Hi everyone, I hope you’re all well.
So, today I’m going to talk about something that, while happening in Australia,
is very very relevant to the kind of culture war debate surrounding
freedom of expression and freedom of religion.
This story has been dominating the headlines in Australia for literally months
now, and while I wish it would go away because I am so sick of talking
about it, it is actually worth talking about.
As an ideological study, it raises some good questions, about, for
instance, just how much power should corporations have to
influence or limit their employees moral and religious expression.
Where is the line between enforcing employee etiquette, and
thought-policing the workers?
Or the line between ensuring a safe, friendly working environment, and dictating
what personal views people are and aren’t allowed to have?
I’m talking, of course, and you Aussies will know what I’m going to
say…about Israel Folau.
So, for any foreigners out there; I have a story to tell you.
A tale of faith, vitriol, hysteria, and indeed, heartbreak.
It is, in all seriousness, quite an epic tale to be honest, so get comfy,
because there’s quite a lot to take in.
Israel Folau is a rugby player, who plays for Australia’s
national team the Wallabies.
For all you Americans; rugby is like the NFL, but hardcore and without all the padding
He is also from Tonga, and grew up as a Mormon, but now describes
himself as a born-again Christian.
And as a born-again Christian who used to be a Mormon, he has some very particular
views about what is and isn’t appropriate behaviour, which
includes a few strong views about homosexuality…and he is not afraid
to express them.
Israel first turned heads in 2017 when he went against his employer
Rugby Australia’s public stance, and tweeted that he did not support
same sex marriage, saying that while he “loves and
respects all people for who they are and their opinions.
He, personally, will not support gay marriage.”
This was during the rather turbulent political time in Australia
leading up to the plebiscite we had on whether same sex marriage
should be legalised.
Ultimately, the yes vote won.
However, before the result, the landscape was pretty vile.
Anybody who admitted they planned to vote no risked being horribly
abused and publicly shamed as a raging homophobe.
Indeed, our former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who is socially
conservative and against gay marriage, was headbutted in the face
by a yes voter.
Not that Tony Abbott is a homophobe; his sister is a
lesbian and he’s entirely accepting of her and her relationship.
He’s just a traditionalist, there is a differnce.
But, to the raging activists on the yes side of things, this very important
distinction was not recognised.
So you can imagine, then, what the noisy reaction was to Israel when
he very diplomatically made his stance known on the issue.
It was feral.
And considering the fact the Wallabies major sponsor, Qantas
Airways, is very pro same sex marriage and whose CEO, Alan Joyce, is
a gay man and a big leftie, Israel’s stance was somewhat frowned
upon by certain echelons of upper management, shall we say.
However, no action was taken.
The second instance of Israel making his views on homosexuality
known was in April 2018 on Instagram, when, in response to
someone’s question of what he thought God’s plan for gay people
was, he replied, “hell, unless they repent of their sins and turn to
God”
Okay, what we can already see here is that Israel Folau’s views on
homosexuality are fairly stock standard, fundamentalist Christian
stuff; that homosexuality is a behavioural choice rather than a sexual
preference, and that it is a sin like any other sinful behaviour that
people choose to engage in, but that Jesus loves them regardless and
they can be saved if they repent and turn to God.
This is something I vehemently disagree with, I do not believe being
gay is a sin, and if I had Israel in a room I would love to have a civil
discussion with him about it, but it’s not what you would call a
hateful belief, so to speak.
In Folau’s mind, and those with the same beliefs, this attitude is motivated by love
and care for their fellow men, and a desire to see them saved.
To each their own.
It should be noted here; Israel’s mindset is very different to that of
mainstream Australia.
Australians are, by and large, pretty socially
liberal when it comes to gay rights.
The attitude is, if two blokes or birds what to get married, well, why not.
Nobody cares that much, which is why same sex marriage was voted in,
even in conservative leaning areas.
People don’t care.
Anyway, after this second incident, Israel was given a talking to by
the higher ups at Rugby Australia, namely it’s boss, Ralene Castle.
He did not receive a breach of either his contract
or the player code of conduct, and was instead counselled to present
his religious views in a more respectful, loving, positive manner.
Bear that in mind; there was no breach, but it was made very clear
to him that Rugby Australia did not want that kind of commentary
publicly from him.
This brings me to the climax of this epic tale.
In April this year, Israel posted this graphic on Instagram
It is a paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 in the New King James Version,
which, as you can see, says that drunks, homosexuals, adulterers,
liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, and idolaters, which I
think means Catholics, are going to hell unless they repent.
According to this list, everyone is a sinner, I mean, even if you’re not
any of the other things, everyone has told a lie at some point.
Again, very stock standard fundy Christian stuff.
Anyway, you can guess what happened next.
Social media EXPLODED.
And I don’t mean the drunks, adulterers, liars,
fornicators, thieves, atheists, and idolaters or their advocates.
The only people on Israel’s list who were up
in arms were, of course, LGBT activists, mostly on the far left, many
of which weren’t even
gay.
For some reason, all the other sinners got eclipsed in the fray,
and Israel was painted as a giant homophobe.
This issue initially was given an extraordinarily disproportionate
amount of media attention and social media hate.
I mean who really cares what his point of view on the gays is.
We know his views by now, we know he’s not afraid to express
them, he wasn’t inciting violence or anything like that, he wasn’t
even just talking about just gay people in this one, I didn’t really
understand why it got so much lasting publicity.
But then again; Israel is a Christian, it is, nowadays,
very very trendy to denigrate Christians.
So, how did Rugby Australia react this time?
They sacked him.
So, Israel decided to take them to court for unfair dismissal under
the Fair Work Act.
As such, he set up a GoFundMe campaign to fund
his legal fees, and within a couple of days had already raised
$700,000.
But believe it or not, the campaign was taken down by
GoFundMe, because they said they didn’t want anything on their
platform that promoted exclusion or discrimination.
This seems odd, because Israel wasn’t promoting exclusion or
discrimination.
Like I said, he wasn’t saying gay people’s rights should
be taken away, or inciting violence against them, nothing like that.
All of which is ironic, considering GoFundMe kept up pages funding
other religious faiths that are certainly not friendly to homosexuals.
In other words, GoFundMe is full of crap, but then again, they have
aligned themselves firmly with Pride Month, and are constantly
promoting trendy progressive causes, so I guess we shouldn’t be
surprised.
All of this has split Australia into three ideological camps; those who
believe this is a free speech issue, those who feel his sacking was
regrettable but an issue of branding, and those who are more than
happy he’s been fired because they think what he said was
unacceptable and should not be allowed to be said in public.
But, the big legal issue that has been raised is did
Rugby Australia infringe on Israel Folau peacefully practicing his religion,
which, in Australia you are not allowed to do as an employer.
We have laws against that.
This gives rise to the overriding question, which is; how much
influence should private corporations have in the moral, political,
and religious expression of their employees?
Where is the line between ensuring employee etiquette, and infringing
on people’s right to free expression?
Well, considering Israel is taking Rugby Australia to court, we may
just find out.
There is no legal precedent for this in Australia, none.
This will be a landmark case, and indeed, indicative of where
Australia sits when it comes to freedom of speech.
So!
Here are some things to bear in mind.
In defence of Rugby Australia; Israel knew full well that his
bosses would not condone this kind of talk.
He had been well and truly warned.
Also, as a fantastic Australia journalist Joe Hildebrand pointed
out; it’s a bit rich to turn to the gay CEO of your team’s major sponsor
Qantas Airways and
say, “Hey, I think you’re going to hell, but please keep giving me
money”.
Speaking of Qantas; according to an investigation done by the Daily
Telegraph, they, along with fellow Wallabies sponsors HSBC,
Vodaphone, Land Rover, ASICS, and Accenture all warned Rugby
Australia that they would pull their sponsorship if Folau was either
not sacked, or made a strong public apology, removed the post and
signed documents ensuring he’d never do it again.
So, massive pressure there for Raleigh Castle et al.
As Rugby Australia chairman Cameron Clyne said, the alternative
would be that they’d have no sponsors at all because no sponsor
has indicated they would be willing to be associated with social media
posts of that sort and that includes government”
He also said they would potentially be in litigation with employees
who are gay and who would say they’re not providing a work place
that is safe or respectful. So you can see, immense pressure from all
sides.
Also, Israel was in breach of the player code of conduct.
The code states, among other things, that players
are required to
• “Treat everyone equally, fairly and with dignity regardless of
gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, cultural or
religious background, age or disability.
Any form of bullying, harassment or discrimination has no place
in rugby.”
• “Use social media appropriately.
By all means share your positive experiences of rugby but do not use social
media as a means to
breach any of the expectations or requirements of you as a player
contained in this code.”
• “Do not otherwise act in a way that may adversely affect or reflect
on, or bring you, your team, club, rugby body or rugby into disrepute
or discredit.”
Players are also bound by the code not to “make any public
comment that would likely be detrimental to the best interests,
image and welfare of the game, a team, a club, a competition or
union”.
By anyone’s standards, Israel breached the code, although, it is,
admittedly, deliberately vague.
In Israel’s defence; he is arguing that Rugby Australia sacked him
specifically because on his religious beliefs, rather than a breach of
code of conduct.
Contrary to popular rumour, there were no extra
social media clauses added to his contract relating to his posting
about his religion.
When Israel signed an extension of his stay with the Wallabies in late
2018, RA realised they were not covered in terms of Israel’s
proclivities for posting about gay people on social media.
As such, they hurriedly sent him a letter with extra
social media clauses in it relating to this.
Having already signed his contract, Israel was under
no obligation to sign anything else, so he did not sign these.
In other words, he did not breach his contract by making
the offending Instagram post.
As for the player code of conduct, employment codes are
superseded by legislation.
Which, in this case, is Section 772 of the Fair Work Act, which details all the reasons
an employer cannot use to terminate a worker’s contract.
Religion is listed as one of them.
As such, Israel will say that Rugby Australia
sacked him for practising his religion, and therefore the termination was
unlawful.
Bear in mind, Israel’s religion requires adherents to proselytise;
spreading the word of God is the core principle.
You can’t be a born again Christian without attempting to evangelise
others, it is part of the deal.
Restricting someone from doing this is a clear breach of
section 772, because it is clearly preventing that someone from
peacefully practising their religion as they choose.
Intriguing, isn’t it?
My personal opinion is that in the immediate, this
isn’t a free speech issue; it’s an issue of branding, for all the reasons I
have already mentioned.
Israel was warned, he breached the player code of conduct, what he said is not in line
with Rugby Australia’s public stance, they got rid of him.
However, in the abstract, I feel differently.
After all, how much power should these big corporations have to
influence their employees’ ideological expression?
You could easily argue that a corporation has more power over an individual
than a government does, considering they dangle the purse strings.
Threats of termination and deliberately vague codes of conduct
surely must be counted as infringing on free speech, private
company or not, that is, if you aren’t a corporatist.
Especially considering Rugby Australia’s six major
sponsors, all big corporations themselves, threatened to pull the plug if
their personal ideological stance was not maintained.
On an ethical level, I don’t think corporations should position
themselves as the moral arbiters of their employees; they don’t get
to play God, so to speak.
So what do you think?
Who is right?
Is this a free speech issue, or is it simply a private company being a private company?
Who has a better case, Israel Folau or Rugby Australia?
This issue is, as you can see, far from cut and dry, so please let me
know your thoughts in
the comments.