On Fear of Speaking the Truth
Through the month of May each year, colleges and universities across the country are busy holding graduations. As they do, most will reach out to someone well known or influential to give a commencement address to the graduates. During the 2024 graduations I was particularly struck by the dichotomy and news reaction to two different speeches, both given by players for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. The Chief’s are the winners of the Super Bowl the last 2 years, and have played in 4 out of the last 5, and have won three times, so their players have been given a big spotlight as they go and speak.
The more well-known of the two speeches I noticed was that of Travis Kelce. Travis is the tight end for the Chiefs, and probably currently even more well known for dating Taylor Swift. Travis and his brother Jason both attended the University of Cincinnati, but had missed their own graduations years ago when they began playing in the NFL. To be fair, the events that occurred didn’t happen during a school graduation but were during the filming of a live episode of the brothers’ podcast. During the filming the university President, in full academic regalia, presented the diplomas that they hadn’t received years before.
As a part of this “graduation” Travis gave a very short speech before the crowd. While he spoke Travis held in his hand an open can of beer. His speech was punctuated by a call that those in attendance must “fight for your right to party!” The line is a quote from a song by the Beastie Boys, which then began to play for the crowd. Then with the school administrators standing nearby, Travis chugs and downs his beer, slams it onto the stage, and receives his diploma, stopping to smile for photos.
The crowd was going wild, and the news coverage all seemed to enjoy the antics, and commended Travis for receiving his diploma in “his own style.” The message from him was clear: the most important thing you can do in your life is to seek to have a good time.
On the opposite end of the spectrum of speeches is Harrison Butker, the Chief’s kicker. Butker was asked to speak to Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts school with an enrollment of about 2,100 students. The speech was labeled by the media as misogynistic, and he would hit on topics such as birth control, abortion, and pride month. The NFL released a statement saying that his speech doesn’t represent the values of inclusion that the league stands for.
While reading through a full-transcript of the speech, as a protestant believer there are a few small comments that Butker made that do not represent sound doctrine, such as his hope to attain salvation some day (which points to the catholic believe of faith plus works, where as protestants we believe in salvation by faith alone).
But by and large, the speech supports Christian values, and is a wonderful example of what it looks like to speak truth which is so counter-cultural. Butker said that himself, “Our Catholic faith has always been countercultural. Our Lord, along with countless followers, were all put to death for their adherence to her (the churches) teachings. The world around us says that we should keep our beliefs to ourselves whenever they go against the tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We fear speaking truth, because now, unfortunately, truth is in the minority.”
Butker sets the stage up well for his speech. Everything else he is going to say he believes that many of us are afraid to say publicly as it is not the majority opinion. He rightly calls the problems that we face as a society as being disordered, that is because they are going against God’s design they are actually a plague on society and not something that is leading to the flourishing of the nation. Human laws can be both good and bad, because they are made by those who still sin and don’t have pure motives. No law is perfect, except for Gods. Take for example Psalm 119:137–138, “Righteous are you, O LORD, and right are your rules. You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness.” If God’s laws are righteous and good, then following them will be good for us, where following any iniquitous laws only leads us to disorder.
I want to highlight some of the good statements he made in speaking counter-cultural truth to a culture that doesn’t want to hear it.
In addressing the women graduates he said, “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.” The culture that was listening to this message heard Harrison Butker discourage women from going out and finding jobs. What instead I think that he did was cast a biblical vision for the home, and promote or highlight the calling that it is to be a wife and a mother. Multiple times in his speech he refers to being a wife and a mother as being a vocation. Firsthand I’ve seen my wife Darla model this. It’s a never ending job. What mother clocks out at 5pm and leaves like you might in a job?
God ordained that each of us should work, and that work be a natural part of our existence. This wasn’t an encouragement not to work, but it was highlighting the joy that is found in working in the home, and commending it to a graduating class as an honorable and worthwhile vocation that they should consider and pursue.
What Butker was highlighting is that for a Christ-following woman, choosing to be a homemaker is not a lesser vocation, as the culture was criticizing him for, but a greater calling. The homemaker is a great manager, an educator, a counselor, among many other things. The encouragement was to “disregard the outside noise (of culture) and move closer to God’s will.”
Butker spoke to the issue of birth control and abortion in this way: “there is nothing good about playing God with having children — whether that be your ideal number or the perfect time to conceive.” What our culture celebrates and has enabled is the disconnecting of pleasure found in sexual activity from the rightful place inside of a covenantal marriage, and its natural function of conception and child-birth. He is speaking to the trend in our culture to delay marriage, and to delay having children until one can settle in their career, or to achieve a goal one has set. Culture says that just because you delay these things it doesn’t mean you have to delay having sexual relationships. Use birth control to ensure no child is conceived, and if one is then you always have the choice for an abortion. It is to this that Butker says we are playing God with having children, that we always fully decide when to bring a new life into the world, or to end one.
He doesn’t leave men out of his speech either. “Part of what plagues our society is this lie that has been told to you that men are not necessary in the home or in our communities. As men, we set the tone of the culture, and when that is absent, disorder, dysfunction and chaos set in.” Here he calls men to lead in their homes, to be busy providing for and protecting their family. He then goes on and calls men to do hard things, to use God given talents that God has given each of them, even if at first they don’t enjoy it. He is reminding them that the biblical vision isn’t that their wife would just be at home while he went out, but that he too has a large role to play in the lives of his family. While culture was criticizing his call for women to consider being homemakers, I also didn’t see them praising Butker for calling men to play a meaningful role in their homes.
So these are the opposing worldviews that were seen through the speeches of two different players who play on the same team. One said to go out and do hard things, to have a meaningful role in your home and in your community, to pursue the work of raising children in the home as earnestly as one would a vocation, to nurture and care for one's family, and to protect and provide for them. The other one said to fight for your own pleasure and enjoyment. And which do you think was celebrated by culture?
It’s not easy to speak up and to advocate for positions that align with God’s will and which run counter to culture. It takes boldness and conviction to speak God’s truth. You aren’t celebrated but are instead criticized, made fun of, and pushed back to the margins.The question rightfully comes down to, do you fear man or do you fear God? Matthew 10:28 puts it clearly, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” That is, following God’s design and following God’s law (the one who can destroy your soul) is much more important than gaining the respect of those that at worst can end your life on earth. If it is contrary to God’s will then it is sin, and because God is holy and he is just he must punish sin, which means the death of your soul. The good news is that through Jesus salvation is found, and in Him a restoration of our relationship with God. He then asks that we walk in newness of life, that is that we would not walk in our former way of life, but that we would order our lives after God’s commands and follow Him as Lord of our lives.
That’s really what it comes down to, is Jesus the Lord of your life, or is following and adopting the culture that is around you your guide? We shouldn’t fear man, or the opinions of man, but should instead fear and follow God. I’m thankful for the boldness of Harrison Butker, and am encouraged to follow his example. I encourage you to do the same.
