GoFundMe Go Away

Wow! The Israel Falou issue just won’t go away, despite GoFundMe trying to make it go away. Their decision to axe Falou’s funding campaign for his legal campaign is an interesting one. GFundMe claimed, on Monday, that Falou’s campaign “violated the company’s terms of service”. GoFundMe Australia’s manager, Nicola Britton, said “we do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination and exclusion”. Interestingly the company that says it does not tolerate discrimination and exclusion has decided to exclude and discriminate against Falou.

Their hypocrisy is further illustrated by the fact that they continue to host on their website fundraising campaigns for the building of Mosques by people with strong religious views. Furthermore, the claim that GoFundMe was justified in removing the campaign because of Falou’s valuable real estate holdings is negated by the fact that they continue to host a fund-raising campaign by an already wealthy Australian Senator for her personal legal campaign.

There is certainly no consistency here. No, the only explanation that I can come up with is that GoFundMe have bowed to the pressure of the gay lobby who are fanning this flame of political correctness for all they’re worth. This is evident in the statement released yesterday by GoFundMe Australia’s manager, Nicola Britton; “We are absolutely committed to the fight for equality for LGBTIQ+ people and fostering an environment of inclusivity.” But where is the inclusivity for Falou and his religious views?

On a breakfast news program this morning, the presenter commentated that GoFundMe was surely justified in removing Falou’s campaign because he was guilty of “name-calling”.

Really??? What names has he called anyone? The only “name” he has called homosexuals is … well … homosexual! If the presenter is referring to Falou’s reference to homosexuals going to hell, there are two things to point out:

1. That’s not name calling! That’s Falou expressing his deep concern that a particular lifestyle choice is going to eternally impact people. Rather than name calling, Falou was urging homosexuals to repent and be saved.

2. Assuming that the vast majority of practicing homosexuals don’t even believe in hell (which has been stated by representatives the LGBTQI community on several occasions), how can they be offended by Falou referring to what they consider to be a non-existent place?

The main argument raised on social media by those who believe  that Falou should not have launched a GoFundMe campaign, is that Falou is already very wealthy and does need to ask for more moey. One person posted this on my facebook page this week: “Israel Folau is a millionaire. Why does he need to extract funds from anyone else? If he believes in this campaign, he should pay for it himself.”

Yes, Israel Falou is not poor. My understanding is that he has a couple of valuable properties, which he worked very hard for in his career. It is not a crime to be well-off. Why should he be punished by having to sell his properties and lose the money he rightfully earned? That would be compounding his unfair punishment. It would mean that he has not only lost all future income from his rugby career, but is also having to throw away a fair portion of his past earnings as well. If his case goes all the way to the supreme court, he could lose everything he ever earned from his rugby career. And that is not fair.

Australian Christian Lobby’s decision to now host Falou’s fund-raising campaign is a good one. Those who believe that Falou has been victimised because of his sincerely held religious views are now free to support his cause without big brother pulling the rug out from under their feet again.