Dear Steele,

I've just come across the following link which gives
the issues from an interesting angle:

http://www.jpost.com/Blogs/The-Jewish-Problem---From-anti-Judaism-to-anti-Semitism/Jewish-Problem-Sources-the-gospels-You-are-of-your-father-the-devil-375836

Steele, I'm not disputing that some Christians have used the scripture verses as the basis for criminal un-Christian acts. But you can't convict the passages because others wilfully misinterpret them.

"Men who lie with other men" is a bit clumsy, so Folau paraphrased it. But that doesn't get you to hate speech. Christian theology is that everyone is a sinner, and that we are only saved through God's grace. "Saved" means you don't go to hell. So Folau gave a long list of things which many people do, and reminded them that, from his point of view, they were risking their soul if they did not stop doing them and repent.

He didn't advise anyone to get violent with sinners, or to shun them. He wasn't talking to anyone, but sinners, amongst which he numbers himself.

It's no different from a friend telling you that if you don't lose weight you'll get diabetes and a heart condition.

This is a contrived debate where people like you seem to want to take offence and use the offence to push contrary opinions out of the way. Or to misrepresent what the Bible says, and use it to push Christians out of the way.

And you're happy to misrepresent Bible verses at the same time as you accuse your target of doing the same thing, because you don't care about the accuracy of the interpretation, you just care about shutting down contrary opinion.

If Fulau loses the case and his job is finished have a think about the consequences.

For instance I am a member of an organisation that has had many a
controversy in its time. I make a statement about that organisation's
policies and Belly is very upset about my statement and complains to
my employer about what I said.
Now the employer is not a member and may not even know of its existence.
However Belly may be a customer of my employer, perhaps not even to my knowledge.
My employer tells me not to speak about that organisation again.
I tell him I will or I won't, doesn't matter which.
I speak about the subject (What offset repeaters should use) again.
My employer sacks me.

Is that reasonable ? Go on be brave, speak up !

Bazz,

This is about the law regarding contractual
agreements. Folau broke the professional
code of conduct that was in the contract he
signed and one that he agreed to abide by.
The law is clear on this matter.

Dear GrahamY,

You write;

“And you're happy to misrepresent Bible verses at the same time as you accuse your target of doing the same thing, because you don't care about the accuracy of the interpretation, you just care about shutting down contrary opinion.”

Goodness me.

Well old chap you will need to show me where I have 'happily misrepresented Bible verses' in my original post.

I didn't. I posted this quote from Wikipedia "The Gospel of John has provided antisemites with grist for their mill. It is the primary source of the image of "the Jews" acting collectively as the enemy of Jesus, which later became fixed in Christian minds."

And then in a follow up post more than adequately showed prime examples of the truth of that statement.

I am more than happy to state the faith's intelligentsia were wrong in taking them out of context and helping drive 2,000 years of brutal anti-Semitic violence. But it should be understood this wasn't just a few doing this, it was accepted across almost the entire breadth of European Christianity.

All I was asking was if Folau, who might be a smart bloke but certainly wouldn't rate as part of the intelligentsia within the church, was to follow nearly 2,000 years of Church doctrine, teaching and custom and use Biblical verses to vilify Jewish people then would this at least be called hate speech?

And with respect there seems to be no haste in furnishing a reply.

Finally I have continually expressed my reservations about the treatment of Falou and have always felt he deserved his day in court.

But to say something isn't hate speech just because it is Bible based as which is what is being implied is just inane.

In my mind when Falou went out of his way to include homosexuals in his instagram post he crossed the line for me. That might not be your opinion but it is mine.

No Foxy, it may or may not be about contracts.
A contract does not make any difference to unfair dismissal law.