Kicking Harrison Butker to the Curb?

The Pro Football Player's 'Polarizing' Graduation Speech at Benedictine College Merits a Fair Hearing

After covering the immediately hot-button commencement address by comedian Jerry Seinfeld in my previous article, let’s look at the slower-percolating — but very energetic! — interest in National Football League placekicker Harrison Butker’s speech at Catholic-affiliated Benedictine College on May 11.

Most mainstream / legacy media, government media, and faux-alternative media have led with denouncements, and petitions have circulated to have Butker “fired.” On the other hand, Butker’s No. 7 jersey has rapidly become one of the NFL’s top sellers.

So, who is this suddenly famous/infamous guy?

As someone who follows major sports, I’d heard Butker’s name, but wouldn’t be able to recognize him in street clothes. Thanks to this past week’s rabblerousing, however, I now know what he looks like, and that he’s traditionally religious and willing to talk about it.

Here are the transcript and video of his remarks:

A misunderstanding about vocation

Most of the outrage stems from Butker’s advice to women grads:

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.

While these comments have been framed as demeaning to women — even by the Benedictine Sisters — such critics seem to have missed Butker’s point about the importance of vocation, a topic I covered in my Jan. 24, 2024 post.

Of his own marriage, Butker claimed his wife embraces being a “homemaker” and that he has “leaned into my vocation as a husband and father, and as a man.”

Butker then gave similar advice to men that he had given to women:

Part of what plagues our society is this lie that has been told to you that men are not necessary in the home or in our communities. … This absence of men in the home is what plays a large role in the violence we see all around the nation.

Is it demeaning to tell men to make their wives and children their priority above their careers and other pursuits?

Did Butker’s critics really give his remarks a fair and honest evaluation?

And what else did he say that warrants a deeper look? Let’s peruse more “makes” and “misses” from the Super Bowl-winning kicker.

Image by freepik

Some ‘makes’

• Calling out “the COVID fiasco” and the failures of Catholic officials. Agreed; I was even more fiercely against the #COVIDHoax and Church perpetuation of it (see my post from Mar. 27, 2024).

  

• Criticizing Pride Month and related movements as the “deadly-sin sort of pride.” There’s nothing categorically sinful about being sex-differentiated creatures, as humans are. But if you insist that sexual preference is your public identity and that others must publicly endorse it, that’s definitely the sinful kind of pride.

  Also the sinful kind of pride: the previously covered obsession with careerism; the “tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” which Butker noted elsewhere; plus tribalism, nationalism, pro-government “patriotism” and any other form of identity politics.

• Discouraging an unhealthy devotion to the clerical class:

  There is not enough time today for me to list all the stories of priests and bishops misleading their flocks, but none of us can blame ignorance anymore and just blindly proclaim that “That’s what Father said.”

  Agreed; but …

Some ‘misses’

• Getting too rigidly hierarchical and compartmentalized about different roles:

  Yes, we absolutely should be involved in supporting our parishes, but we cannot be the source for our parish priests to lean on to help with their problems. …

  It is not prudent as the laity for us to consume ourselves in becoming amateur theologians so that we can decipher this or that theological teaching — unless, of course, you are a theology major.

  Clergy are human, too, and can benefit from getting meaningful assistance outside their small, ordained circles. Being too aloof to seek help from laypeople is likely another example of the “deadly-sin sort of pride.” As for theological pursuits, well-educated officials (“theology majors”) have been behind practically every major atrocity in hierarchical religions. And his warning against “amateur theologians” seems to contradict his willingness to criticize Church officials’ sacramental/ministerial failings and the dangers of “That’s what Father said” acquiescence!

• “Our Catholic faith has always been countercultural.” It’s supposed to be, and largely was in the pre-Constantine era. But to say the institution — implied by the phrasing, “Our Catholic faith,” and the context in the speech — has “always been countercultural” isn’t historically accurate. I mention this degrading shift in priorities in Chapter 1 of my book, Good Neighbor, Bad Citizen (Amazon, B&N, Lulu).

An anarchist perspective — like the Early Church strove to embrace, emulating Jesus — probably could’ve saved him from the “misses.” But his speech had much more good than bad.

In placekicking terms: While it wasn’t perfect, it definitely put points on the board.

Sound off with gusto, like Butker did!

Had you heard of Harrison Butker before learning about this graduation incident? What do you think of the criticism he received (including here from me)?

How do you treat the call — vocation — to find a deeper purpose than one’s job?

And what about the sinful kind of pride?

Anything else interest you about Butker’s speech, including portions I didn’t explicitly note?

Put your best foot forward in the Comments …