Former Australian rugby star Israel Folau has attracted fury after claiming that deadly bushfires and a devastating drought were a punishment from god for the country’s acceptance of same-sex marriage and abortion.
Folau was dropped from his multi-million dollar rugby contract in May after posting on Instagram that hell awaited drunks, homosexuals, adulterers” and other sinners.
In a sermon posted to Facebook he cited Bible verses, likening Australia’s legalisation of same-sex marriage two years ago and the decriminalisation of abortion in the state of New South Wales last month to the book of Isaiah, which talks about the earth being devoured after laws have been broken and rules changed.
He said the fires, which killed four people, were a “little taste of god’s judgement”.
“Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left,” Folau read from the Bible in a sermon on Sunday at the Truth of Jesus Christ Church, which was set up by his father after cutting ties with the Mormon church.
“Look how rapid these bushfires, these droughts, all these things have come in a short period of time,” Folau said at the end of a week in which out-of-control bushfires destroyed 437 homes across two states.
“Do you think it’s coincidence or no? God is speaking to you guys. Australia - you need to repent,” Folau added.
Bushfires, which are common in Australia, have broken out earlier this year during the southern spring and worse is expected this summer due to a three-year drought that has left forests and grasslands tinder dry.
Folau’s comments attracted widespread anger, with even the nation’s devoutly Christian prime minister Scott Morrison branding them “appallingly insensitive”.
“He is a free citizen, he can say whatever he likes, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have regard to the grievous offence this would have caused to people whose homes have been burnt down,” Morrison told reporters in Adelaide.
Morrison, who attends weekly Pentecostal services, was a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage in the lead-up to its legalisation in Australia before he was prime minister. He has since said he supports the practice as a law of the country.
Folau’s four-year contract with Rugby Australia (RA) and the New South Wales Waratahs was torn up in May after he was found guilty of a “high-level” breach of RA’s code of conduct. In September, he announced he planned to return to rugby league with the Tonga national team.