeshit.

Go and have a look at the tweet and how many others have liked / retweeted it. I'll bet you find dozens of other people that are associated with NRL / AFL / Union in that list. No one says anything about them.

We should be calling out his entire religion and saying that what they believe is wrong but that would kick off a whole new shit fight and no one will have the balls.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

The ridiculous part of the whole thing is that if we all think about this hard enough, we would know that this is what the guy believes without him actually saying a thing.

We all tolerate that he and others like him think this way because of religion until he dares say something about it in a public forum and then we all go apeshit.

Go and have a look at the tweet and how many others have liked / retweeted it. I'll bet you find dozens of other people that are associated with NRL / AFL / Union in that list. No one says anything about them.

We should be calling out his entire religion and saying that what they believe is wrong but that would kick off a whole new shit fight and no one will have the balls.

It wasn't a tweet, it was a reply comment in an instagram photo. And it was deleted a day later.

We can call out religion when it openly expresses hate, as it did in this instance. So we are.