Israel Folau has hit out over the ugly attacks levelled at Magda Szubanski

Folau unexpectedly came to the defence of Szubanski on Sunday as he tweeted for the attacks against her to stop.

“Hey everyone I totally agree with @bairdjulia — please stop the anonymous online attacks on @MagdaSzubanski who has entered this debate very respectfully,” Folau wrote.

“She is entitled to express her views — let’s all have this important discussion with love in our hearts.”

Julia Baird called out the “ugly hate campaign” against Szubanski who has dealt with a constant stream of Twitter trolls since announcing a rival GoFundMe called “For Love”.

Szubanski launched the rival campaign in response to the Folau saga.

Speaking on The Project last Tuesday evening, Szubanski said she hopes to raise $500,000 for charity through the multi-faith initiative.

“Some friends and I had a feeling — I can’t believe I’m up here talking about this stuff again. I would love to leave this subject behind,” Szubanksi said.

“We would like to have a response to Israel Folau that’s not combative. It’s an interfaith group, it’s comprised of Catholics, Muslims, Jews, atheists and LGBTQI people and we’ve started a GoFundMe called “For Love”.

“We hope to raise $500,000, 10 per cent of which will go to Twenty10 which is an organisation I’m the patron of. It works a lot with kids often from diverse backgrounds who are kicked out of home because of, you know, basically because of their sexuality.”

Szubanski said she had reached out to Folau to have a conversation but received no response.

“I’d love to have a conversation with him, I’ve made that offer on Twitter and nothing ever happened, but we have got this GoFundMe campaign happening,” she told the panel.

On Sunday night, Szubanksi herself tweeted out a hope that any attacks directed at Folau and his wife Maria would also stop.

“Thank you Israel Folau I hope the same for you and your wife Maria,” the entertainer tweeted.

Folau had been in church earlier today at The Truth Of Jesus Christ Church in Kenthurst and again delivered a sermon.

The former Rugby star once again repeated his claim for sinners to repent from their evil ways but stopped short of making any comments on homosexuality, after last month preaching about gay and transgender children.

Folau spoke about “spiritual warfare” and called for parishioners to turn to God.

”The key to salvation, it states in Acts 2: 38 it says repent, repent meaning change, turn away from your evil ways,” Folau said.

“God doesn’t matter about how bad your lifestyle is — how evil you might think it is, he doesn’t look at the past if you come to the Lord with an open heart.”

While Folau’s speech to parishioners was fairly mild in comparison to his recent comments his pastor unloaded on those who are against Folau.

Assistant Pastor John Tupou hit out during his sermon and suggested his church is being disrespected.

“We do not fear anyone, we do not fear any man, we only fear our lord Jesus Christ,” he said.

“We respect everyone but we are being disrespected in the media.

“We do not worry about who in the outside world is looking at us.”