Some Commenced to Be Incensed

On May 11, 2024, Harrison Butker (field goal kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs who won this year's Superbowl) gave a commencement speech at Benedictine College, a Catholic school in Atchison, Kansas, and some have been incensed ever since. He spoke boldly and forthrightly to the students, who seemed to accept the speech well, but many have criticized it. Anyone who desires to do so can type the football player's name and the word transcript and read the entire text.

Preliminaries

First, Butker is not a professional speaker. When he received the invitation to speak, he turned it down because he had done a commencement speech the year before and figured once was enough. The president of the college, however, persuaded him to reconsider, which he obviously did.

The speech is laden with references to Catholicism, which one might expect, seeing that he is one, and he was speaking to a Catholic audience. If your congenial editor were a Catholic, he would have found the speech quite inspirational, but being grounded in what the New Testament teaches, the nonstop references were annoying—especially statements like this one: "As members of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, it is our duty and ultimately privilege to be authentically and unapologetically Catholic."

We understand that the speaker believes that to be true, but today's Catholic Church bears no resemblance to the church founded by Jesus Christ. The New Testament mentions no pope and no separate priesthood. All Christians are priests, and Jesus is the high priest (1 Peter 2:5, 9; Heb. 5:5, 10; 6:20; 9:11).

The speaker also used other terminology not found in the New Testament, such as sacraments and the Traditional Latin Mass. In fact, Butker confided that he attends parishes that use the Traditional Latin Mass "because I believe, just as the God of the Old Testament was pretty particular in how He wanted to be worshipped, the same holds true for us today." Well, the point is valid, but the application does not fit New Testament teaching.

It is the case that God is particular about how He desires to be worshiped. Nadab and Abihu discovered that when they used profane, unauthorized fire and were consumed by fire. God is just as finicky in the New Testament; He expects true worshipers to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).

The problem is there was no Latin Mass when the church was established. Initially, the Jews were probably addressed in Hebrew or Aramaic. Gentiles would have been addressed in Greek, the New Testament was written in Greek. The use of Latin came later. In fact, the New Testament describes nothing akin to today's Mass, whether conducted in Latin or English.

Criticisms Against Catholicism

As much as Butker loves Catholicism, he does not hesitate to criticize Catholics who do not uphold the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. The fourth paragraph of his speech contains the following words.

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.

Wow! That's a heap powerful message from a Kansas City Chief. Of course, the Sign of the Cross is not in the New Testament, but as a Catholic custom, one can understand why Catholics would consider such an action a perversion of their faith. Butker states a truth when he says one cannot be Catholic and pro-choice. The way we would phrase it is that one cannot be a Christian and be pro-choice (instead of pro-life). But he does not stop there. The following paragraph continues to expose hypocrisy.

He is not alone. From the man behind the COVID lockdowns to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common. They are Catholic. This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn't cut it.

Had he spoken two decades ago, he probably would have pointed out that Ted Kennedy's pro-abortion stance violated the Catholic Church's teaching. Later, he related another inconsistency.

There even was an award-winning film called Silence, made by a fellow Catholic, wherein one of the main characters, a Jesuit priest, abandoned the Church, and as an apostate when he died is seen grasping a crucifix, quiet and unknown to anyone but God. As a friend of Benedictine College, His Excellency Bishop Robert Barron, said in his review of the film, it was exactly what the cultural elite want to see in Christianity—private, hidden away, and harmless.

Society does want a Christian's faith to be hidden—confined to a church building. In public they are expected to go along with—and not oppose—the ideas and practices of sin. And it doesn't matter who you are. They oppose Christians, Catholics, and various denominations—if they espouse Biblical truths.

Basic Truths

The world would be delighted if we would "keep our beliefs to ourselves," and they do not want to hear either the voice of reason or the voice of Scriptures. One of the things Butker advocated for himself (which others would also do well to consider) is "how I can be a better father and husband and live in the world but not be of it." This is reminiscent of what Jesus prayed for His disciples in John 17:14-16. They were not of the world, and our Lord prayed that they would remain that way.

The Kansas City field goal kicker claimed that the AP reporters probably expected anger to be the response of their attempts to embarrass those who embrace Christian values, but instead they reacted with excitement and pride. Notice how he elaborates on this point: "Not the deadly sin sort of pride that has an entire month dedicated to it, but the true God-centered pride that is cooperating with the Holy Ghost to glorify Him." Can he be referring to Gay Pride Month? Yes, homosexuals have taken an entire month to celebrate their sin!

But the words which roused feminists to arms were the following thoughts:

For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are 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.

"Heresy!" some proclaimed. "He wants women barefoot and pregnant." Read the paragraph again. He congratulated them on their achievement and did not criticize anyone who decided to enter the work force. But it is a lie that women can only find fulfillment in secular work. The same is true for men. Of course, both find a level of satisfaction in a successful career, but Solomon devoted himself to work three millennia ago and pronounced it "vanity" (Ecc. 2:18-23).

Bringing children into the world and bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is of great value. Butker stated that his wife's "life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother. I'm on the stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation."

He credits her with his success and thanks her for becoming his wife and embracing "one of the most important titles of all: homemaker." Now the media had a conniption fit over those words, but the audience applauded for 18 seconds. The National Football League's senior Vice President and chief diversity and inclusion officer said: "His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion…." But, fortunately, Coach Andy Reid, who has three Superbowl victories to his credit at Kansas City, and Quarterback Patrick Mahomes came to Butker's defense.

Both said that they might not agree with everything he said, but he is in earnest and has the right to speak his values. Mahomes said, "I'm going to judge him by the character he shows every single day, and that's a great person." Reid added that he didn't agree with a lot of the reporters, either, but he let them in the press conference.

Butker did not only address the women; he had some advice for men, also.

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. As men, we set the tone of the culture, and when that is absent, disorder, dysfunction, and chaos set in. This absence of men in the home is what plays a large role in the violence we see all around the nation. Other countries do not have nearly the same absentee father rates as we find here in the U.S., and a correlation could be made in their drastically lower violence rates, as well.

He nailed it—and added: "Be unapologetic in your masculinity, fighting against the cultural emasculation of men." How has our society degenerated when observations like these are newsworthy? They should go without saying, but they have ended up needing to be said.

Butker scored again when he cautioned the students about preserving moral principles once they left the encouraging environment they were in. He lamented that some had "ended up moving in with their boyfriend or girlfriend prior to marriage" (what the Bible calls fornication). Others had even abandoned God. His solution was to surround themselves with people who continually push a person to be the best version of himself. "I say this all the time, that iron sharpens iron. It's a great reminder that those closest to us should be making us better." The Scripture reference is Proverbs 27:17.

He also applied that principle to those who are dating. "If you are dating someone who doesn't even share your faith, how do you expect that person to help you become a saint?" Interesting choice of words for a Catholic. What we would say is, "How would you expect that person to help you go to heaven?"

Butker encouraged people to be more vocal and "stop pretending that the things we see around us are normal" (such as homosexual marriage or gender changes, perhaps?) If we keep silent about Biblical values, then immoral principles will prevail. The commencement speaker noted: "You are entering into mission territory in a post-God world, but you were made for this." Criticism of this speech has had a positive benefit in that many have declared their support for the Biblical values championed in it.