Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
Despite the protests of liberal commentators, most Americans approve of Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s commencement speech at Benedictine College in Kansas. According to a recent Rasmussen survey:
- Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they approve of Butker expressing his beliefs, including 38 percent who said they strongly approve.
- By contrast, 29 percent disapprove of him expressing his beliefs, including 15 percent of respondents who said they strongly disapprove, while 12 percent of respondents say they were unsure.
- Regarding the NFL’s decision to officially distance itself from Butker’s remarks, 51 percent of respondents said they disapprove of the NFL’s actions, while 37 percent say they approve and 13 percent are undecided.
One comment in particular that received a lot of attention was when Butker told female graduates that “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.” The line drew applause form the graduates and guests.
Butker also spoke directly to male graduates, telling them that the “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 United States, and a correlation could be made in their drastically lower violence rates, as well.”
Butker received much criticism, including an online petition calling for his firing that has over 229,000 signatories and claims that Butker’s “comments were sexist, homophobic, anti-trans, anti-abortion and racist.” He responded to the backlash to his speech at the “Courage Under Fire” gala in Nashville, a fundraiser for Regina Coeli Academy.
“The theme of tonight’s gala — Courage Under Fire — was decided many months ago, but it now feels providential that this would be the theme after what we have all witnessed these past few weeks,” Butker said. “In my seven years in the NFL, I have become familiar with the positive and negative comments. But the majority of them revolved around my performance on the field. But as to be expected, the more I’ve talked about what I value most, which is my Catholic faith, the more polarizing I’ve become.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
