Israel Folau has been signed to play rugby league again with the Southport Tigers in the Gold Coast A Grade competition.
Clive Palmer is the club’s major sponsor and is personally sponsoring Folau’s return for the rest of this year’s football season.
In a press conference together with Folau in the Tigers’ club guernsey this morning, Palmer rescued Folau from the inevitable question about whether he would give any guarantees about expressing his religious beliefs in the future.
Palmer threatened to bring his considerable wealth to sue anyone trying to stop Folau playing:
“Yeah, well, I think we should just deal with that issue, really. There’s no legal basis at all that Israel Folau can’t play. You know, I’m sure the Rugby Union paid a hefty settlement to Israel for what they did to him, right; and that’s a very regrettable thing, because religious freedom in this country is a fundamental right.
“So I’d just say that I’ve got some resources and if it got down to a legal battle I’m sure that anyone opposing someone on the basis of religious persecution would go down very seriously and pay a lot of damages.”
“For me, it’s nothing extraordinary that someone makes a quote from the Bible.
“It shouldn’t affect someone’s livelihood and how he can support his children.
“My commitment is rock solid. I will pledge every cent, dollar and waking moment of my time to make sure he takes the field again.
The dual-code international athlete was sacked by Rugby Australia for enraging LGBTIQAX+ activists by quoting Scripture about sin, repentance and his hope in Jesus for all people’s salvation. Today, Folau began his statement by thanking God:
“First of all I just, um, I just wanna give thanks to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.”
Media elites, as usual, decided to make the story all about their preferred social agenda instead of simply and objectively reporting the facts.
Channel Seven’s Bianca Stone tweeted sexually explicit, homophobic and misogynistic words she claimed were part of the Southport Tigers’ “team song”, which was then brought up in the press conference, and became the preferred headline around the nation.
Israel Folau was asked about the lyrics “celebrating lesbians”, and answered:
“I’ve just signed with the club. I have no idea about what the song is.”
Clive Palmer berated the journalists for their sensationalism:
“I’ve been a player and been there for 50 years and I haven’t heard it. It sounds like a beat-up and someone’s given you that. I just don’t think it’s true. I can say as a player who played as Tigers. I was in the dressing room last Sunday and they weren’t singing the song then. I think it’s sensationalism.”
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Dave Pellowe is a Christian writer & commentator, founder of The Good Sauce, convener of the annual Australian Church And State Summit and host of Good Sauce's weekly The Church And State Show, also syndicated on ADH TV. Since 2016 Dave has undertaken the mission of arming Christians to influence culture through events from Perth to Auckland, videos, podcasts and articles published in multiple journals across Australia and New Zealand. [more]
