Folau Folly

Folly according to the dictionary means:

“lack of good sense; foolishness”.

“an act of sheer folly”.

One might argue that the recent catalogue of events, mirrors this definition, when considering the case of an ex-Australian rugby player, who was banned for explitives against gay people, under the disguise of a so-called commitment to Christian values.

We write about it here, because of the apparent lack of tolerance to sexual orientation, but also as it has now entered the funding arena and is a topic of debate – a discipline in which ACROBAT FCSM is well versed, so here’s one opinion.

By way of background, a respected funding platform – in fact crowdfunding site – called GoFundMe, exerted its own censorship, when it barred controversial rugby player Israel Folau from using its platform to raise monies towards his legal fees.

One might argue, as we do on our own crowd funding platform – Crowd Scrum – that the prerequired moderation should have deterred the application before its launch. This rather than an u-turn based on a clamour of protests.

Should an appeal to raise legal funds to back an ‘accused’ be allowed? Of course, there should be some place for anyone to turn to if they seek to secure a groundswell of support over a campaign or matter, in their corner (as long as legal!). The reason given by GoFundMe was it breached its’inclusivity’ code, hence the expelling. We wouldn’t have contemplated for one second any backing of this cause – nor indeed normally any appeal with religious ‘blinkers’ or overt undertones.

However, there appears light at the end of the tunnel for Israel, in that a platform that shares his religious beliefs, has facilitated the new, fundraising appeal and indeed become major donor to give the campaign a ‘kick start’.

The player has sought to raise AU$3 million ($2.08 million; €1.83 million) to appeal against Rugby Australia’s decision to sack him for making homophobic comments on his social media.

GoFundMe had collected AU$760,000 (but refunded these pledges to donors and never remitted therefore to Folau). Now, the Australia Christian Lobby (ACL) has since took three days to collect AU$ 2 million and rising.

What’s your take. As a thought provoker, we recite the quote:

“Religion leaves no room for human complexity”.

Daniel Radcliffe