Commencement addresses far too often become a sounding board for mediocre advice and bad politics. Kansas City Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker, however, offered something different to 2024 graduates when he encouraged them never to shy from defending what is good — even when the so-called Catholic president of the United States does the opposite.
One year after he encouraged students at the Georgia Institute of Technology to get married and have children to save the world, Butker was back behind a commencement stage podium at Benedictine College invigorating the newest generation of young adults to stay strong in their faith and values.
The three-time Super Bowl champion kicked off his speech with praise for the grads who muscled through government-mandated lockdowns during their late high school and early college years and warned that our nation is rapidly declining.
“While Covid might have played a large role throughout your formative years, it is not unique. Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues,” the 28-year-old said. “Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values in media all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.”
This disorder, Butker noted, is not an accident.
“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,” Butker said incredulously.
President Joe Biden made headlines in April after invoking the religious gesture during an abortion rally where Democrat activists complained about Florida’s protections for unborn babies. Butker said Biden’s repeated “vocal … support for the murder of innocent babies” through all nine months of gestation gives people the wrong impression that “you can be both Catholic and pro-choice.”
“He is not alone,” Butker said. “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.”
Simply claiming to be Catholic but failing to act on it, Butker said, “doesn’t cut it.”
“These are the sorts of things we are told in polite society to not bring up. You know, the difficult and unpleasant things. But if we are going to be men and women for this time in history, we need to stop pretending that the ‘church of nice’ is a winning proposition,” Butker continued.
Because there is no such thing as moral neutrality, Butker encouraged the new graduates to take a stand against the evils plaguing our world.
“We must always speak and act in charity, but never mistake charity for cowardice,” Butker said.
Butker is right. The moment Christians cede cultural ground to the dangerous whims of the world, they have floundered.
There is nothing God-honoring or Christlike about turning a blind eye to the serial manufacturing of children who will be “discarded” or doomed to life in a freezer; the ripping apart of unborn babies in their mothers’ wombs; the irreversible sexual experiments on minors that will permanently mangle their bodies; and the celebration of “pride” and a rainbow flag that represents a version of sex and marriage outside what God prescribes.
The player who wears his faith on his sleeve on and off the field reminded the audience that he did not plan to become a public critic of our culture’s dastardly shortcomings. Yet his loyalty to God demanded more from him than sitting on the sideline.
“I never envisioned myself nor wanted to have this sort of a platform. But God has given it to me, so I have no other choice but to embrace it and preach more hard truths about accepting your lane and staying in it,” Butker said.
