By Nick Powell
Ten years ago, as the 2010 Six Nations loomed, Euan Murray made an announcement which led to debate across the Rugby World.
Fans of Northampton Saints and Scotland were disappointed and the decision caused controversy amongst them, but no-one was offended by what Murray decided to do.
Murray had decided that because of his religious beliefs, he didn't want to play or watch rugby on the Sabbath. It resulted in him missing dozens of games he could have gone onto play for club and country. It was a commitment to faith in its purest form: sacrifice.
In the very first international game he missed because of his new commitment. Murray, a prop, had to sit in the team meeting the following week, watching Scotland's scrum get mangled by a brutal French pack. They were convincingly beaten.
The only time you ever heard about Murray's religion was an explanation for his absence on the odd pre-match preview and interviews with Christian advocacy groups about why his religion was important to him. That's it.
No reciting quotes from the bible, no kissing the ground then doing the holy cross on his chest and pointing to the sky as he ran onto the field, no pre-match prayers and no interviews where he thanked God for making him a great at scrums.
Murray wouldn't score a professional try after his religious conversion, presumably he must've had some religious based celebration up his sleeve. Didn't he?
I was under the impression that if you played sport and was a person of faith you simply had to show the entire world that was the case all the time?
So many sports starts feel that this is essential. Sure, thanking God in an interview when you've reached your career summit is fair enough but praying to Mecca when you've just tapped in a consolation at 3-0 down? Doing the holy cross when you're coming on for 30 seconds in a substitution made purely so that the manager can kill time?
None of these are real-life examples of course, but you see it's like time and time again. Do I think it's a strange way of showing you love your God? Yes and I'm pretty cynical about it, but no-one has any reason to be offended. If anything it serves to increase the level of passion in sport, which is great.
What is so important about the Murray example though, is that clearly he is a devout Christian, but he never utilised that to espouse any kind of opinion he may have had, never felt the need to draw any kind of link between him achieving his dreams and believing in God, but the courage of his convictions meant that he had to sacrifice playing on Sundays, which had consequences for his career and the teams he played in.
Perhaps most importantly, religion made Euan Murray become a better person.
Contrast that with Israel Folau, who can only be described (if you remove an array of four-letter options) as an extremist.
Before I get stuck into the amount of damage he's causing to certain sections of society, let's make it clear, he's not after a minority, he's after everyone reading this article.
If you've ever been drunk, if you've ever lied, if you've ever doubted the existence of God and if you've ever had sex outside marriage (x2), then you're in the same boat as those wretched homosexuals.
He is becoming increasingly extreme in his beliefs, almost every social media post now is a bible quote or credit to the Lord for his achievements. He's criticised the celebration of Easter, Christmas, and other Christian celebrations, in a form puritanism akin to Oliver Cromwell or the Taliban.
He's drawn criticism from New Zealand's Prime Minister, and Japan legend Michael Leitch, and perhaps best of all Joe Marler has sent him a series of pictures and gifs of men getting off with each other.
Gareth Thomas didn't take his typical angry approach, saying he felt "sympahty" for Folau and I can in part get on board with that. Imagine being so cult-like in the depth of your faith that you can't have the joy of Christian holidays, you have a hatred for almost everyone among other things.
But that sympathy ends when you realise the effect this hypocrite is having on so many people. The word hypocrite being appropriate as Folau has repeatedly violated the values of the kind of fundamentalist Christianity he claims drives these sentiments.
He's got tattoos, which (if you are devout) is forbidden, and sometimes earns his living on Sundays, also forbidden. While Murray showed that he was willing to make an enormous sacrifice for his God, Folau shows nothing of the sort, apart from ruining the day of anyone who's unlucky enough to be invited to the Folau family Christmas.
It's the definition of having your cake and eating it, and is the polar opposite of the example of Murray or others like Eric Lidell, Amir Khan or Sandy Koufax who all made quiet but enormous sacrifices that meant they couldn't compete in some of the biggest events of their careers because of their commitments to their respective religions.
If Folau wants to continue to spew such a large amount of hate from his mouth so consistently he needs to step down from International Duty.
There will be boys in Australia who look up to Israel Folau. There will be a large majority whose parents will tell him that what he is saying is wrong, but those that are neutral or reinforce the comments will cause them to grow up not necessarily as Christians, but could be the first step to making them homophobic.
The odd homophobe who plays the game here and there is not an issue, but what about the Aussie teenager who already hears homophobic slurs on a daily basis at School, happens to like playing rugby and is having doubts about their sexuality.
Rather than that doubt being something to reflect on with clarity, seeing a post with that language, from one of your heroes (because Folau is an outstanding talent who is vital to the team), can cause that doubt to be something that carries with it great fear.
So what happens then? Will they turn away from rugby (the last thing Australian's Men's Rugby needs is to be losing potential talent) or skip through the school halls singing "I am what I am" wearing a pink tutu? I doubt either very much.
What is more likely is that is they will continue to play rugby, and for a given length of time they will retreat to a region of the closet as deep as Narnia, as they fight an unwinnable war with the truth.
It is not only great news, but incredibly important that Folau faces the sack. As this article has demonstrated there is nothing honourable about him. What the sacking will do is show people that his aforementioned attitude to the world, let alone the people who live in it, has no place in the 21st Century.
I have great admiration for many people of faith. I never quite understood the extent of Murray's commitment, along with many fans of the game, but no-one needed to, he went about it quietly and it had no effect on anyone, apart from a few temporarily frustrated Scots.
If Folau wanted to give even the slightest suggestion he had a modicum of justification for what he says, he would display his commitment through sacrifice, but all he feels he needs to do is point to the sky when he scores a try and hurt people. Repeatedly.
Thank God he's getting the sack.
Ten years ago, as the 2010 Six Nations loomed, Euan Murray made an announcement which led to debate across the Rugby World.
Fans of Northampton Saints and Scotland were disappointed and the decision caused controversy amongst them, but no-one was offended by what Murray decided to do.
Murray had decided that because of his religious beliefs, he didn't want to play or watch rugby on the Sabbath. It resulted in him missing dozens of games he could have gone onto play for club and country. It was a commitment to faith in its purest form: sacrifice.
Murray played 66 times for Scotland and missed out on more caps due to his decision
In the very first international game he missed because of his new commitment. Murray, a prop, had to sit in the team meeting the following week, watching Scotland's scrum get mangled by a brutal French pack. They were convincingly beaten.
"It was difficult to watch...disappointing for the boys, we do have a good scrum and good players, I thought we'd do better."Murray never hid away from the fact that he didn't like the fact that rugby had to be played on Sunday. He didn't hide from the fact he hated missing games.
"Of course it's difficult. But I'm a Christian and Sunday's the Lord's day."Murray's sacrifice came in the second half of his career. Believing that the "drunkenness, sex, parties and money" that had dominated his life in the first half was misguided, he turned to God.
The only time you ever heard about Murray's religion was an explanation for his absence on the odd pre-match preview and interviews with Christian advocacy groups about why his religion was important to him. That's it.
No reciting quotes from the bible, no kissing the ground then doing the holy cross on his chest and pointing to the sky as he ran onto the field, no pre-match prayers and no interviews where he thanked God for making him a great at scrums.
Murray wouldn't score a professional try after his religious conversion, presumably he must've had some religious based celebration up his sleeve. Didn't he?
I was under the impression that if you played sport and was a person of faith you simply had to show the entire world that was the case all the time?
So many sports starts feel that this is essential. Sure, thanking God in an interview when you've reached your career summit is fair enough but praying to Mecca when you've just tapped in a consolation at 3-0 down? Doing the holy cross when you're coming on for 30 seconds in a substitution made purely so that the manager can kill time?
Back when Kaka was World Player of the Year. Judging by the way his career went south after this day, Jesus didn't answer his prayers.
None of these are real-life examples of course, but you see it's like time and time again. Do I think it's a strange way of showing you love your God? Yes and I'm pretty cynical about it, but no-one has any reason to be offended. If anything it serves to increase the level of passion in sport, which is great.
What is so important about the Murray example though, is that clearly he is a devout Christian, but he never utilised that to espouse any kind of opinion he may have had, never felt the need to draw any kind of link between him achieving his dreams and believing in God, but the courage of his convictions meant that he had to sacrifice playing on Sundays, which had consequences for his career and the teams he played in.
Perhaps most importantly, religion made Euan Murray become a better person.
Contrast that with Israel Folau, who can only be described (if you remove an array of four-letter options) as an extremist.
Before I get stuck into the amount of damage he's causing to certain sections of society, let's make it clear, he's not after a minority, he's after everyone reading this article.
If you've ever been drunk, if you've ever lied, if you've ever doubted the existence of God and if you've ever had sex outside marriage (x2), then you're in the same boat as those wretched homosexuals.
He is becoming increasingly extreme in his beliefs, almost every social media post now is a bible quote or credit to the Lord for his achievements. He's criticised the celebration of Easter, Christmas, and other Christian celebrations, in a form puritanism akin to Oliver Cromwell or the Taliban.
He's drawn criticism from New Zealand's Prime Minister, and Japan legend Michael Leitch, and perhaps best of all Joe Marler has sent him a series of pictures and gifs of men getting off with each other.
New Zealand PM Jacinda Adern (centre), was among those critical of Folau
Gareth Thomas didn't take his typical angry approach, saying he felt "sympahty" for Folau and I can in part get on board with that. Imagine being so cult-like in the depth of your faith that you can't have the joy of Christian holidays, you have a hatred for almost everyone among other things.
But that sympathy ends when you realise the effect this hypocrite is having on so many people. The word hypocrite being appropriate as Folau has repeatedly violated the values of the kind of fundamentalist Christianity he claims drives these sentiments.
He's got tattoos, which (if you are devout) is forbidden, and sometimes earns his living on Sundays, also forbidden. While Murray showed that he was willing to make an enormous sacrifice for his God, Folau shows nothing of the sort, apart from ruining the day of anyone who's unlucky enough to be invited to the Folau family Christmas.
It's the definition of having your cake and eating it, and is the polar opposite of the example of Murray or others like Eric Lidell, Amir Khan or Sandy Koufax who all made quiet but enormous sacrifices that meant they couldn't compete in some of the biggest events of their careers because of their commitments to their respective religions.
Amir Khan missed out on what would've been the Richest fight of his career against Floyd Mayweather because of Ramadan
If Folau wants to continue to spew such a large amount of hate from his mouth so consistently he needs to step down from International Duty.
There will be boys in Australia who look up to Israel Folau. There will be a large majority whose parents will tell him that what he is saying is wrong, but those that are neutral or reinforce the comments will cause them to grow up not necessarily as Christians, but could be the first step to making them homophobic.
The odd homophobe who plays the game here and there is not an issue, but what about the Aussie teenager who already hears homophobic slurs on a daily basis at School, happens to like playing rugby and is having doubts about their sexuality.
Rather than that doubt being something to reflect on with clarity, seeing a post with that language, from one of your heroes (because Folau is an outstanding talent who is vital to the team), can cause that doubt to be something that carries with it great fear.
So what happens then? Will they turn away from rugby (the last thing Australian's Men's Rugby needs is to be losing potential talent) or skip through the school halls singing "I am what I am" wearing a pink tutu? I doubt either very much.
What is more likely is that is they will continue to play rugby, and for a given length of time they will retreat to a region of the closet as deep as Narnia, as they fight an unwinnable war with the truth.
It is not only great news, but incredibly important that Folau faces the sack. As this article has demonstrated there is nothing honourable about him. What the sacking will do is show people that his aforementioned attitude to the world, let alone the people who live in it, has no place in the 21st Century.
Folau's options are narrowing, with the ARL and NRL both removing the possibility of switching to Aussie Rules or Rugby League.
I have great admiration for many people of faith. I never quite understood the extent of Murray's commitment, along with many fans of the game, but no-one needed to, he went about it quietly and it had no effect on anyone, apart from a few temporarily frustrated Scots.
If Folau wanted to give even the slightest suggestion he had a modicum of justification for what he says, he would display his commitment through sacrifice, but all he feels he needs to do is point to the sky when he scores a try and hurt people. Repeatedly.
Thank God he's getting the sack.
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