Add actress Patricia Heaton to the long list of public figures speaking out in support of Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker.
“I don’t understand why everybody’s knickers are in a twist,” she said, according to Fox News. “He gave a commencement speech. The audience applauded twice during the speech and gave him a standing ovation at the end, so clearly they enjoyed what he was saying. The guy is espousing his own opinions and Catholic doctrine, um, so what? It’s his opinion. He can have one. He’s allowed. He’s not a monster for stating what he believes.”
Butker’s speech sparked outrage for a number of reasons, but one paragraph in which he called out the graduating women in the class and asked them to embrace their vocation as a homemaker appeared to strike a chord for many.
“I am a Catholic woman who worked through my kids’ childhood, and I believe that God opened those doors for me,” Heaton said. “And thankfully, it was a schedule that allowed me to also be a full-time mom, basically. I find nothing offensive about what he said, even though my life is very different and he might even look at my life and say that’s not the way it should be. That’s OK. That’s his opinion.”
One portion of Butker’s speech that attracted heavy attention was a call to women in the graduating class to embrace the “most important titles of all, homemaker.”
“For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment,” he said. “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 the 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.”
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice
Photo: Heaton: Pop Goes The Culture TV. WikiCommons 3.0
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