Tuesday, 25 June 2019
It seems we are being told what we can say
(or the case of Israel Folau) and, now, perhaps what we can think as well.
Two interesting things happened yesterday.
The first was that the GoFundMe page set up by Israel Folau to help fund his "unfair dismissal" claim was taken down. GoFundMe refused to allow it.
Now I happen to find Folau's views abhorrent but he was quoting
this:
1 Corinthians 6:9–10;
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
and when someone gets dismissed for quoting the Bible then we do have a problem. It is something which needs to be resolved in a court of law - not for Folau's sake but for society's sake. Members of the legal profession I have spoken to are concerned about the situation.
And yes, GoFundMe has allowed support for legal costs for "egg boy" - the teen who threw an egg at a politician during the election campaign. They have allowed fund raising to build a mosque - the imam of which has preached hatred towards those who practice homosexuality and much worse. There are all sorts of dubious demands being made on GoFundMe but I don't see Folau's as being one of them. It isn't that I support his view. I don't support that passage in Corinthians - but then I don't believe in hell so it would be difficult to do it. Indeed if Folau had left out the words about "homosexuality" it is unlikely that anyone would have said anything. That is the problem. He isn't advocating violence. It might, I suppose, even be argued that he is expressing concern.
The Bible is not a banned book. Quoting from it should not cause you to lose your job. Suggesting that, simply because you are a high profile sports figure, you can't say those things but others can may well be discriminatory. That is something for a court to decide - not an organisation which is afraid of losing sponsorship dollars.
I suspect that all GoFundMe has succeeded in doing is increase support for Folau.
The other interesting thing which happened was that Ravelry - a group around eight million knitters have joined and many more know about - has banned, effectively immediately, posting anything in support of Donald Trump or his administration. I have to confess I wasn't aware that anyone was even doing that - but then I don't spend much time there. I don't "chat" on the groups there. I use the site in other ways. Why would anyone want to mix knitting with politics?
I am grateful I am not living in America under the Trump administration but the blanket ban does bother me. It wasn't handled well. People don't like to be told "you can't do that" when it is legal to do something. It would have been better handled in other ways.
Perhaps what is really bothering me now is that there seem to be more and more moves to try and control not just what we say but, in doing that, control what we think. We are being asked to simply accept that contrary views are wrong and that there is no room for debate.
That is very dangerous indeed.
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3 comments:
My understanding is that what he said was not so much the problem as the fact he broke terms of his contract. He had agreed to those terms when he signed it. Breaching the contract saw it being revoked. It is not discrimination or persecution. I am a Christian and have no sympathy for him.
The question of whether he breached his contract, or whether any contract can in fact impose such conditions, is yet to be considered by a court of law. If Folau loses it will mean that there could be a right to prevent anyone, as a term of their employment, from directly quoting from the accepted words of their religious faith. As Cat says that would set a very dangerous precedent - with Constitutional implications.
Chris (with my legal beanie on)
More than a million has been raised in around 24hours for Folau's defence - part of it being a $100,000 donation from the Australian Christian Lobby. People who cannot really afford to donate are donating. GoFundMe made a tactical blunder here. If they had left the page as it was the donations would not have reached anything like that amount.
But I am with Cat on this. It is an issue which needs to be put in front of our court system. The decision has to be made by people who fully understand the law and are (hopefully) fully independent of pressure from sponsors. Bob C-S
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