Hypocritic Hypotheticals

When Will They Ever Learn?

Over the past few weeks we have been regaled with oodles of hypocrisy being dolloped on one rugby team after another.  How can team managements ,be so stupid?

At the top of the pops has been the Israel Folau affair.  It looks like there is a risk that New South Wales Australian rugby is going to integrate into the void.  Team management has almost single handedly cut rugby off at the knees.  So effective has been the self-consumption, one is left musing whether the the supremo of rugby in Australia--(New Zealander!)  Raeleen Castle--has actually been playing out a role as a deep cover agent for NZ Rugby all the while.

Then there has been the delicious irony of Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas--a serious sponsor of rugby in Australia--getting involved in the Israel Folau imbroglio.
  He took offence that one of "his" players would publicly affirm his belief in, and commitment to, the Bible's teaching on eternal life.  Unrepentant homosexual folk, according to Scripture, are excluded from the Kingdom of God--unless they repent thereof.  Joyce, a public homosexual, was not amused.  Apparently he has demanded the big axe to fall upon Folau.

Now, this is the same Alan Joyce who has entered into a strategic partnership with the Emirates airline, which is wholly owned by the United Arab Emirates, based in Dubai.  It has apparently passed by Mr Joyce that the United Arab Emirates is militantly anti-homosexual.  No worries, mate.  Principles and ethics are entirely up for grabs when big moolah is on the table.

Right now, Joyce is looking like a bully.  He can operate blissfully alongside--and subject to, in many ways--the demands of the virulently anti-homosexual United Arab Emirates.  But when it comes to Israel Folau a completely different standard is on display.  It is rumoured that Joyce has been nominated as hypocrite of the decade and bully of the century.

Then there is the matter of the Crusaders rugby team, based in Christchurch.  The name "Crusaders" has connotations and connections with the medieval Crusaders who sought to protect European pilgrims on their way to worship at Jerusalem.  Since a madman killed 50 Islamic worshippers in Christchurch recently, the Crusaders' management thought that it might be a bit insensitive to maintain the name "Crusaders" for their local Super rugby team.

How silly!  There is no stopping this madness once it starts.  Political correctness has a way of so disembowelling cultures and traditions that it makes all of them wafer thin.  Now, rony of ironies, there is a famous rugby team in the UK.  Their name is the Saracens!  The historical term, Saracens, if you can believe it, refers to Islamic armies who went to war against the Crusaders.  Apparently the Saracens are shaking their heads at the collective nonsense now roiling through Australasian sports teams.  But we, for our part, doubtless must take offence at the unwokedness of English rugby.

The nonsense will never stop, once it is allowed to have a foothold.