The Final Button on the Harrison Butker Story

I posted this blog well after the story of Harrison Butker's commencement speech went out of the public consciousness. However, this was a response I wrote to a comment on Facebook and felt it was just too good not to share. Enjoy and share your comments, please.

Watch my Videos on Butker: His now infamous speech, the commencement speech that perfectly rebuts Butker, and Butker getting praise for saving a life, despite the fact it was a skilled female that actually did the life-saving!

Christians have fallen all over themselves to support Harrison Butker's speech. My comments and DMs are filled with those sharing they will not buy his jersey, etc. But this form of Christianity misses that Butker's language is dangerous to women and says far more that simply affirming the option of women to unashamedly choose to tbe a "home maker" (note they don't offer the same option to men for being homemaker's and supporting the dream of their wife???)

Butker said women who desire a career to help them live a fulfilling life have been duped by a "diabolical lie." That was also not the only dangerous language of the speech. Butker said queer people who want to celebrate living their life are participating in a "deadly sin." He said women using birth control were "playing god." This was clearly an agenda'd speech to share conservative Christian rhetoric that is bent on taking us into a Handmade's Tale vision of life in which women are to be sexual objects, baby producers and house cleaners for their authoritarian husband.

I'm certainly not saying Butker's wife can't be happy in her life choices. She can and no one is disputing that (although I would mention Butker grew up ina. well-to-do home and makes millions, which gives his wife options others simply do not have.) My pushback is that the tropes recited by Butker have been used to force women to be dependent on men for generations, including those where Christians would say of a man abusing his wife and kids "that's their business." Heck, John MacArthur still defends spousal abuse today and the Southern Baptist Conference has covered up tens of thousands of cases of abuse of women and children by their male church leaders and those women often feel they have no recourse due to the teachings of their church and its believe in women being complementary, rather than deserving of empowerment.

Butker is voicing the fact that American Christians are trying to force these beliefs onto the entire country, despite none of the things he mentioned being highlighted in the Bible even a fraction of the times it commands to care for the poor, foreigner, marginalized and economically disadvantaged (commanded about 2000 times in the Bible and Jesus said if you don't do it you cannot inherit the kingdom - yet Butker didn't feel inspired to highlight these things, jjust that he wants the marginalized to accept being marginalized - another historical message of the western Christian Church.)

Butker's representation is that he speaks as a Christian, a reflection of Christ, yet:

• # of times Jesus expressed banning abortion and birth control as being priorities of Heaven: Zero

• # of times Jesus called out homosexuality as a deadly sin: Zero (although he did say some eunuchs were born that way and that Sodom would have a better judgment day than the religious capitalistic city of Capernaum.)

• # of times Jesus said a woman's place was in the home: Zero (but he had many women traveling with him helping in his ministry and funding his ministry and a case could be made he praised Mary for being engaged with the group while saying she made a better choice than the "homemaker" Martha.)

• # of times Jesus chose to stand with the religious code of religious people to get applause from them, instead of standing with "sinners" and thus being hated by the religious: Zero (I am absolutely convinced Jesus would never be invited to speak at a Christian commencement in America.)

To me, Butker's speech (And yes, I've listened to the entire speech more than once) sounds very little like a speech representing the historical Jesus and much more like one representing a particular politicized religious perspective (of a group with massive political and financial power, yet claims to be oppressed,) a perspective that's not historical Christianity but is actually about 150 years old and developed specifically in white euro cultures with complete disregard for other forms of Christianity.

In a country that claims to be free and godly, females deserve every right a man has. I have no problem with anyone wearing a Butker jersey but I will stand against any religious group that tries to "give to Caesar what is god's" in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus by attempting to impose it's religious code into civil law through political gaming and manipulation.

Hope you all are well.