It was Tuesday afternoon when Fr Rod Bower received a message from Magda Szubanski. The comedian and campaigner wanted the Anglican priest from Gosford to join a group she was forming.
“I got a text from her saying, ‘Darl…’ as you do,” Fr Bower tells Mamamia with a laugh. “She’s wonderful. She floated this idea and immediately I said, ‘Yes, let’s do this’.”
Magda Szubanski talks to Mamamia’s Adam Bub at the Sydney rally. Post continues after video.
Szubanski was bringing together a group of Christians, Jews, Muslims and atheists, both gay and straight, under the banner ForLove, as a response to Israel Folau’s GoFundMe campaign. It’s not hard to see why she approached Fr Bower.
Last week, after rugby player Folau launched a tirade against homosexuality and transgender kids, Fr Bower put up a sign out the front of his church, reading, “LGBT friends. Folau is wrong. Don’t listen to him.”
Not long after his tirade, Folau set up a GoFundMe campaign, aimed at raising $3 million for his legal battle against Rugby Australia, who sacked him after a string of homophobic social media posts.
“He’s got his faith, and I believe he ought to be free to express that, which he is, as repugnant as I find it,” Fr Bower says. “But Jesus tells us that if you’re serious about your faith and expression of it, it can be costly. Okay, he wants the right to express it, but he doesn’t like the bit about it being costly? So he wants to have his cake and eat it too.
“Also, Rugby Australia has a very clearly articulated policy of inclusion, especially with regards to the LGBTI community. I think a person of integrity wouldn’t then want to work for an organisation that has such a clearly different set of values.”
Fr Bower has seen firsthand the impact of homophobic comments like Folau’s.
“Imagine a young gay kid, struggling to work all that out, loves his footy, thinks Israel Folau is the greatest thing in the world, and all of a sudden he comes out and says something like that. You can imagine the devastating effect it will have on that person’s mental health.”
As Szubanski explained to Fr Bower on Tuesday, 90 per cent of the money raised by the ForLove campaign on GoFundMe will go to the Children’s Cancer Foundation. The rest will go to Twenty10, a service for young LGBTIQA+ people in NSW.
“If I’ve got to support people’s religious freedom, even if I don’t agree with them, then I absolutely have to support the people who may be damaged by their expression of their freedom,” Fr Bower explains. “And so ten per cent of this money is going to support young LGBT kids who often get thrown out of home when they come out.”
Szubanski contacted a number of other people to ask them to join ForLove. Among them were SBS presenter Patrick Abboud, lawyer Mariam Veiszadeh, and Lyndall Katz, who’s active in social justice issues in the Jewish community.
Katz tells Mamamia she hadn’t wanted to get involved in the whole Folau debate, because it was “too divisive”. But ForLove was different.
“We needed something to bring people together and this seemed like a really good way to do it,” she says.
“It was being able to join in with others who are sort of different from me but the same. We wanted to show that people can connect across divisions and really work for something that we all care about.”
The ForLove GoFundMe campaign drew $150,000 in donations in its first 24 hours.
“It was fun watching the dollars go up,” Katz says.
Listen: The Mamamia Out Loud team discuss Israel Folau. Post continues after audio.
Fr Bower has also been “blown away” by the response to the ForLove campaign. But the priest has faced a massive backlash for sharing his views on the Folau controversy. Since putting up the “Folau is wrong” sign, he’s been bombarded with abusive calls and emails.
“My secretary had to stop answering the phone because she was just getting so sick of the abuse. I had one that I’ve passed on to the police that was threatening to cut my throat.”
However, he felt it was important, as a religious leader, to give an alternative view to Folau’s.
“Honestly, there is nothing in the scriptures that condemns what we now understand as same-sex attracted people,” he says. “Infidelity is condemned. They don’t know what same-sex attraction is. It’s a very complex thing.
“Bad biblical scholarship always leads to human suffering, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing in this case.”
Fr Bower says he would love to sit down and talk to Folau.
“I would like to say, ‘Look mate, I understand you actually believe that you are offering hope and help to LGBTI people, but what I need you to do is listen to their voice and hear how they’re receiving what you’re saying. They’re hearing condemnation and marginalisation and vilification. I just hope you can hear their voice.’”
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Top Comments
But is it OK to deny employment to someone because he/she expresses fundamentalist religious views? That is the real underlying issue. I am supportive of gay rights and for strong community acceptance of all LGBTI issues and though not religious, do have some respect for religious teachings/practices which are inclusive and compassionate.
But do we really have to extract the pound of flesh from someone who does hold fundamentalist religious views and chooses to express those views. Are we really going to become villagers with pitchforks and in our newly found virtue shun the offender and deny him/her their place in the community. How is that inclusive or compassionate; we just shrug off Folau's sacking by some words that Jesus also said that the expression of religious faith can be costly, so bear the cost Folau; no employment as a professional footballer for you, out you go. Christian charity at its best.
If we truly value diversity, then we must accept those with whom we seriously disagree. By all means there should be reasonable good faith discussion (not just lecturing Folau on the errors of his ways) and I struggle to see how this is facilitated by making it clear that he is so beyond the pale he must lose his employment or bear the responsibility of a rash of youthful gay suicide.
I get that corporations need to attract sponsorship and present as good corporate citizens but are we all now to sell ourselves mind and soul to the prevailing community mores or face the sack. Keep in mind that Folau has not committed any illegal act; he has simply expressed a fundamental view of the afterlife.
Wouldn't it be nice to hear a voice from the LGBTI leadership with the generosity and grace to accept Folau despite disagreeing with his views and support his right to employment. It was not so long ago that people hid their homosexuality because of fears of losing employment. That was then when LGBTI issues were frowned up by the community. But this is now when socially conservative views re LGBTI are now frowned upon; do we really want the socially conservative/fundamentalist religious to cease to speak because of similar fears?
What you miss is that he said it on his public verified official rugby profile. He could have said it on his personal closed account, but he said it on his official one. He knew what he was doing when he did this. Most workplaces don't allow politics or religion to discussed in the workplace or on their official social media.
So why are people trying to give him a free pass? If any of us ordinary plebs used our official social media to proselytise about a political party or religion, we'd get the sack. Folau was warned and he said he wouldn't do it again. A year later, he did. Second time - sacked. That's fair enough. It's not like he didn't have enough chances or a warning.
I'm not sure what you mean by his 'public verified official rugby profile'. It is my understanding that he tweeted on his own personal twitter account. Do we have official as distinct from unofficial social media accounts?
We are all able to choose whether or not we our full names are published on our posts or not on most of our social media accounts. It also not uncommon for people to post under false F/B accounts etc. Folau choose not to hide his identity when he tweeted. Saying that he could have said it on his own personal closed account is getting akin to saying freedom of speech exists if you speak loud your views in an empty sealed room.
Do you really want to live in a world where 'us ordinary plebs' are liable for the sack if we express an opinion on a political or religious matter using our own name? Surely we are all entitled to a private identity apart from our employment. I understand that there are instances where our employment necessarily restricts our right to the public expression of our private views. For instance, I don't really want our Diplomats to go around tweeting about Donald Trump, but Folau is a footballer. A very good one but that is all. There is no nexus between religion and football.
It is this which is the crux of the matter; just what are the legitimate acceptable right of our employers to control our use of social media? Folau did not break any law under which he can be charged; he merely expressed an opinion which most people now find unacceptable. It is an opinion on the 'after life' which he sincerely holds. Its now a minority view even amongst the religious in our community but why should he denied employment because of this.
We live in a pluralistic multicultural society where there are a range of views regarding religion and homosexuality. As I see, neither religious freedom or cultural practice can supersede our secular law. But if no law is broken, then if we truly accept that pluralism/multiculturalism, then we must also accept that some of our fellow citizens will publicly express views we disagree with. Rugby belongs to the people, including those who hold minority views re homosexuality.
Let's not be too quick to go on the witch hunt and condemn those we disagree with to perpetual unemployment.
Eliza, it was Instagram, not twitter. And you were misinformed, it was not on his personal account. The hint is that if it was on his personal (locked, private account) account, we would never have known. People have public accounts, and private ones that are usually locked and for family and friends only. He posted it on his public account, not his private one.
Hence, the rest of your post is based on a false premise.
How much hate depends on how you translate and ancient Greek word "arsenokoitai"
How did we get to have our lives run by a 400 year old book ?
...400? Is it Hamlet? Don Quixote? Paradise Lost?
I take it Doug is referring to the many revisions to the Bible that have occured over the centuries
I was wondering about that too. I saw the codex sinaiatica in the British museum and that is dated from Constantine. I was there with someone who can actually read the script and that was quite something.