A Catholic threatened with blacklisting because he gave an unapologetic Catholic speech at a Catholic university to a class of Catholics: How dare he!
Harrison Butker committing leftist heresy
by simply stating his basic Christian beliefs
They’re coming for you next: This week’s blacklisting kerfuffle centers on a graduation speech given by football player and Super Bowl champ Harrison Butker at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas on May 11, 2024.
It appears a lot of leftists and advocates of the queer agenda didn’t like what he had to say, and are pushing to have the Kansas City Chiefs fire him. A petition at change.org has already collected nearly 200,000 signatures to have the “Kansas City Chiefs management … dismiss Harrison Butker immediately for his inappropriate conduct.” On social media and within the media the outrage was just as sharp. Several tweets on X attempted to dox both Butker and his family, with one (immediately deleted) coming from the office of the mayor of Kansas City.
It got so bad that the NFL disavowed Butker, stating publicly that “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.”
But what did Butker do that was so terrible? You can find out for yourself by reading the full text of his speech here. I can sum it up however quite simply: Butker, as a devout Catholic, came to a Catholic university to give a commencement speech to a class of fellow Catholics, with the goal of outlining without apologies the basic Bible-based tenets of his religion. Nothing he said was even slightly controversial. Men are men, women are women, and coming together to create an old-fashioned nuclear family with the express goal of raising children properly is a laudable and very Judeo-Christian thing to do. We each have our place in the greater scheme of life, and none of us should be afraid to live that life even if general society condemns you for it.
In making his speech Butker also criticized a number of politicians and higher Catholic officials for not defending those basic values, but he did so somewhat gently, without naming names.
In other words, Butker exercized his First Amendment rights. He has the freedom in America to follow and even advocate those beliefs, though in this case he wasn’t saying anything to any outsiders, but within his own community.
The effort to get him silenced and fired has therefore been most instructive. It has once again revealed to all the true nature of those on the left: they are intolerant, they are hateful, and they are thugs and goons eager to unleash their power on anyone who dares oppose them.
To leftists, freedom is a curse word. So what Butker was speaking within his own community. So what he was only restating some basic religious teachings that have been considered foundational by western civilization for more than two thousand years. So what he was only trying to guide the young people who wished to live that Catholic life.
What mattered to the left was that Butker was daring to say things it didn’t like. Such diversity of opinion cannot be tolerated, so of course we immediately have almost 200,000 people signing a petition to get Butker cancelled.
“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all
the inhabitants thereof.” Photo credit: William Zhang
Fortunately, there are also a lot of people in America who still believe in freedom and the foundational concept of the nuclear family. Very quickly a second petition in support of Butker was launched. Very quickly his jersey has become a best seller, for both men and women.
Whether Butker’s career survives in the NFL remains unknown. If the league decides to punish him for his very reasonable speech it is very likely it will be the league that will suffer the most. The general public is increasingly making it very clear it will no longer look the other way when corporations decide to do bad things. Just ask Bud Light, Gillette, and Disney.
Butker meanwhile seems a very solid person who knows where he stands. And when you know where you stand, it makes it very easy to move forward no matter what obstacles are put in your way.
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Some are standing up for freedom:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/dave-ramsey-steps-in-to-rescue-pro-israel-conference-after-nashville-hotel-cancels
I was done with the NFL after that Kaepernick kneeling nonsense and the refusal of that league to do anything about it. It’s been peppered with rapists, wife beaters and all around foul people for decades, so it was easy to walk away from that circus. The big money owners have shown their true colors, and it ain’t pretty. I wish conservatives could have the fortitude to similarly reject that bad habit and give them the full Bud Light treatment.
Bread and circuses indeed.
Some headlines;
Harrison Butker’s jersey becomes Chiefs’ best-seller after controversial commencement speech
NFL sells out of women’s Harrison Butker jerseys.
Change.org petition over 100,000 asking for his removal.
https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/chiefs-harrison-butker-jersey-sells-out-amid-commencement-speech-backlash-211168837871
At the end of the news video they mentioned that his residence Address was released to the public. Lawyers are demanding the emails from the city to find out who broke privacy laws.
I think, on close reading of the NFL’s statement, that ‘disavow’ may be too strong. It seems a rather vanilla statement designed to check the ‘woke’ boxes, while not explicitly condemning the speaker, and trying to keep the multi-billion cash cow alive. It’s a very tricky exercise. I’d note that Mr. Butker’s actions aren’t the driver, but the political and social climate. I’d also note, on reading his speech, that he is playing to expectations, a bit, so to speak. Trolling, I believe. When you institutionalize division, everyone is posturing.
I share the disappoint expressed by you all, most especially as a lifelong Bay Area resident and 49ers fan who was totally embarrassed and turned off by Kaepernick to the point that I too abandoned my fandom. But as Bob always points out we cannot cave to the leftists and need to flex our collective power to press back on corporate America to respect the sensibilities and values of our silent and .accommodating silent majority as much as they do the opinionated and oppressive left. Bud Light showed that we have market power if we choose to actively assert it.
So, while we have all already tuned out the NFL, it occurs to me that THEY do not know this so should we exploit this event to express our support for Butker and disappointment in the league’s behavior toward him and HIS values we may well convince them to fear our wrath too.
To this end I plan to write Roger Goodell a good old fashioned hardcopy letter to politely express my disappointment and warn him that he risks losing me and my (mythical, but he won’t know that) claimed spending on his product should he not start respecting traditional values as enthusiastically as he does the woke agenda.
I looked up their address and phone number and pass them along here in case any of you wish to do the same.
NFL Head Office
345 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10154
Phone: (212)450 2000
MDN: I would suggest one change. Don’t threaten to stop spending your money on football. Since you have, tell him that you have stopped that money. Explain to him exactly how.
Even more important, if you have stopped following the sport, say so. Losing fans is something no sport can afford, as it is almost impossible to get them back.
And how many of that “200K” have paid money to arttend a gamr or even watch football/
Col. B … if any watched, they were probably looking for a Taylor Swift sighting.
What a clump of snowflakes.
The bad thing about all this, is that our exacting retribution on the NFL has the potential to indirectly harm Butker in the pursuit of his, and his team’s, success. My education in football began with the Chiefs under Hank Stram; it is their politically-incorrect success (keeping the team name and the “chop”, not putting identity politics front-and-center) that brought me back to football after it descended into grievance politics.
I know it is probably a bridge too far, because of the tight leash held by the NFL that is attached to any of its franchises, but it would be reassuring if the Hunt family issued a statement in support of Butker.
DEMOCRATS TOO EXTREME FOR EVEN SATAN
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/democrats-too-extreme-for-even-satan
Yeah, the copper-clapper Kapernicker turned me off of the NFL, and this sad hilarity simply reaffirms my reaction! On the other hand, as Blair Ivey has correctly observed, when “division” becomes the institution’s seeds, posturing becomes one of the seed’s “germinations!”
As best as I can discover, this guy keeps his religious faith confined to his personal life and “off” the field, so any posturing being paraded is being done by the NFL and the usual “mob!”
Nice for Dave Ramsey to do an Elon.
I think a lot of rich conservatives paid into Ivy Leagues hoping to be the last eaten.
I have said it before–Soros has been better at throwing money towards his supporters than most conservative business men…that needs to change.
There used to be a bumper sticker that said “It’s fun being a Christian!”
I never figured out if the guy who created it was brilliantly sarcastic or painfully naive.
James, I think a better bumper sticker these days would be: If you are put on trial for being a Christian, is there enough evidence to convict you?
Though I do get tickled at the ones I occasionally see in traffic, asking: Do you follow Jesus this close?
Jeff, as much as we need funding to advance the conservative cause, the greater need is for people – in our neighborhoods, right along with the C-suite – who can make the coherent case to reject the ways of social technocracy and take the risk/make the effort to take back control of our individual lives.
Ramsey’s work, in his day job, significantly advances that effort – for when you stay out of debt, you have more control over your destiny. In fact, I consider him and Suze Orman more significant to the economic health of ordinary people, than anyone at the Fed, Treasury, or in academia – for Dave and Suze have focused on those closest to the problems, with the most skin in the game.
(It would be entertaining to appoint Orman as the head of the Office of Management and Budget …. to hear her tell government department heads that funding their pet projects is being “DENIED DENIED DENIED!”
Robert, it looks like I messed up a formatting tag in the second paragraph above (and forgot a parentheses at the end).
My apologies – please feel free to correct at your convenience.
Jester Naybor: I think I have fixed it correctly.
Jester Naybor wrote: “Ramsey’s work, in his day job, significantly advances that effort – for when you stay out of debt, you have more control over your destiny.”
I think his recommendation to keep an emergency savings is even more important. Developing the discipline to not spend your emergency savings goes a long way toward your control over your life.
Robert – you have fixed it correctly. Thanks.
Edward – good observation.
I’m not a Catholic, but I was raised as one. About the only “interesting” thing in that speech was his support for The Latin Mass. The rest was pretty much run-of-the-mill Catholic-ness. I found it rather refreshing.
$129 is a bit much for a shirt, but I did consider it…
I must admit I never think much about what jocks say about anything