Harrison Butker, a place-kicker on the NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs, delivered a commencement speech at Benedictine College, a small Roman Catholic college in Atchison, Kansas, in which he praised his wife for being a homemaker.
Butker, a devout Roman Catholic, defended traditional values, including created sex roles, and effusively praised his wife for being a mother and a homemaker.
“For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? 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 as a mother. I'm on the stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation. I'm beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.
[Applause lasting 18 seconds]
She is a primary educator to our children. She is the one who ensures I never let football or my business become a distraction from that of a husband and father. She is the person that knows me best at my core, and it is through our marriage that, Lord willing, we will both attain salvation.
I say all of this to you because I have seen it firsthand how much happier someone can be when they disregard the outside noise and move closer and closer to God's will in their life. Isabelle's dream of having a career might not have come true, but if you asked her today if she has any regrets on her decision, she would laugh out loud, without hesitation, and say, “Heck, No.”
This was not the only thing in the speech that Leftists would find objectionable. Butker also criticized Joe Biden for being a pro-abortion Catholic:
Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the Sign of the Cross during a pro- abortion rally. He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I'm sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice.
And he also criticized the weak bishops who shut down their churches during Covid:
As we saw during the pandemic, too many bishops were not leaders at all. They were motivated by fear, fear of being sued, fear of being removed, fear of being disliked. . . . Because of this, countless people died alone, without access to the sacraments, and it's a tragedy we must never forget. As Catholics, we . . . cannot buy into the lie that the things we experienced during COVID were appropriate.
But most of the criticism of Butker’s address was for his strong defense of motherhood and traditional sex roles. Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s commissar, the mandatory political officer who enforces conformity to party-line Marxism within the organization (otherwise known as the “Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer”) issued this statement:
“Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity. His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”
Change.org, a far Left organization, has produced a petition, signed by more than 180,000 people, demanding that the Chiefs cut Harrison Butker from the team.
But Gracie Hunt, daughter of Chief’s owner Clark Hunt (and granddaughter of Lamar Hunt who founded both the AFL and the Kansas City Chiefs, originally as the Dallas Texans), stated that she understood Butker's stance:
“I can only speak from my own experience, which is I've had the most incredible mom, who had the ability to stay home and be with us as kids growing up. And I understand that there are many women out there who can't make that decision. But for me and my life, I know it was really formative and in shaping me and my siblings into who we are.”
Tavia Hunt, Gracie’s mother (and Clark’s wife) wrote:
“Affirming motherhood and praising your wife, as well as highlighting the sacrifice and dedication it takes to be a mother, is not bigoted. It is empowering to acknowledge that a woman’s hard work in raising children is not in vain. Countless highly educated women devote their lives to nurturing and guiding their children. Someone disagreeing with you doesn’t make them hateful; it simply means they have a different opinion. Let’s celebrate families, motherhood and fatherhood. Our society desperately needs dedicated men and women to raise up and train the next generation in the way they should go. Proverbs 31:28 says, “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Embracing the beautiful roles that God has made is something to celebrate.
Kansas City’s mayor, Quinton Lucas, tweeted out this snide remark, using Kansas City’s official account:
“Just a reminder that Harrison Butker lives in the City of Lee’s Summit”
The whole incident is a reminder of how much the ruling Marxist cabal hates biblical values. Destroying the family, so that is there is nothing between the atomized individual and the all-powerful totalitarian state, has always been job one for the Left, and they are very close to achieving that goal. Recent years have seen a satanic onslaught against the created sexual order, which includes sex roles for men and women.
The Left have conned women into believing that their innate desires and abilities are wrong, that femininity and motherhood are wrong, and that women will find fulfillment in becoming another corporate worker drone. This demonic propaganda has been astonishingly successful. The birthrate in the U.S. is now 1.6 children per woman, which is far below the replacement level of 2.1. And the Left will unleash hell on anyone of any prominence whatsoever who raises his voice against this sick regime of death.
“Harrison Butker would have been better off actually being accused of beating up a woman, which unfortunately has happened a great deal in the NFL because people in sports, media and larger society would have had a lot less of an issue with that,” Clay Travis told Laura Ingraham. “He would have been a lot better off getting a DUI. He would have been better off . . . dealing with all sorts of criminal charges than actually being a guy who spoke truth and said what needs to be said, I think frequently, to young college graduates, which is men aren't doing their best job of taking care of society, and a lot of women aren't either."
Raymond Arroyo also noted the NFL's double standard in its response to Butker's speech:
“He said we are both called, men and women, to be moms and dads, that's our greatest calling, our greatest vocation . . . but in a league where 41 members of Butker's team, the Chiefs, have been arrested multiple times, I hardly think Harrison Butker's little speech at Benedictine College is the moral crisis in the NFL.”
What Butker left unsaid is that he makes $4 million per year, and that it is not hard for a woman to choose to raise her children when her husband can easily support the household with his own income. We need to organize society so that more women can make that choice.
That means raising working class wages, and that means closing the border so that working class wages can rise. It means reversing the outsourcing of manufacturing to Asia so that blue-collar workers can find good jobs in manufacturing, jobs that can support a family. (Interesting that closing the border and stopping outsourcing of manufacturing is the platform of one courageous, heroic figure, upon whom our political and economic elites have unleashed unprecedented hell.)
It also means stopping hedge funds like Blackrock from buying up the housing stock, pricing it out of the reach not only of working people but everyone outside the top ten percent. It also means the federal government must stop spending over $2 trillion more than it takes in every year, money that must be created by the Federal Reserve; this funny money, created out of thin air, imposes a 30% inflation tax (when housing, food, and energy are included in the calculation) on working families, which often means moms must work outside the home.
We need to impress upon our elected representatives the urgency of rebuilding our economy and our society so that women can stay home and raise children. Family values issues and economic issues are closely connected, and cannot be divorced. If you organize a society in which you must have two earners for a household to survive, mothers cannot invest their energies in their own children.