Q Toon: Graduation Exorcises

Much has been said about Kansas City Chiefs place kicker Harrison Butker's commencement address to the graduating class of Benedictine College, a small Roman Catholic college in Atchison, Kansas. 

You may not have heard of Benedictine College before now, or, for that matter, of Harrison Butker. Not much attention gets paid to NFL kickers, who spend most of the game on the sidelines — even though, to the bafflement of the rest of the world, Americans name our sport after the body part that only the kicker uses for anything other than running around. I mean, do you remember Ryan Longwell? Jan Stennerud? Morten Andersen?

Can you tell which of their names I misspelled?

So in case you somehow missed it, Butker, who after all did kick the winning field goals in Superbowls LVII and LVIII, warned the graduates against "dangerous gender ideologies," a slap at transgender persons. He also condemned LGBTQ+ Pride Month, celebrated every June since the raid on the Stonewall Inn, "as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media [which] all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.”

For 20 minutes, Butker, a conservative Roman Catholic, went on and on railing against President Biden, ecumenical catholic leaders, and "the tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion." But most of the attention to his address was on his advice to women.

“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. 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.”

If Butker had balanced the message by exhorting the men in his audience to be just as excited about marriage and children — particularly if, as he described Mrs. Harrison Butker's experience, their career aspirations fail them — there might have been less uproar over his advice to the women who had devoted four years and incurred a lifelong student loan debt for the piece of paper the dean was about to hand them.

Butker's address was an echo of last year's commencement speaker, Leonard Leo, who told the class of 2023 that “modern-day barbarians, secularists, and bigots” are “determined to threaten and delegitimize individuals and institutions who refuse to pledge fealty to the woke idols of our age.” 

Well, what else would you expect from a graduation speech at a small Roman Catholic college?

Almost unremarked was Butker's swipe at a congressional bill to withhold federal funding from colleges and universities that don't restrict antisemitic speech. He didn't object to it on libertarian free speech grounds, or as a stand against the drive to label as antisemitic any criticism of Netanyahu's wholesale slaughter of Palestinian civilians, but because "stating something as basic as the Biblical teaching of who killed Jesus could land you in jail.”

That's code for holding all Jewry responsible for Christ's crucifixion, a right-wing fundamentalist credo espoused by Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and every pogrom since the Middle Ages in direct defiance of Luke 23:34.

So now there are some advocating for the Chiefs to fire Butker, much as the San Francisco 49ers dropped Colin Kaepernick for speaking up and kneeling down for his political views. But the 49ers were wrong then, and the Chiefs would be wrong, too. 

The NFL has published their disagreement with Harrison Butker's address, but defended his right to speak his mind. Even the antisemitic bit.

That, my friends, is what free speech is all about.

You are free, nay, welcome to disagree with him. 

And doing so is not "silencing," "threatening," or "delegitimizing" him. Yes, some on the Left are guilty of "cancel culture." Just as some on the right are guilty of "cancel legislation."

But I'll bet on Draft Kings, FanDuel, or anywhere else that as long as Mr. Butker keeps kicking field goals, he'll get to exercise his Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech until Mrs. Butker tells him to knock it off.