A heralded Catholic football player defends traditional moral values at a Catholic college—how novel—and within no time he’s being bashed all over the place. Had he endorsed transgenderism, or Hamas, he would now be praised to high heaven.
The man is Harrison Butker, the phenomenal kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Butker is not in the news for his athletic heroics but because he gave a commencement address at Benedictine College in Kansas on May 11 that espoused traditional Catholic values. He has been criticized by the NFL, slammed on social media and is the subject of a change.org petition (it claims to have 100,000 signatures).
The attack has three targets: Butker, Benedictine College and Catholicism. Make no mistake, the war on Butker is driven by anti-Catholicism.
Butker has been condemned for his remarks about women, abortion, President Biden, Gay Pride Month, gender ideology, and the emasculation of men. Those who signed the petition don’t want to debate his remarks—they want him fired. “We call upon the Kansas City Chiefs management to dismiss Harrison Butker immediately for his inappropriate conduct.”
Spoken like true fascists. Moreover, they are plain dumb: they don’t know the difference between speech and conduct.
Butker spoke positively about moms who elect to work at home taking care of their children.
“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you…Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world. But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.
“I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and a mother. I’m on this stage, and able to be the man I am, because I have a wife who leans into her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
He ended this part of his speech noting how blessed he is to have a wife who embraces “one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.”
For this, Butker has been accused of wanting to put women back in “the kitchen.” Mike Freeman at USA Today was apoplectic, saying, “Her vocation? Really? Did I slip and fall into a time machine and travel back to the 1950s?”
In fact, Butker actually speaks for most moms.
In a Gallup poll released in 2019, 50 percent of women with children under age 18 said they would prefer to stay at home; 45 percent disagreed. To those on the left, this is bad news. The French feminist, Simone de Beauvoir, spoke for many when she said, “Women should not have that choice [of staying at home to raise their children], precisely because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one.” So much for being “pro-choice.”
“Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.” Well said. But to those who like abortion, this is grounds to fire him.
Butker referenced Biden when he took him to task for making the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally. Good for Butker. He was also right to call attention to the “deadly sins” associated with Pride month. His reference to “dangerous gender ideologies” was understated—we are dealing with a child abuse crisis.
To say that we need to fight against “the emasculation of men” is good advice. The feminization of society is not a good omen. For this we can thank the schools, the media and the entertainment industry.
“These are the sorts of things we are told in polite society to not bring up.” Butker nailed it again. His courage and his commitment to Catholicism is laudatory.
Regarding the latter, it is risible to read Toriano Porter’s column in the Kansas City Star ripping Butker’s sincerely held beliefs and then conclude that although he doesn’t “know much about Catholicism,” his stinging remarks are “not an attack on religion—not even close.” The reason he felt obliged to make this defensive quip is precisely because he knows how guilty he is.
The Associated Press (AP) let the cat out of the bag altogether.
It unleashed a string of red flags about Benedictine College being “part of a constellation of conservative Catholic colleges that tout their adherence to church teachings and practice—part of a larger conservative movement in parts of the U.S. Catholic Church.” This comes on the heels of an AP story sounding the alarms about the growth of orthodox Catholicism.
AP’s idea of a good Catholic college is Georgetown—it has two pro-abortion clubs on campus and has a segregated graduation ceremony for transgender students.
Please show your support for Butker by commending the president of Benedictine College, Stephen D. Minnis.
Contact: sminnis@benedictine.edu
