Mr Folau has voiced his opinion ,not mine ....i have gay friends ,family & acquaintances & have a live & let live attitude to my life & the lives of everyone else.
Mr Folau has offended people with his comments . Is it not possible that he is equally offended by the views ,opinions & actions of the people he has criticised ? Is it his religious beliefs that have prompted him to speak out ? If so ,who are we to criticise his religion ?

To be fair your right, I apologise!!

With hindsight “ Ignorant “ was a better word that uneducated albeit I Suspect I wasn’t far from the mark with my original observation.

I defend his right to his religious views. I defend his right to say them on social media.

That's what free speech is. Will he be going to prison? No.

I also defend Rugby Australia's right to terminate his employment as a private company.

I, personally, wouldn't want a homophone, racist etc. playing for the club I love.

He is free to say whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Whether a company wants to employ him or not is up to them.

I didn't realise it was the 3rd time he's done this, i thought it was his first post and Boom he's fired.
Yeah i don't agree with hiding behind religion but some have it ingrained in them from a kid, not an excuse as he's an adult but some people never open their eyes to another view.

Very baffling as to why he needed to spout his religious beliefs on social media when surely he must have known the end consequences especially in this day and age and I for one being gay myself would never go and watch my team ever again if they employed any player with his views.Just my opinion.

I’m not gay , equally I am not religious, I have no political allegiances or agendas. I am a father of 4 living in 2019 bringing my children up to respect others .

I have views on many things in life but I don’t seek to impose them on others.

Respect is a simple but understetimated quality.

I am surprised that my original post on this matter caused such a stir. It was meant to just ponder the issue of a player getting sacked for ill judged remarks that were offensive to some members of society. I too had no knowledge of it being his 3rd strike on the matter when i asked about his possible return to RL.
At least we know this forum is all inclusive .

I think a little context is required, from ALL parts of society.

Folau. Terminally stupid. Not once, not twice, but THREE times. If he has these beliefs, then that's HIS affair. If he's stupid enough to air these views in public, in this day and age, where some people are "queueing up" to be offended, then he's just underlined his stupidity. Folau, is like a lot of other "social media users"..... an attention seeker. He's certainly done that, and it's (more than likely), going to cost him his livelihood. Plonker.

Religion. Deary me. People live their lives through this!
I know people who'll be sat in a pew, in a couple of hours time, and they're some of the most two faced, hypocritical Muppets, you' ll ever see. Just because they prey, they think they're absolved of all their "nasty" deeds. Deluded.
Personally, I think it's nice to have a faith/belief (I don't practice, though), but RELIGION? Just look at the state of the planet. Across the Irish Sea, and even more stupidly, those whoppers who "support" Rangers and Celtic, are acting it out by proxy, in a different country. Fools. Nothing good comes of religion.


Touching on Folau's recent WHOLE quote. He also condemns (as well as homosexuals, this is the crux of his potential banning)
a) drunks. Last night was a Saturday. I dare say a good proportion of the planet had "a bit too much to drink". Nowt down for them.
b) adulterers. So that's Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Tiger Woods and the fella who plays Ken Barlow, etc, going "downstairs", then.
c) Athiests. An ever growing number
d) Liars. That's most of the planet, then
e) Fornicators... Ooh err, Missus
f) Theives. Well, they deserve it


In Israel's eyes, Hell is going to need to expand bigger than Warrington's Green Belt land, as its going to get pretty busy, down there.

I have no truck with homosexuals, or any of the other traits which Folau wants to cast into the fire pit. If you're a decent person, I'll probably like you. Live and let live.
As I said, context is all that's needed. An attention seeking plonker, has "tweeted" (shudders) some nasty words. Now what would you sooner have done to you. A few lazy, stupid insults aimed at you, or maybe being shot, beaten up, or even Les Boyd (who is worshipped on here by some, me included) breaking your jaw, or gouging your eyes. I know which one I prefer.

Let Folau vent his spleen. He just makes himself look stupid. Hopefully, he'll go away. However, with a "pitchfork" sensationalist media, they're giving him the oxygen he craves. Will we (society) ever learn?

Great post but as you pointed out earlier some people will be queuing up to whine, with the advent of social media on the internet because social media as been around in other forms forever it’s gotten out of hand. Shows like the comedians( Englishman,Irishman Scotsman jokes) Jim Davidson with his Sambo routine, love thy neighbour and classic in sickness and health not a chance these shows would ever be made now. Freedom of speech is no longer a thing because someone will always be offended it’s the new thing.

While I think they will follow the NRL’s lead, Super League/The RFL haven’t the best record of a hard line stance on homophobia. If memory serves, Mr Hardaker has a homophobia offence on his ever growing list of misdemeanours, and got 4/5 games I think. This was for a direct verbal attack on a match official. I think a post on a personal social media account is lower down the offence list than that.

If Folau makes a case to come to SL, I’d be interested to see what the Governing Body made of it, bearing in mind his celebrity and obvious class.

If you are going to brand someone you've never met as 'uneducated', you might want to check your grammar first.

Here's an interesting twist to the debate: what if he's right?

I'm not at all religious, don't believe in the concept of heaven and hell and therefore obviously don't agree with what he says. However, even as a confirmed atheist I couldn't possibly know that I was absolutely, 100% right. It's purely just my personal belief.

So playing devil's advocate (pun intended) for a moment; given none of us can possibly know for certain that he's wrong, should he lose his job for speaking what he believes to be the truth?

If he is right then the Bible prophesies just this: "and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name."*


* I knew watching The Omen would come in useful one day!

There is no such thing as free speech without limitation. Any speech is subject to libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, non-disclosure agreements, the right to privacy, the right to be forgotten, public security, and perjury. There is of course the restriction on forms of expression deemed offensive to society, considering factors such as extent, duration, motives of the speaker, and ease with which it could be avoided.

Yes. He is bringing the game into disrepute.

Furthemore if you believe the holocaust did not occur in exactly the same way as history records and gave voice to this opinion in most European countries you can expect to go to gaol on top of losing your job.

I cannot believe in 2019 we still have such views on people because of what they choose to do in their private life. What on earth does it have to do with him?

Furthermore a correction to the "mythology" argument, it is readily accepted that Jesus of Nazareth existed (just as Gautama Buddha, Guru Nanak, Joseph Smith, and Lafayette Ronald Hubbard did). Ergo their existence cannot be mythological although I share your view on organised religion.

Whatever does become if it...it's unlikely becoming a Wire will be one solution.

He had a list of 'going to hell' people its not clear if they are in order of who's getting priorty entry, potentially the Devil could get a pretty competive SL team together, sadly Israel, so deluded in his views, would struggle to get a 'sevens' side to meet his exacting views.

Drunks
Homosexuals
Adulterers
Liars
Thieves
Atheists
Idolators

Quote ="Phuzzy"Here's an interesting twist to the debate: what if he's right? I'm not at all religious, don't believe in the concept of heaven and hell and therefore obviously don't agree with what he says. However, even as a confirmed atheist I couldn't possibly know that I was absolutely, 100% right. It's purely just my personal belief. So playing devil's advocate (pun intended) for a moment; given none of us can possibly know for certain that he's wrong, should he lose his job for speaking what he believes to be the truth? If he is right then the Bible prophesies just this: "and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name."* * I knew watching The Omen would come in useful one day! '" Well as I'm getting older I find myself slightly less tolerable over the concept of religion (all brands) however I won't attack or confront anyone over it, each to their own unless they get preachy. In which case I suggest they watch this https://youtu.be/y_s73rBBJcc (first 3 mins)

Quote ="Phuzzy"Here's an interesting twist to the debate: what if he's right? I'm not at all religious, don't believe in the concept of heaven and hell and therefore obviously don't agree with what he says. However, even as a confirmed atheist I couldn't possibly know that I was absolutely, 100% right. It's purely just my personal belief. So playing devil's advocate (pun intended) for a moment; given none of us can possibly know for certain that he's wrong, should he lose his job for speaking what he believes to be the truth? If he is right then the Bible prophesies just this: "and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name."* * I knew watching The Omen would come in useful one day! '" Well as I'm getting older I find myself slightly less tolerable over the concept of religion (all brands) however I won't attack or confront anyone over it, each to their own unless they get preachy. In which case I suggest they watch this https://youtu.be/y_s73rBBJcc (first 3 mins)

Looks like he may be heading to French RU. Perfect place for him as it is well known that they despise alcohol and have no tolerance for adulterers. There may be a few who share his views on homosexuality but you get a few of those in most societies. I would like to think that the fact he has been sacked shows we are progressing (although possibly not as quickly as we should).

Beat up a student, drink and drive or take performance enhancing drugs = Temporary ban
Post something silly on twitter = Lifetime ban

I think it is a slippery slope when people are having their careers taken away because they parrot their religious beliefs.

Criticise someone's religion in a different context & you become a racist bigot ,even though race has nothing to do with it .

One man's "post something silly" is another man's "hate speech".

This is his 2nd offence after receiving a previous warning. He has not received a lifetime ban, he has had his Sport Australia contract terminated. The NRL have said he has failed the character test and will not be registered.

It's really not at all. For me it's okay to believe in religion, it's okay to believe that gays are going to hell. What isn't okay is being a professional employed by a big sporting organisation and sharing those views to millions of people on Twitter. If I did that on my Linkedin and my work saw that, I'd be going to be job centre pronto. I'll bet a lot of South Sea Islander RL players and a lot of Muslims and a lot of devout Christians share Folou's beliefs and agree with him, but those with an ounce of decency and societal awareness would refrain from sharing those beliefs in public.

What this shows is that Super League as an organisation needs to develop a code of principal like the NRL has and stick to it. People with dubious pasts in terms of drugs or criminality should be interviewed at length to ascertain their level of sincerity in being better people now and their contracts should have ultra tight clauses that enable the club to end them if they break the code of conduct. There should also be minimum standards applied in areas such as domestic violence, sexual crimes and hate related areas where sometimes they just say no to a player based on his history like the NRL do. SL doesn't need any negative press at the moment and signing Folou would be a disaster for the competition, despite how good a player he once was.

If superleague & the RFL went through the players rosters with a fine tooth comb our available pool of players would be much less than it is now & how many generations would our international selectors have to go back to find lesser quality antipodeans to join our home squads through ancestral qualification ?

We have had a complaint about this thread. its a contentious set of topics that have been raised, mostly I would have to say with a calm and considered view by the contributing posters. However some of the remarks have clearly been taken as being offensive and since I think the thread has probably run its course anyway, I am locking it.