HARRISON BUTKER WAS NOT WRONG; HE WAS BEING A GOOD CATHOLIC

By now, you’ve probably heard the backlash about Harrison Butker’s commencement speech at Benedictine College. Butker is a player for the Chiefs football team, and a devout Catholic. Benedictine is a Catholic college.

It’s doubtful any of the zealots and snowflakes who have their shorts in a wad over his speech heard of read the entire speech. I have – all 3,660 words. It was an impressive and thoughtful speech. It was a devoutly Catholic man speaking to 485 graduates of a Catholic college. He wasn’t speaking to a state university with people of all walks of life. It was a Catholic speech.

I’m not Catholic and know very little about Catholicism. Conversely, Butker is proud of being deeply Catholic. He should be applauded for his religious convictions at such a young age.

Butker spoke mostly to matters of Catholicism. He was critical of the hierarchy in the church for the way they handled the COVID pandemic, blindly following absurd lock downs and policies set by the government and bureaucrats, rather than administering comfort and last rites to those dying Catholics all alone, from COVID. He used examples of how historically church officials and saints stepped into past pandemics, famine, wars and the like, but railed against those that failed with what he said was their duty during the COVID pandemic.

To quote a great line in his speech, “you witnessed firsthand how bad leaders who don’t stay in their lane can have a negative impact on society. Biden? Obama?

He then elaborated, “Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. 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. Our own nation is led by a man who publicly…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.”  

To me, being Catholic and pro-choice seems an oxymoron, but as you know, I’m from Chebanse.

He did speak directly to the women graduates, essentially telling them to get married, have children, and then raise them before embarking on careers. Being a male chauvinist pig, I can somewhat agree with that sentiment, but can also comprehend how at least 51% of the nation’s citizens – biological women – might have a problem with that part of the speech. Discretion being the better part of valor, perhaps Butker should have edited that part of his speech. But, I’d have liked to have been a fly on the wall to hear what the conservative women on Fox News thought about that statement.

CNN and their ilk delighted reporting the backlash that came to Butker, calling it a deluge of criticism, as if his speech was really that important to anyone outside that graduating class. Next they’ll be hounding the Chiefs to fire him, I bet.  

And of course, the gutless NFL, the organization that allowed players to kneel during our national anthem, quickly stated that Butker’s comments don’t reflect the views of the league.  The Chiefs, Butker’s employer, wisely has kept their mouth shut.

Someone brought up Butker’s accomplished mother, Elizabeth, a medical physicist at a cancer Institute, and how that fits in with Butker beliefs. Nothing was said, however, at what age his mother became an employed physicist. But really, why did they have to get so personal to drag his mother into the fray.  

Other points made causing more wadding of shorts:

• Biden’s and other Catholic leaders pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America – a criticism of transgenderism.
• Encouraged graduates to have Catholic pride, not the type pride that might be considered sinful by some, and has an entire month to it, a rebuke of the Gay Pride Movement. He might have said this  differently as most folks have no problem with whom one loves, it’s not our business. We just don’t want gayness shoved in our face.
• The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) debate, stating “The world around us says that we should keep our beliefs to ourselves whenever they go against the tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion.” That means if you have an opinion different from a liberal, you need to shut up, even if it is bordering socialism.  

I’m not so sure the Left and the Woke want to heighten this battle. The Catholic religion has 1.39 billion followers, a formidable sized group.

Butker should be applauded for having the audacity to speak out about what he believes is wrong. What was missed by critics of Butker is that his speech was his opinion. For the time being, we are still entitled to an opinion in this country.

Nice speech, Mr. Butker. I still hope the Chiefs have a horrible year.