What Andy Reid or Patrick Mahomes SHOULD have said
The Harrison Butker controversy provides rich insights into the state of our culture. Trend lines look good for the family values side in light of the vitriol spewed at Mr. Butker by the pro-abortion sub-culture of our country.
Pulse has tracked the story on our social media platforms. You’re probably familiar with the story. In case you’re not, here’s a quick recap:
- Harrison Butker is the star place-kicker of the Kansas City Chiefs who kicked the winning field goal in the Super Bowl earlier this year.
- He is a devout Catholic who was invited to give the commencement address at the Catholic Benedictine College on May 11th (above).
- In his address, he touched upon traditional Catholic family values, emphasizing the primacy of the role of homemaker over career. This line received the largest round of applause, by the way.
- He encouraged the men to be “unapologetic in your masculinity, fighting against the cultural emasculation of men.”
- He called out abortion as bad policy, and lamented a president “who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally.”
You get the idea.
The backlash
The backlash to the ‘Harrison Butker controversy’ was swift, unhinged … and strangely encouraging.
Stand-up comedian, Chelsea Handler, ranted:
“I’m guessing this Bible thumper thumped himself too hard with his Bible and gave himself CTE.” (The rest of her rant was too profane for polite company.)
Jonathan Beane, the National Football League’s senior VP and chief diversity and inclusion officer, distanced the league from Butker:
“Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity. His views are not those of the NFL as an organization.”
And yet when former NFL quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, kneeled in protest (while in uniform) during the National Anthem at NFL games, commissioner Roger Goodell said,
“I wished we had listened earlier, Keep, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to.”
So the NFL is okay with one of their employees wearing socks that depict cops as pigs, but not another who believes kids fare best with a stay-at-home mom and when they haven’t been aborted. Guess the NFL isn’t as ‘diverse’ and ‘inclusive’ as they pretend.
The boss’s wife disagrees with the NFL
On the other hand, Tavia Hunt, wife of the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs (Clark Hunt), offered full-throated support for Butker:
“Affirming motherhood and praising your wife, as well as highlighting the sacrifice and dedication it takes to be a mother, is not bigoted. It is empowering to acknowledge that a woman’s hard work in raising children is not in vain. Countless highly educated women devote their lives to nurturing and guiding their children. Someone disagreeing with you doesn’t make them hateful; it simply means they have a different opinion. Let’s celebrate families, motherhood and fatherhood.”
Good for her.
Chiefs star quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, and head coach, Andy Reid, provided less than full-throated support.
Said Mahomes:
“There are certain things that he said that I don’t necessarily agree with but I understand … he’s trying to do whatever he can to lead people in the right direction. I judge him by the character that he shows every single day. That’s someone who cares about the people around him, cares about his family and wants to make a good impact in society.”
Coach Reid said:
“We’re a microcosm of life. Everybody is from different areas, different religions, different races, and so, we all get along, we all respect each other’s opinions and not necessarily do we go by those, but we respect everybody to have a voice. … My wish is that everybody could kind of follow that.”
Mahomes and Reid danced around the content of Butkers speech, focusing on his right to say it.
What exactly does Mahomes disagree with? That motherhood is more important than a career? That a child is better off alive than aborted? That a man should act like a man and not a girl?
Pulse recognizes that he has a brand to protect, and that the woke mob would punish him if he said the wrong thing. So what could Mahomes or Reid have said?
We like what Mahomes’ mom said: “Amen!”
That might require too much courage. But they could have said something like this:
“We love the fact that we live in a country that honors diverse speech and inclusion, and certainly respect the way Harrison Butker stands up for the family values that have so defined this great country since its founding. Rather than focusing on what divides us, we should all focus on what unites us, such as motherhood. Without moms, none of us would be here. Such as fatherhood, because without dads, none of us would be here. And for babies, because without babies, we won’t have a country for very long. It’s time to stop attacking each other and unite in brotherhood. End of story.”
Ben Shapiro’s reaction
Ben Shapiro weighed in with an astute observation (above):
“This sort of culture gap that has emerged is the driving force behind the division in America, more than the economy … “
Pulse slightly disagrees with Shapiro when he asserts that “half the country” wants to undermine our faith principles. Pulse thinks it’s smaller than that.
Yes, the political divide seems to be about 50/50. But the regressive Left doesn’t necessarily represent the views of rank and file voters in the Blue Party.
The Blue Party is losing Black and Hispanic voters to the Pro-Life party in numbers large enough to swing an election. A Marist Poll reveals moderates are closer to the Red Party than the Blue on abortion:
Knights of Columbus Marist Poll:
- 66% of Americans support placing legal limits on abortion
- 6 in 10 support limiting abortion to first trimester
- 83% support pregnancy resource centers, centers that don’t provide abortions, centers with which Pulse is very much involved. We may have more news on that front in the near future.
- 2 out of 3 believe healthcare professionals with religious objections to abortion should not be legally required to perform them.
- 86% believe laws can protect both the mother and her unborn child.
- 37% of Democrats believe abortion should be limited to first trimester at MOST; 22% of Dems believe it should be limited to cases of rape, incest, or the mother’s life … at MOST.
And people are flocking to Red states at the expense of Blue states, as we reported a few weeks ago. Here’s the recap:
The states with the most inbound migration are:
1. Texas, where abortion is banned, except in cases involving the Mother’s health.
2. Florida, which passed a Heartbeat Law.
3. Georgia, which passed a Heartbeat Law.
4. South Carolina, where abortion is banned at 6 weeks.
5. Tennessee, where abortion is banned, with limited exceptions.
The states with the most outbound migration are:
1. New York, which has an unqualified right to abortion up to 24 weeks.
2. California, with abortion at viability, with broad exceptions.
3. Illinois, with abortion at viability, with broad exceptions.
4. New Jersey, with no limits on abortion.
5. Massachusetts with abortion available up to 23 weeks and 6 days.
6. Maryland, no limits on abortion.
That’s why Pulse is optimistic that the tide is turning. Holy Families simply work better than broken ones. Data supports it. And of course, so does common sense, as we have demonstrated in previous blogposts. (We created an entire video series on Holy Families, which you can view here.)
The number of Harrison Butkers are growing, as more people speak out in support of traditional families. In other words, it is a fringe, indeed a powerful fringe, that has manufactured the “Harrison Butker controversy.”
Join Harrison Butker and keep speaking the Truth.
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