By Mark Elfstrand
Father’s Day. A relatively minor blip on the annual calendar compared to Mother’s Day. No need to explain why that is, right?
What does it take to become a “father” or “dad? I reflected on this recently as I watched another media circus over the kicker for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, Harrison Butker. As a football talent, he is superb. He’s won many a game for the Chiefs.
Harrison became a national headline after his May 11th graduation speech at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. A speech, by the way, which received a standing ovation. The school is a Catholic college. Students are decidedly Catholic. Butker is, too.
Yet his words drew an enormous cry of “foul” from the progressives within our culture. Butker challenged President Biden, a professing Catholic, on his aggressive pro-abortion agenda. He strongly encouraged the role of motherhood and homemaker to be of great value to any society.
And he dissed the LGBTQ+ “pride” agenda, defining it as “evil.” How dare he!!!
A few members of the Chiefs organization—a couple of players, his head coach, and even the wife of the owner—stood by Butker as a player and as a person of character. His critics included Chiefs player Travis Kielce and his girl friend, Taylor Swift. She demanded the Chiefs release him!
Harrison not only did not apologize for his comments despite this pressure, he clearly stood by them when he spoke a few days later at a “Courage Under Fire Gala” in Nashville, Tennessee.
Here is a particularly powerful portion of his message:
“Our love for Jesus, and thus, our desire to speak out, should never be outweighed by the longing of our fallen nature to be loved by the world. Glorifying God and not ourselves should always remain our motivation despite any pushback, or even support. I lean on those closest to me for guidance, but I can never forget that it is not people, but Jesus Christ, who I’m trying to please.” He received another standing ovation. Read More
