Dear Izzy,
So you’ve been banned from Australian Rugby Union. After two posts on social media declaring the Bible’s message about judgement and salvation – including toward homosexual people – the RA hierarchy has had enough. And understandably so.
The audacity of sharing from the Bible on your personal social media account in your own time crosses the threshold into unacceptably bad behaviour for an elite athlete like yourself.
Look, Izzy, here’s the reality: if only you had behaved like elite athletes who carried out acceptable bad behaviours, you would still have your job. (Sure, you might have received a tap on the wrist, lost some cash, perhaps been suspended for a while, but you wouldn’t have been fired).
What were you thinking, Izzy?
So, in case you still don’t get it, let me get specific about what acceptable bad behaviour looks like for elite athletes. SMH sports writer Darren Kane has put together a nice list, which I’ll share with you now.
If your wife had been heavily pregnant, and you layed your boot into her stomach while she lay on the floor cowering in the foetal position, you would not be banned.
If you had picked up your ex-girlfriend and hurled her into a garage door at 2am following an epic bender, you’d still be on track for your job. If you had only kicked the livin’ daylights out of an unconscious man lying in the gutter, outside a nightclub, you could have avoided this heartache you’re now in.
But no, Izzy. You had to go all the way and do something so much worse than these acceptable misbehaviours: you shared the Bible’s message on your own social media page. Now that is unacceptable.
I mean, it’s not like Rugby Australia could have come out and said “While Israel Folau’s views are not those of Rugby Australia or its affiliates, he has not broken any law and is entitled to his own views as an employee in a free country.”
This article is reprinted from Akos Balogh’s website, www.akosbalogh.com , and is reprinted with his permission.
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