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[Law] Folau’s online comments have taken a turn for the worse.

L'irlandais

L'irlandais

, Promises to Referee in France
APF article carried by a.n. Other online site

[TEXTAREA]SYDNEY (AFP) - Sacked Wallabies rugby star Israel Folau Monday (Nov 18) sparked outrage by suggesting destructive bushfires and drought ravaging Australia were "God's judgement" for the legalisation of same-sex marriage and abortion.

The devout Christian, who is pursuing legal action against Rugby Australia after being fired in May for posting on Instagram that "hell awaits" gay people and others he considers sinners, made his latest outburst in a Sydney church sermon on Sunday.[/TEXTAREA]
So how does that work? Some innocent folk lost their homes and their lives in a bushfire, genius-boy sees something more than a coincidence. I couldn’t give a fig what nonsense he spouts at the pulpit on Sundays before likeminded people. However he should not be allowed publish his hateful “sermon” online. Zero respect for others. Is he speaking ill of the dead? Or just talking out his arse?

[LAWS]"They were appalling comments and he is a free citizen, he can say whatever he likes. But that doesn't mean he can't have regard to the grievous offence this would have caused to people whose homes have been burnt down," said the prime minister.

Even one of his most staunch allies, former Wallabies coach and conservative radio host Alan Jones, was unimpressed. "Israel is a lovely human being, I know him well. But, Israel, button up," Jones said on his 2GB radio programme. "These comments don't help."[/LAWS]

One sad individual!
 
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L'irlandais said:
APF article carried by a.n. Other online site

[TEXTAREA]SYDNEY (AFP) - Sacked Wallabies rugby star Israel Folau Monday (Nov 18) sparked outrage by suggesting destructive bushfires and drought ravaging Australia were "God's judgement" for the legalisation of same-sex marriage and abortion.

The devout Christian, who is pursuing legal action against Rugby Australia after being fired in May for posting on Instagram that "hell awaits" gay people and others he considers sinners, made his latest outburst in a Sydney church sermon on Sunday.[/TEXTAREA]
So how does that work? Some innocent folk lost their homes and their lives in a bushfire, genius-boy sees something more than a coincidence. I couldn’t give a fig what nonsense he spouts at the pulpit on Sundays before likeminded people. However he should not be allowed publish his hateful “sermon” online. Zero respect for others. Is he speaking ill of the dead? Or just talking out his arse?
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Whilst I find his views totally abhorrent, I also believe in freedom of speech and a free press. We should not restrict his ability to post his 'sermon' online, we can choose to ignore it when it is posted and not give it any publicity.
 
L'irlandais said:
However he should not be allowed publish his hateful “sermon” online.
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First of all, who gets to determine and decide what is hateful?

Secondly, you should want it published online, on billboards, and periodicals. This will cause discussion. A fool or a genius will be exposed, but it will occur through individual thought and not by anyone (an absolute) else's decision.

Which method be more effective? Censorship or discussion.
 
Agreed, Folau doesn’t wish to discuss beliefs with anybody, he wants to tell us all what we should believe. That not conducive to freedom of speech; Folau stands for the most vicious form of censorship, controlling not only our freedom to thinking differently than he does, but also he intends to control even the intimacy of people’s sex lifes. Get to hell Israel Folau, it is overflowing with bigots like him. Especially hypocritical given the loose morals he displayed for years before his marriage. And given that people don’t change, he will return to loose living and alcohol after his divorce. Only a matter of time, he can eat his own words.
 
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OB.. said:
That is a false dichotomy. The law proscribes certain talk such as defamation, racism etc.

(Apart from the fact that Folau is not discussing - he is pontificating.)
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I'm suggesting censorship and discussion by 2nd parties to IF pontificating message. Discussion with him would be pointless. Censorship of him would be dangerous and foolish.

Censorship would null his critics and effectively silence any argument against him.
 
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The bloke is a dick, but IMO he can hold whatever opinion he likes, even if people think its distasteful/damaging/whatever. If he is a hypocrite because of his opinion and his actions - well he won't be the first and definitely won't be the last and everyone has the right/choice to become a social pariah.

He also should have the opportunity to grow personally from this mistake - and who grows when attacked in the media, its much more likely that he would become defensive than open to "new" ideas - hence why populism is so strong in modern politics, social elites who attack the "deplorables" for their opinions really only serve to strengthen the us vs them.
 
A lot of this discussion is far from rugby related

Some good rugby questions might be
.. if you realised that a member of your grass roots rugby club is on YouTube delivering that sermon .. what would you do ? If anything

If someone on a rugby field said to the other team something like, no wonder your clubhouse got struck by lightning , it was God .. because of ... reasons

As a ref what would you do. If anything
 
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Sanction Table, Regulation 17:
9.12 A player must not verbally abuse anyone. Verbal abuse includes, but is not limited to, abuse based on: religion, colour, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation.
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[TABLE="width: 944"]
[TR]
[TD]Low-end: 6 weeks
[/TD]
[TD]Mid-range: 12 weeks
[/TD]
[TD]Top-end: 18+ weeks
[/TD]
[TD]Max: 52 weeks
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Click to expand...
 
crossref said:
As a ref what would you do. If anything
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Excessive swearing or threats/barbs that include issues that the player has no control over (gender, sexuality, race) will usually elicit a word to the captain to settle it down followed by other sanctions - we've had history here of some pretty bad brawls arising from racial taunting so I'm very intolerant to it. Thankfully the teams down here know the referee's so they also know what we will accept as on-field behaviour and how far a bit of banter/verbal needling can go before its dealt with.

Barbs about a person's religion - personally who cares - but I can see why some would take it very badly.

A high level (ex international) netball umpire friend of mine and I have discussed what if the IF comments were made on the court/FOP. I wouldn't card (or probably even warn) a player who said "you are going to hell because you are gay" as I can't see it as abuse. If the words used included p**fter, fa**ot or many of the other words, then I'm going to step in, but only because the words used are likely to cause a reaction. She was on the fence so to speak - it doesn't seem to happen at Netball (in my state league experience) but she didin't like the use of any sort of provocative statements.
 
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