On Religion: Did Harrison Butker’s Graduation Speech Sail Wide Right?
(ANALYSIS) There was nothing unusual about the conservative Catholic leaders of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, inviting a conservative Catholic to deliver a conservative Catholic speech.
But the May 11 commencement ceremony was different since the speaker was three-time Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker of the nearby Kansas City Chiefs.
The team's star placekicker stressed that “being Catholic alone doesn't cut it” while attacking many famous Catholics, including President Joe Biden, for, among other choices, making the sign of the cross during a Florida abortion rights rally. Butker spent most of his 20-minute address criticizing many American bishops while also offering blunt defenses of Catholic teachings on sexuality.
But the words that ignited a media firestorm hit closer to home.
Butker asked the female graduates: “How many of you are ... thinking about all the promotions and titles you're 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.”
Butker stressed that his wife, Isabelle, 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. ... It is through our marriage that, Lord willing, we will both attain salvation.”
Pundits and comics claimed that Butker criticized working women — while his mother, Elizabeth, is a medical physicist in the radiation oncology department at Atlanta's Emory University School of Medicine. In a 2020 Mother's Day tribute, Butker tweeted, “Growing up my mom was my biggest supporter, guiding me to be the man I needed to become.”
Earlier this week, Change.org had gathered 221,866 signatures urging “the Kansas City Chiefs management to dismiss Harrison Butker.” The petition said the kicker's remarks “were sexist, homophobic, anti-trans, anti-abortion and racist” — thus hindering “efforts towards equality, diversity and inclusion in society. It is unacceptable for such a public figure to use their platform to foster harm rather than unity.”
The NFL’s top diversity and inclusion official, Jonathan Beane, told the press: “Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity. His views are not those of the NFL as an organization.”
He added, “The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”
In response, Terry Schilling of the American Principles Project noted that “Harrison Butker was condemned by the @NFL more quickly than any of the players that were caught in rape, domestic abuse, drug and even murder scandals. All because he advocated for prioritizing family over everything else.”
Meanwhile, two famous comics stressed that Butker had a right to state his beliefs, even if they offended many. On “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg noted: “Listen, I like when people say what they need to say. He’s at a Catholic college. He's a staunch Catholic. These are his beliefs and he’s welcome to them. I don't have to believe them. I don't have to accept them.”
On his HBO “Real Time” show, agnostic Bill Maher said he couldn't understand why Butker is “now history's greatest monster.” Millions of Americans, he added, agree with the superstar kicker.
“He said, ‘Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world,’ but a lot of you are excited about this other way that people — everybody — used to be. And now ... can’t that just be a choice, too? And I think that they feel very put upon, like there's only one way to be a good person, and that's to get an advanced degree from one of those (expletive deleted) factories like Harvard.”
Tavia Hunt — the wife of Butker's employer, Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt — stressed that it “is not bigoted” for a man to affirm motherhood and praise marriage.
“I've always encouraged my daughters to be highly educated and chase their dreams,” she wrote on Instagram. “I want them to know that they can do whatever they want (that honors God). But I also want them to know that I believe finding a spouse who loves and honors you as or before himself and raising a family together is one of the greatest blessings this world has to offer.”
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Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.