The April Instagram Post from Israel Folau read
Warning:
Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists and Idolaters
Hell Awaits You
Repent
Only Jesus Saves
Now, in reality, most of us would not have seen this nor heard this, save for the furore that has ensued. This was championed by those defending it as simple quitting a Bible verse. When asked for chapter and verse, there was an embarrassed shuffle, followed by that is the meaning of scripture overall and it is Biblical.
If we begin the the Ten Commandments, the 7th is you shall not commit adultery, the 9th is you shall not bear false witness against your neighbour, the 8th is you shall not steal, the 2nd begins you shall not make for yourself any graven image. So ostensibly four of the eight issues are directly addressed here.
Atheism is described as Foolishness in Psalms 14 and 53. Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ And it is certainly clear that the 1st Commandment I am the Lord thy God: Thou shalt have none other gods but me suggests that theism is implicit, it is also important to recognise that the existence of God was not argued in Scripture so much as being the basic foundation of the library that begins In the beginning God.
Fornication is clearly something to be avoided and the first council of the Church in Jerusalem was clear that we should abstain from fornication and the Epistles have several admonitions to avoid fornication. Fornication is different to adultery in that adultery implies a breaching of the marital fidelity, whereas fornication is essentially sex without commitment. To some extent it is picked up slightly more severely in the 10th commandment which admonishes us not to covet ours neighbors wife or maid.
Galatians describes drunkenness as one of the works of the flesh Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. Drunkenness is distinguished from any consumption of alcohol were clearly wine featured at the first miracle in Cana of Galilee, and at the last supper, and Paul’s famous admonition to Timothy that he should take a little wine for your stomach’s sake.
There is no doubt that the second of Folau’s list is the one that got him in a whole of of trouble. In 1835 the last execution for homosexuality happened in England. In the last 50 years we have seen decriminalisation of same sex relationships, and a significant shift in social attitudes, till in 2017 we saw the passing to law the changes required to allow single gender marriages to be legal in Australia.
There are four passages which people invoke in the negative on this subject. The first is the holiness code in Leviticus 18-20. This passage seems clear on simple reading, however increasingly scholars are asking questions about purpose and intention. The Sodom and Gomorrah story has been argued by many, however a better reading of this story leads one to conclude that the true nature of the sin was a failure in hospitality. Romans 1:26-27 seems emphatic, however many scholars now raise many questions about this passage. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 refers in Greek to arsenokoitai which has been rendered in a number of ways, and argued by some to refer to homosexuality, however it is a difficult reading and it more probably means soft and gentle. For all the comment that passes on the subject, there is indeed the possibility that the cultural tradition in which we live has informed us more that Holy Writ.
This is a subject on which the Gospels are silent.
These all of course are inherently apodictic in character (thou shalt not). There is another thread, especially evident in the New Testament which takes a more positive stance. Jesus himself expressed the view that the ten commandments are contained within two, namely:
You shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself
Matthew 22:35, Mark 12:28
Although at one level people are happy to be told what not to do, in that then we have boundaries and know where we are, the more positive nature of these commandments leaves us with more work to do in determining what the loving thing to do is in a given situation. Yet we are also inherently complex in that we do not like being told what we cannot do, and want to push against it. In truth some of this story is just about that, for Israel Folau was very much aware of the limitations expected by Rugby Australia in terms of his social media posting, and he has indeed pushed back and posted.
The old catchcry used to be, ‘hate the sin, love the sinner’, and whilst that seems to have less traction than it once did, it does seem to be part of what is at stake in all these discussions. Indeed I feel that is part of the issue with the post. The woman who is caught in the very act of adultery (apparently the man got away!) finds in Jesus someone who says ‘neither do I condemn you’. She is not called an adulterer but rather her personhood is recognised. Jesus does not endorse the adultery, but neither does he condemn the person.
This of course is a fundamental flaw in the argument that he was simply practicing his religion, because essentially the post is not Christian. This is not the way that Jesus approached people.
The writer of the first letter to Timothy expressed it well when he said:
The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.
1 Timothy 1:15
Philip Barrington 