“Righteousness guards people of integrity, but wickedness undermines the sinner.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Graduation season is always an interesting time. The primary reason for this is that it gives us the chance to reflect on the parting words given to graduates by a whole variety of speakers. Every one of these invited guests is there to tell his or her audience the things they presumably need to know in order to experience success in life as they move on to their next chapter. Sometimes the advice is good and wise; sometimes less so. Sometimes the advice is fairly generic and bland, while other times it can generate reactions in the broader culture that are a bit…livelier. The graduation speech given by Harrison Butker, the superstar kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs seems to have fallen into this latter category. Let’s explore what he actually had to say, some of the ways the culture has reacted to it, and see what we can do with it.

My guess is that you’ve heard about the speech. It ignited a fairly hot firestorm of interest after he delivered it to the graduates of Benedictine College, a small, conservative, liberal arts Catholic college in Atchison, KS. Atchison is a little ways north of Kansas City, MO, right on the Missouri River. Apparently the school is built on a bluff overlooking the river which is probably a beautiful location. It has a little over 2000 students. In other words, it’s a small school that mostly minds its own business and which you had probably never heard of until a couple of weeks ago. Now their 2024 commencement address has been viewed by nearly 2 million people on YouTube. At the very least that should help with recruitment.

That Harrison Butker had been invited to give a graduation speech this year didn’t surprise me a bit. He is a member of the team that won the Super Bowl for the second year in a row and has all the potential in the world to get the truly historic three-peat next season. That alone should have resulted in at least a few invitations. That he is one of the best, most accurate kickers in NFL history who will almost certainly be inducted into the Hall of Fame someday (assuming the controversy he’s generated by his graduation speeches doesn’t see the honor punitively denied him) doesn’t hurt either. That he gave a speech that generated some cultural controversy for his staking out of some culturally conservative positions which he actively encouraged graduates to adopt didn’t surprise me either. He did the same thing last year in his commencement address to his alma mater, Georgia Tech.

It is perhaps the result of his not really paying any kind of a cultural price minus some digital finger wagging, or it may be because he took clearer stands on some even more reactionary hot button culture issues, but this year’s speech seemed to generate even more conversation than last year’s. In a culture that thrives on memes rather than actual thoughtful engagement, there have been plenty of those created both for and against the things that he said. My personal favorite headlines have all come from the Babylon Bee. “‘Harrison Butker does not reflect our values,’ Says League of Woman Beaters.” “Feminists Warn Young Girls Against Marrying Rich, Muscular Football Stars Who Love Them and Take Care Of All Their Needs and Praise Them in Speeches.”

Now, before we talk about what Butker said, I have one question for you: Have you actually listened to the full speech? I’ll be honest: I had not until last night. But I didn’t want to write about it until I had actually listened to the whole thing. It’s on YouTube here if you’d like to go and do that now. It’s right at 20 minutes long. He’s not a terribly polished speaker. It’s not a very exciting or engaging speech. What has generated all the controversy is purely what he said, not how he said it. And, honestly, if he were not a key member of a Super Bowl-winning football team, it probably would have been ignored. The speech was given to a crowd of conservative Catholic students who were graduating from a conservative Catholic school. It focused mostly on Catholic issues like the character and theological purity of Bishops.

As for what Butker said, again, the speech was almost entirely focused on issues that were germane to his Catholic audience and fairly irrelevant to anyone else. But, he did slip in a few other ideas, all of which were delivered in context and not merely as one-liners designed to create a stir. He criticized the idea of Pride month, suggesting it is the result of a deadly sin made manifest. He criticized birth control and every means of producing children that is not totally natural. Somewhat ironically, he talked several times about the importance of staying in your lane while meandering quite far from kicking footballs and clothing design (his two lanes, if you will). He also told the women in the audience directly that where they have been told by the culture that their highest good and fulfillment are going to be found in a career and climbing the corporate ladder, they have been sold a diabolical lie. Before going on to speak movingly and even tearfully about his love and respect for his own wife, he suggested instead that some of them may have something else in mind. “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.”

That’s the line that has generated all the controversy. Yes, that’s really it. Thirty-eight words out of a 20-minute speech. And, 38 words delivered to a group of women who in all likelihood probably really did agree with him given their religious context and beliefs. In other words, if you were somehow offended by what Butker said, he wasn’t talking to you. Why are you wasting your time being offended by something someone said who wasn’t talking to you? If you disagree with him, so be it. If you are the kind of person who gets offended every time you hear a view expressed that you don’t agree with, you’ll spend most of your life offended. That doesn’t seem like a very enjoyable way to live. The fact is, motherhood is a sacred calling that only women can receive. What’s more, many women look forward to that – even at the expense of a career – and that’s okay. Are all women called to that? Of course not, and that’s okay too. Historically speaking, though, most have been, and that’s a very good thing. That’s how the next generation is created and nurtured. As a culture, we should probably celebrate that more than we do.

Even if you are celebrating what Butker said, though, he still wasn’t talking to you. He was expressing a conservative, Catholic cultural sentiment to a group of conservative Catholics. In fact, every position he staked out in his speech fell entirely in line with orthodox Catholic doctrine stretching back centuries. I didn’t agree with everything he said, and that’s okay. The real headline of the speech could have been something like: Conservative Catholic Delivers Commencement Address That Is Conservative and Catholic. Shocker.

Rather than diving in more to what he said, though, I want to give attention for just another minute to the reaction to it. Most of the negative reactions have ranged from silly to unhinged. Nearly 200 thousand people signed an online petition calling for Butker to be fired and replaced with a woman. Suffice to say, that’s not going to happen. In fact, the great likelihood is that all of this controversy is going to blow over and other than having to endure some more media and social media scorn, nothing is going to happen to Butker at all.

There are two primary reasons for this. First, he’s a really good kicker. No, you probably don’t understand. He’s really good. A writer I follow regularly summarized a bit of just how good he is. “…last year, Butker succeeded on 33 out of 35 field-goal attempts, was a perfect 38 for 38 on extra-point attempts, and was five for five on field-goal attempts from beyond 50 yards. He went six for six on field goals in the team’s win over the Cincinnati Bengals, including a 54-yarder. Also, more than 87 percent of his kickoffs were touchbacks. In his career, he’s scored 900 points and kicked more field goals of 50 yards or longer than anyone else in team history. At one point, he succeeded on 24 field goals in a row, another Chiefs team record. In 2022, he connected on a 62-yard field goal, the longest in Chiefs history. In 2020, he made two 58-yard field goals in the same game. He also holds the team record for most field goals kicked in a single season. Earlier this year, he kicked the longest field goal in Super Bowl history, a 57-yarder. In just seven years, he’s become the third-highest scorer in the history of the Kansas City Chiefs. If he’s not the best kicker in the league right now, he’s up there in, say, the top five.”

No team is going to fire someone doing that well at their job. Butker’s leg has arguably had more to do with the Chiefs’ three recent Super Bowl victories than any other single factor save Mahomes’ arm. His position is safe. What’s more, even though the NFL has distanced themselves from his remarks, they are exceedingly invested in the Chiefs’ continued success thanks to superstar tight end, Travis Kelce’s storybook romance with Taylor Swift, the most famous and successful popstar in the world’s bringing in a legion of new fans. Rest assured, the NFL isn’t going to put any pressure on the Chiefs to do anything that will threaten their chances of continued success. Money talks. And right now, Butker adds a whole lot of volume to that talking. Minus his superlative talent you can bet the farm that he would have already been shown the door.

There’s another element, though, that has mostly been missed, but which comments from Mahomes and Chiefs’ head coach, Andy Reid, shined a bit of light on. When asked about Butker’s comments, neither man indicated he agrees with the views he expressed in his speech. Mahomes’ comments were particularly interesting. He said: “I know Harrison. . .I’ve known him for seven years. And I judge him by the character that he shows every single day, and that’s a good person. That’s someone who cares about the people around him, cares about his family, and wants to make a good impact in society. When you’re in the locker room, there’s a lot of people from a lot of different areas of life, and they have a lot of different views on everything. And we’re not always gonna agree. And there’s certain things that he said that I don’t necessarily agree with. But I understand the person that he is, and he’s trying to do whatever he can to try to lead people in the right direction. And that might not be the same values as I have, but at the same time, I’m gonna judge him by the values that he shows every day, and that’s a great person. … I know what kind of person he is, and I’m gonna make sure I look at that first.”

Did you notice there the reason Mahomes has now voiced unwavering support for his friend and teammate in spite of not agreeing with the views he expressed? Character. In other words, Butker consistently lives out the values he expressed. He professes to follow Jesus and his character bears out that confession whether he’s at home with his wife and kids or in the locker room with his teammates.

I have little doubt that if Mahomes had said how disgusted he was with Butker’s comments, and insisted that he couldn’t play with him anymore, the Chiefs as an organization would not have stood by him. But he didn’t. And his comments about it didn’t have anything to do with the kind of player Butker is or his prowess on the field. They had everything to do with Butker’s character. It turns out Solomon was right. Righteousness guards people of integrity. Butker’s consistent character has proven to be a shield that has deflected and defended him from the worst attacks against him because of the things he said. This is right in line with what the apostle Peter said as well. “Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.”

Character counts. A lot. More even than we understand. When we find ourselves in the fire, that’s too late for us to suddenly develop the kind of character that is going to help sustain us through it. It has to have been well-established long before we ever found ourselves in that position. Harrison Butker has done this, and it is serving him incredibly well. It is serving his whole family well. May the same be said of each of us.