Full disclosure: I know absolutely nothing about rugby league. I have noticed, however, that the Manly Sea Eagles Rugby League Club has managed to create a furore over issuing a rainbow jersey to players "without consultation."
It has been forced to let seven (!) players refuse to play ratherthan wear the jersey, because of "religious and cultural" beliefs. Not sure what that will do to the team's game chances, but it doesn't sound good.
It very much raises the question though of whether a person's religious beliefs can and should always be accepted and allowed to stand.
Religion in the past has been used to support apartheid, slavery and violence towards women. We wouldn't allow religions to preach those views today.
The biblical world had no concept of same gender relationships as we understand them today, just as the biblical world saw women as the property of men.
The Manly Sea Eagles rainbow jersey. Photo / Manly Digital
As Christians we follow the way of Jesus who refused to stone a woman accused of adultery, who berated the religious leaders of the day for following the letter and not the spirit of the law. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbour, we hear words of embrace, inclusion and acceptance.
We know that so many LGBTQIA+ people have been deeply damaged by the words of exclusion and hate heaped upon them by churches. Why do secular groups allow this exclusion to seep into their organisations too?
You would not allow a player to refuse to wear a jersey that spoke against slavery or for the rights of girls to play the game. What rugby league players wear, and say and do, has a great influence on young people. Manly were trying to use that influence for good.
Religious groups just like rugby league clubs should be subject to the scrutiny of the law, the media and public expectation. It always astonishes me when people back away from challenging someone's views just because they are religious. Religion shouldn't get a free pass. Religious views can and should be challenged.
Rev Dr Helen Jacobi, the vicar of St Matthew-in-the-City in central Auckland. Photo / File
It certainly looks like Manly needed to run a better internal process but now they have managed to send a message to all their young LGBTQIA+ fans and junior players that keeping their rainbow status hidden might be better. They are sending a message that it is alright to hold homophobic views as long as they are tied up in a religious package with a bow on top. And we all know the psychological damage that will do.
Even in my own Anglican church this week our international leaders got themselves into hot water by trying to claim that the whole of the Anglican Communion was "of one mind" on the definition of marriage being between a man and a woman. They have been forced to adopt a much more inclusive statement saying that different opinions are held.
If the Anglican Communion can get there, I think wearing a rugby league jersey with some rainbow colours is hardly a big ask.
Maybe I'll watch my first rugby league game this week to see how they go.
Rev Dr Helen Jacobi is the Vicar at St Matthew-in-the-City in central Auckland.
