On May 11, Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker gave the commencement address at Benedictine College, a Catholic school in Kansas. Within 48 hours, the media elites were ablaze with outrage. There's a "growing uproar," warned NBC's Hoda Kotb.
A Catholic speaker talked about Catholic issues to Catholic graduates. But the Butker critics who aren't Catholics pulled out little snippets they could not abide.
First, they hated that Butker paid tribute to his wife Isabelle for making him successful, for assuming "one of the most important titles of all: homemaker." That is like a curse word to the feminists. They can't allow the notion that children might benefit from having a parent in the home.
He said to the female graduates that "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." He didn't say they shouldn't have careers. He did suggest that many women -- especially Catholic women -- put motherhood first.
Butker also inflamed the Left with a brief allusion to "the deadly sin sort of pride that has an entire month dedicated to it." None of us should have pride in our sins, but the libertine Left is allergic to the entire concept of sorrow for sin.
Personally, this was my favorite political passage: "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."
Lapsed Catholics and non-Catholics have no grasp of how the Catholic Church defines "scandal." Catholics like President Joe Biden, who aggressively support the exact opposite of church teachings, confuse both religious and non-religious people about what Catholics are called to believe -- like abortion is by its nature a deadly sin.
But simplistic reporters don't want anyone calling Biden a phony, any more than they want you to proclaim he's a divider, not a uniter.
Jonathan Beane, the chief "diversity" officer of the NFL, put out a statement that "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."
It never stops being comical to tout "inclusion" when you're telling a conservative Catholic to shut up about "Pride month." One can never dissent from the "diversity and inclusion" cops, who blatantly imply only the leftist side of the cultural debate defines their most precious words.
Bobby Burack at Outkick pointed out that the NFL had no public statement of objection for Butker's Kansas City teammate Rashee Rice, who was recently arrested on eight felony charges concerning a hit-and-run accident "while drag-racing his Lamborghini at 119 mph on a Dallas highway." Reckless Rice is also under investigation for allegedly punching a photographer at a nightclub in Dallas, "leaving the accuser with noticeable swelling in his face." The NFL has no comment.
Butker's speech predictably prompted a Change.org petition calling for him to be fired by the Chiefs. Once again, it's the Left that claims conservatives will "end democracy" and crush freedom of speech, while they demonstrate their absolute intolerance of an opposing point of view. They can't achieve true "progress" until dissenters are heckled and banned.
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