Posted: May 17, 2024
Kansas City Chiefs star Harrison Butker was chosen to give the commencement speech at Benedictine College, a Catholic school in Kansas. But rather than sharing hard-earned wisdom and a favorite Bible verse or two, the three-time Super Bowl champion launched into a far-right, culture-war tirade.
Butker called LGBTQ pride a "deadly sin." He accused President Biden and other leaders of pushing "dangerous gender ideologies." And he even told women who were graduating that day that they had been told "diabolical lies" about the benefits of working outside the home -- and that they would only discover true happiness by becoming homemakers and mothers.
In response, the Catholic sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, a founding institution and sponsor of Benedictine College, wrote:
"Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation, and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division. One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman... We reject a narrow definition of what it means to be Catholic."
The views expressed in Butker's speech were a distortion of our Christian faith, and would be considered harmful in any context. But there's something especially wicked about taking a once-in-a-lifetime moment for young graduates and twisting it into yet another platform for sexism and anti-LGBTQ hatred.
As Butker's siblings in Christ, let's speak out together and ask him to apologize immediately.
Sign the petition:
Love thy neighbor.