Truth Is Trouble: The strange case of Israel Folau, or How Free Speech Became So Complicated

by Malcolm Knox

From the marriage equality debate to the COVID-19 lockdown, ‘free speech’ has become the new battleground in Australian society. What does the furore over one footballer’s social media postings reveal about how it got that way?

For a period in 2019, a tweet from rugby player Israel Folau became the biggest story in the nation. His urging of homosexuals to ‘repent’ or face damnation cost him his job and divided the country. Churches and politicians, employers and labour lawyers, sponsors and shock jocks, even people who had never heard of Folau – everyone had an opinion about his right to express his view, and many shouted it from the digital rooftop.

Now that the dust has settled, the real question emerges. When celebrities, and sportspeople in particular, are regularly ‘rehabilitated’ after incidents involving drink, drugs and domestic violence, why was it religious belief that got someone fired?

In this powerful and insightful work, triple Walkley Award-winning journalist Malcolm Knox explores how freedom of expression has become our national faultline. Truth is Trouble explores the rise of the religious right and its political consequences; the ‘right to be a bigot’ versus ‘cancel culture’; the changing nature of our rights at work and the separation between public and private lives; and above all, the incendiary power of social media. And by interrogating his own experience, Knox offers a convincing and heartfelt argument for the virtues of uncertainty and an open mind.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Politics

Audible Audio

Published November 1, 2020

About the author

Malcolm Knox was born in 1966. He grew up in Sydney and studied in Sydney and Scotland, where his one-act play, POLEMARCHUS, was performed in St Andrews and Edinburgh. He has worked for the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD since 1994 and his journalism has been published in Australia, Britain, India and the West Indies.

His first novel Summerland was published to great acclaim in the UK, US, Australia and Europe in 2000. In 2001 Malcolm was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian novelists. He lives in Sydney with his wife Wenona, son Callum and daughter Lilian. His most recent novel, A Private Man, was critically acclaimed and was shortlisted for the Commomwealth Prize and the Tasmanian Premier’s Award.

Reviews

[Peter Geyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Malcolm Knox is best known to me as a sports writer. At the time of writing he has a piece on golf in my local newspaper (the Age), but mostly I read what he writes on cricket. Having said that, he's written a number of novels and published books on what might be called social topics. I've read and appreciated his compact text On Obsession, whichin some senses os a bridge to this work, as there's an element of the personal: hisrory; experience and reflection.

The theme of this book is the football player Israel Folau (both rugbies and, briefly, Australian Rules) and his social media comments about gay people, which resulted in much turmoil, not only in his sport but also regarding freedom of religious expression and associated politics. Folau, handsomely paid was sacked by his sport and legal action followed.

In dancing around this theme, Knox engages in research of all kinds, from various interviews to documentation of all kinds. He reflects on his past, both school and associated rugby in Sydney and wonders how difficult it is for people who are gay to "out" themselves, if you like, amidst social opprobrium, particularly from those who judge his orientation harshly, including those who state that they do so out of "love" presumably because otherwise the destination is Hell.

Part of this research involves Folau himself, apparently a quiet man, and his cultural family and religious background. To this end, Knox also examines evangelical Christianity (for want of a better term) as an aspect of Australian society, quoting from the excellent historian Marilyn Lake, whose book on the Bible in Australia I've had for a while but haven't read.

Interestingly, he attends an Australian Christian Lobby event (where Folau appeared), finding his name tag identifies him as "fake news" which signals another theme which is social media and how it iis that so many people are opposed and angry.

One of the interesting aspects he looks at is whether people that get in trouble with their employer, as Folau did, lose their position for appearance reasons e.g. the departure of sponsors, rather than a commitment to relevant principles. Thiis includes those who make comments on social media (privately) that are either critical of their workplace or unacceptable in another way.

This is a fairly disturbing element of workplace culture, in my view, implyng some kind of ownership of the employee. This isn't a new idea of course, Colin Woodard's book American Character (still reading) provides historical examples and I recall a talk given by one of the senior people at the government department I was working in in the mid-70s in which it was suggested that we were in deck 24/7. One of my colleagues, of a particular personality, immediately asked whether we would be paid accordingly, which left the speaker somewhat flustered. In recent times, Shoshana Zuboff's The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (also here, but unread) identifies the current problem.

Cancel culture gets a run as well, with its pile-ons and extreme demands, interestingly from left and rught and anything in between.

So this is a multifaceted book. Knox writes easily and well, his tone addressing the reader (or at least this one) and inviting some thought about the issues raised, along with the facts and observations unearthed. It might be an advantage if you've lived in Sydney, but I didn't find that a barrier even though I follow the religion of Australian Rules rather than rugby union or rugby league.

[Jack Caspersonn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read. On a very complicated issue. Enjoyed the various opinions discussed. Free speech in a time of social media seems as complex as ever.

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this was going to be a novel so was a bit surprised when it turned out to be a piece of investigative journalism...or maybe a meditation about free speech in the modern world. It really revolves around the strange case of Israel Folau (a high profile footballer) who posted an extract from the Bible on social media and copped a hammering for it...eventually losing his Rugby job in Australia. However, the book ranges much more widely that just the case of Israel Folau and, for me, probably the key chapter was the discussion about what was driving the modern right-wing ...mainly in Australia but perhaps it goes wider than this.
Essentially Israel Folau posted a couple of verses from 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10 which say (in the New King James Version) that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. A whole range of sins are spelled out (like idolaters, and drunkards) but the couple that provoked the outcry were homosexuals and sodomites. It's interesting that the translation in the original King James version at this spot just refers to the "effeminate and abusers of themselves with mankind". At no time does Knox question the authority of the extracts and one could certainly question the authority of the the author, Paul, who never actually met Jesus but effectively, through his writings and teachings to the non-Jews created Christianity as we know it today. Folau added his own touch: "Those of you who are living in sin will end up in Hell unless you repent. God loves you and is giving you time to turn away from your sin". Certainly nothing more than one might have heard from any fire and brimstone preacher at many a church, any Sunday in the 1950's. (And is "going to Hell" exactly the same as "not inheriting the kingdom of God"?)

Actually all Hell actually broke loose on Folau, not on those living in sin...as he'd vilified gays (and by extension lesbians and trans gender). Eventually, when he wouldn't retract he was sacked by Rugby Australia. Though that wasn't the end of the drama because he sued for wrongful dismissal and the case was eventually settled out of court ...apparently with the payout placing severe strains on Rugby Australia.

The debate swirling around the issue (about April 2019) seems to distill down to the right of a religious person (such as Folau) to publicise their beliefs when the beliefs have the impact of "hate-speech" on certain people. ........Apparently the idolators and the drunkards didn't feel too vilified.

And, as Knox starts to burrow into the case, he found that Folau's church is really a splinter group formed by his father Eni...(Which has broken away from the Mormon Church). And their mode of operation was: "They didn’t discuss social issues. Just Bible studies. The preaching of the church is the same every week: a correct form of baptism, the one God, repentance, attacking homosexuals, attacking fornication and going to nightclubs and drinking. I’ve never heard them say, “We’re going out on Wednesday night to run a soup kitchen.” So I found that quite fascinating. And regarding doctrine; "He, [Eni] pointed to his Bible and said, “I’ve read it from cover to cover three times.” I asked Eni what goes on with Bible college. He said, “It’s a waste of time, you just need God’s word from my church.”.....So we've got a fairly selective interpretation of the Bible...apparently unenlightened by biblical exegesis or hermeneutics.....and apparently just the Revised King James Version of the Bible ...(After all, if it was good enough for the Apostle Paul then it's good enough for....). Though, this is all rather beside the point. This issue is that these people sincerely believe that homosexuals are going to hell and believe that they need to do everything they can to prevent it.

However, the gays on the receiving end of this "tough love" and all their fellow travellers see this as homophobic, and dangerous vilification which has a real psychological (and maybe physical, in terms of violence towards gays) impact.

Knox explores his own experience of hate speech and sectarianism: "On the sporting field, the transformation had also been sudden and complete. When I joined the Sydney University Football Club, Catholics and Protestants bound arms around each other like brothers. Many of my teammates were from the same schools that I had been brought up to avoid as if they were carrying some transmissible disease". Knox also attended Knox Grammar which has been shown to have featured a number of pedophile teachers who's activities were either covered up or not exposed by the management.....notably Dr Paterson". Though Knox himself seems to be only partially aware of the activities happening "under the chapel". I went to a government school (not a private Protestant school like Knox..at Knox) and though there were mild antipathies there, I don't recall anything like the conflict that Knox experienced.
Knox explores a few other cases of politically incorrect speech: the case of Dr Jereth Kok...anti abortionist, anti gay marriage...and anti a lot of things. (He got himself de-registerd). The case of Scott McIntyre, a journalist who posted some anti Anzac day tweets.....and this cost him his job. The case of Roz Ward the promoter of the safe schools program who made some comments about the racist Australian Flag on Facebook and was suspended. And the case of Angela Williamson who twittered about the lack of abortion services in Tasmania....and lost her job with Cricket Australia.

Knox then explores the debates over same sex marriage in Australia. Some 60 percent of Australians voted for it and it was passed into legislation but around 40 percent were opposed to it. (Interesting that they felt so threatened). The Archbishop of Hobart released a booklet (in 2015) opposing same sex marriage. It was opposed by a Greens candidate...Martine Delaney who said that "the booklet presented dogma-- Catholic doctrine--as fact..and ...used questionable, cherry picked research to lend an unwarranted sense of factual authenticity." Though the complain against him was withdrawn, Porteous (The Archbishop) became a proxy martyr to the religious right...which now included the increasingly well-organised "Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) " group. To placate the religious right various moves have been made to review how anti discrimination laws deal with religious exceptions. Four public enquiries within two years. Knox says he has read thousands of the submissions. Much was made of hypothetical scenarios ,,,,but s paucity of actual cases. The NSW Council of Churches and the ACL essentially "opposed any law that purported to define a religious belief, because that would leave the work of definition to a judge in a secular court, whereas ‘beliefs are personal, nuanced and ultimately subjective. Therefore, a religious belief should be determined by the sincerity of the individual’s conviction.’" Healthcare organisations featured in opposing a new religious freedom law. Social workers were concerned that "Current anti-discrimination laws require that judges consider the experience of the complainant, not the intent of the person charged under a complaint. Someone like Israel Folau, as the law now stands, would not be protected by his defence that his condemnation of homosexuality came ‘from a place of love’".
Knox says that "When I looked closely at those wanting to influence the religious freedom bill, both for and against, whatever their differences in relation to religion and free speech, the sense of grievance and endangerment was common". Why? They have the platform of social media...So Why are so many dissatisfied when they are give their say? Is it about being misheard?
Knox describes a satirical piece he wrote in his cricket column...but you had to read to the end to get the punch line. Most readers did not and did not understand it as satire. So Knox was trolled unmercifully for racism. He didn't try and undo it...as he says: "if satire doesn’t work the first time, you can be pretty sure it won’t work with an explanatory footnote". I recall reading something from the Philosopher Karl Popper where he says: "it is impossible to write in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood". And being married to a Japanese, I'm well aware that satire or irony is not only lost in the conversation but regularly back-fires. I guess, Knox has had a useful "learning experience."

When Folau posted a couple of twitter messages on 10 April 2019, followed by his retweet of the message from 1 Corinthians, it was picked up by a journalist and published in the Sydney Morning Herald. "The first casualty of this war was nuance. As Meghan Daum writes, ‘any admission to complexity [is] a threat to the cause’. She observes that the university students she teaches flee on every contentious issue to the safety of the ‘woke narrative’, and asks, ‘Why couldn’t they see that it was possible to be more than one thing at the same time?" For Knox, "the significant fact was not what people were saying but the numbers of people who were motivated to speak on this issue ...also of note was their instant entrenchment in opposing camps."
Tracey Holmes, a sports writer tried to steer a middle road through the fracas with a piece for the ABC. ‘Sport is to be commended for striving to uphold the best values of a modern society,’ Holmes wrote, ‘but what happens when those values clash–the human right of sexual orientation versus the human right to freedom of religion?’ Inevitably she became caught up in some interesting social media exchanges with people who felt strongly about the issues raised by Folau's posting. And Knox observes that "what was plain to see was that the social media environment makes it impossible for antagonists NOT to mis-hear each other." He also quotes Salman Rushdie: "The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible."

Knox observes that Folau's words need to be confronted: they do cause actual harm. It was another satirist, Voltaire, who asked, ‘What to say to a man who tells you he prefers to obey God than to obey men, and who is consequently sure of entering the gates of Heaven by slitting your throat?’ And not long ago, Islamic state were slitting throats in Syria using the same logic.
Knox muses about what glues the many disparate positions of the religious right together. He suggests that what unifies them is a shared "contrarianism" ...an "up-yours" to political correctness and runs with Mark Latham as the archetype of this "Up-yours" approach.Yet there are weird lines of conformity....all that up-yours and yet so much herd behaviour. With Corona virus.....complaints about erosion of liberties and overkill with restrictions. (Though they seemed to actually work in Australia). It was the right calling on people to eschew masks and ignore contact tracing Apps. And then an abrupt U turn as they criticised the Victorian Premier for not being tough enough on hotel quarantine. The protests on the right were protests against everything.
And yet, on the other side the progressives find themselves pursuing their fight with quasi-religious intolerance and the champions of the marginalised are a footballer with a multi million dollar income and Alan Jones from his eyrie above Sydney harbour. (The reverse of what one might expect). Though Knox has no real solutions: His " instinctive response to hearing so much certainty is to recoil from it and, as a writer, stage guerrilla actions through satire, indirection, fiction, nuance, and any other tools that come to the hand of the deeply undecided". Well, at least, I guess, that is some sort of a plan.
There is some suggestion that the reaction from the religious right is a flailing-around to resist irrelevance as the importance of religion continues to decline in Australia ...and not at all helped by the revelations of the failings of the church in regard to pedophile priests....and teachers.
Knox has put together a nice think-piece on the issues of free speech. But he's been less successful in coming up with a solution. It's really interesting...making me think..and I don't have any great solutions either. I give it four stars.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The radical conservative right is not epopled by angry old Tories insecure about the loss of their priveleges, though it may be supported by them. The modern right is driven by an outsider’s energy. It springs from a genuine feeling of victimhood, but this is turned not against the real insiders, those Lewis H. Lapham calls ‘the equestrian class’, who have shut them out. Instead they turn their anger against their fellow outsiders, whom they have mistaken for a power elite. If our culture wars were taking place in a schoolyard, what we would be seeing is a variety of bullied groups who, instead of rising up against the real bullies, go after each other. Meanwhile, among the actual bully class, which still controls the levers of power, something completely different is going on, a trend towards social liberalism that the new right, the Martyn Iles right, cannot but see as betrayal." (p36)

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very intelligent and unbiased analysis of the Israel Folau case. Presents both sides of the case fairly and in great detail. Doesn't provide any great or simple answers (there probably aren't any) but discusses all the relevant issues and highlights the hypocrisies of many of the protagonists.

[Nick Wasiliev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malcolm Knox is a very accomplished journalist and writer, but even despite that I went into this book with considerable unease. Working in the sports journalism space myself, (especially the rugby space), I had some experience on the damage the Israel Folau saga had caused to Australian rugby, no matter what your perspectives on this situation were.

Upon finishing it, what was most impressive about this short but informative book is the neutrality Knox brings; while he may have many personal bones to pick in this book, he is a journalist first and does a good job of examining both sides of this argument. Additionally, he also highlights the danger associated with picking sides in the first place and how, outside of it's context, how such discourse is now becoming increasingly common.

What is most telling though is that despite it being over 250 pages longer, it still feels like Knox has only scratched the surface of the complexity of the debate. In this instance it's probably for the best, as to try and analyse every nook and cranny of the debate might turn into a futile exercise in itself. Knox keeps the debate informative, but also not too intense that casual readers might get lost in the moral complexity.

This more relaxed style can knee-cap the book on several occasions however, as Knox does expand the topic outside of the Folau-Rugby Australia debate in the second half of the book to a broader discussion around free speech, especially in the context of religion. Tackling such a difficult topic like this is natural though given it's complexity, and Knox framing his own experiences and run-ins around the free speech debate also is an interesting part of the book, even if it can feel occasionally like it is drifting away from the titular event that set this discourse off.

This was a brave and challenging topic to take on, and despite the small complaints, Knox has done a great job walking the tight rope on a very controversial and dicey topic. Even if you aren't familiar with the Israel Folau story, (or more so, if you are and have strictly taken a particular side), I encourage you to read this book. While it may not make you change your mind on some subjects, in truth that's really not the point. What it excels at is making you understand the actions of all involved, and understanding is something that definitely needs to be highlighted in the age of free speech becoming so complicated.

BUY (Booktopia): https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/qrdjN
BUY (Angus & Robertson): https://angusrobertson.4tqiav.net/GjjqmL

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Knox takes the reader through the social media scandal that dominated Australian news for a time in 2019. One that exemplified the complicated nature of free speech in the era of social media. Knox shows all aspects of the controversy and, while paying due attention to the religious angles of the story, he also shines a light into the implications cases like these have on worker’s rights. He is crystal clear about the irony of a millionaire sport’s figure being treated as a martyr but speaks nonetheless about the unease of seeing corporations being allowed to monitor the social media presence of its workers. The book does not seek to give answers but to show a light into a conversation that the author believes should be had.

[OutSideTheBoxox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malcolm Knox manages to potent a balanced analysis of the current culture war in Australia. He uses the case Israel Folau to examine the way there has been a mental shift for many Christians. He points out and examines the way social media outrage is used to affect change that otherwise might not have occurred. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the Israel Folau case and anyone who wants to look a little closer at the idea that socail media can be used to push peoples political agendas. 4 out of 5 for me.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Malcolm’s review of the complex issues surrounding free speech. A great piece of critical thinking that I would love my kids to read. In a world full of shouting, Malcolm has brought careful consideration to the debate.

[Erin Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I missed a lot of the Israel Folau stuff, but I knew if I wanted to catch up Malcolm Knox was the way to do it. A fascinating look at the footballer's mess and the much (MUCH) larger messes surrounding it all.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is undeniably well written, but it appears more to be a reconciliation of the author’s own views on Australia’s version of the culture wars as opposed to a nuanced exploration of both sides to the issue.

[Malcolm France · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reports of the death of free speech are invariably exaggerated and mask other agendas. This book is an easily readable reflection that goes beyond just the Folau case.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant - very thought (many thoughts actually) provoking