Controversial Commencement Speech?
Dear friends of the risen and ascended Christ,
This is Harrison Butker, the three-time Super Bowl winning placekicker for the Kansas City Chiefs. Normally, that would be enough to make him famous. But in addition to his athletic fame, Harrison has become even more notorious for being rather outspoken regarding his conservative views and Roman Catholic faith.
His most recent comments appear to be his most controversial. Harrison was invited to give the Commencement Address at Benedictine College, a private liberal arts college in rural Kansas affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Public backlash, attempting to distance themselves from Harrison, was quickly made by the NFL, city officials of Kansas City, and even the Benedictine Sisters who support the school!
If you haven't watched or read Harrison's speech yet and are interested, you can find the complete transcript here. Generally speaking (and in my opinion), it's not a very well-written speech. It's rather disjuncted and tough to follow his train of thought. He begins by criticizing public leaders over their handling of COVID which occurred when the graduation seniors were freshman. He then transitions into one of his longer tangents where he attacks the current state of priests and bishops in the RCC who, according to Harrison, are more concerned with being accepted by the current culture rather than faithfully preaching God's Word to it. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed that section and I don't think he's necessarily wrong. It just seemed like a strange time and place to bring it up. He even talked about his preference for the Traditional Latin Mass despite not understanding it. Again, much of his speech seemed strange and somewhat random.
While his opening statements upset some hardcore COVID policy defenders and others who claimed he was promoting division within the RCC, none of these are the comments that made Harrison's speech a national headline. He went on to (finally) address the graduating students and it's here that his comments seemed to create the most controversy.
Harrison started talking about vocation, a very biblical (and many would say Lutheran) topic. A few years ago we spent months reading and discussing Dr. Berg's book called: "Vocation: The Setting for Human Flourishing" and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is God Himself who calls us into the various positions and places we serve in our lives. It is God Himself who blesses us with certain talents and abilities, and then the opportunities to put those to good use in service for our neighbors. And that means that no calling is unimportant or unnecessary. It also means there is a hierarchy when it comes to those callings from God and we seek to order our lives accordingly.
When addressing college graduates, you might think that Harrison would speak to the vocation of their upcoming careers. Instead, he chose to highlight the vocations of husband and wife, father and mother, encouraging the graduates to cherish and find fulfillment in their homes even over their careers. Harrison's traditional views on marriage and the family led many to claim that he was telling women their "place" was in the home not the workforce. But this is what he actually said:
"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.
"I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her 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. I'm beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker."
This paragraph was followed by an applause that lasted 18 seconds, by far the longest of the entire speech. He didn't say women shouldn't have professional careers. He said their vocations in their own homes are more important. And while I realize that God does not call every woman into the vocation of being a wife or a mother, for those He does, this is true. My vocation as a husband supersedes my calling as a father and both of them trump my calling as a pastor.
Now, I understand that he might have meant more than he said and given certain things Harrison has said prior to and after this speech, perhaps people's reading-in-between-the-lines is warranted. But I simply want to address the words he said here.
I'm sure some will say I'm being naive, but I think what Harrison says here (which happened to be the day before Mother's Day) is, for the most part, a beautiful tribute to wives and mothers. He might have overstated the thought that the majority of his 20-something year-old female listeners were most excited about marriage and children. But ask those same women 5-10 years from now and I think his statement will be spot on. I echo the praise he gives to his wife when I think of my own. Any 'success' I've been granted in this life is first attributed to the woman who calls me her husband and made me a father, to the woman who has made numerous houses our homes. Without her I am nothing and can do nothing; the same is true of our children. My wife has embraced the title "homemaker" and her family is blessed because of it.
And none of this is simply my or even Harrison's opinion. It is supported by the Word of God. Consider what King Solomon, the wisest man who's ever lived, wrote:
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. ... She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Proverbs 31:10-12; 25-31
Again, maybe I'm being naive, but I tend to think these are the words Harrison had in mind when he gave his speech. You can be the judge as to whether or not he communicated them well. I fully understand why he's receiving the harsh backlash he is. The world doesn't value the things of God, not the roles He's given us as spouses and parents, nor the vocations He calls 'blessed.' But there is a certain amount of irony in chastising women for calling themselves "just" a stay-at-home mom or "just" a housewife, while at the same time chastising people, like Harrison Butker, who encourage those same women in those very vocations. It would seem to me that you can't have it both ways.
"Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." What a beautiful thing for women to hear! What a beautiful thing for us to say to the wives, mothers, and daughters in our lives. Those vocations have earned it.
In Christ,
Pastor Bater