FFRF Action Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” is a National Football League kicker who used his platform to urge Americans to vote for Donald Trump to “keep God in America.”
Harrison Butker, a kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, posted a call to action for Christians on Election Day to his social media platforms. The professional football kicker created a political action committee (PAC) to mobilize Christians at the ballot box to “fight back and reclaim the traditional values that have made this country great.” Attached to a commercial for the Butker-founded Upright PAC was the caption: “Christians! Head to the polls today. Vote to keep God in America. Vote President Trump.”
The commercial opens with a narrator claiming, “In America, faith has always brought us together.” Interwoven with clips of Vice President Kamala Harris and “the radical Democrats” is the narrator claiming that “faith is under attack” and that “Harris has repeatedly rebuked Christians.” The Democratic Party is attached to the notion that conservative Christian “beliefs don’t belong in public life,” the commercial asserts.
Using clips of Fox News and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a well-known Christian nationalist, the commercial tries to illustrate that the Left is trying to “[go] after” and “spy” on Catholics. In comparison, the commercial transitions to clips of Trump praying and praising God, with the narrator urging, “We need a leader that will defend our values.” A clip of Trump shows him saying: “We’re going to bring back religion into our country.”
Butker launched his PAC in September and used it to endorse Hawley in October, actually attending three rallies to campaign for the senator. He described his PAC “as a way to promote and encourage Christian voters to vote so that their voices are heard this November.”
Earlier this year, Butker faced an onslaught of backlash following his commencement speech at a private Catholic college. While congratulating the women who received their degrees, Butker championed conservative Christian values and insinuated that the women were more excited about getting married, having children and becoming homemakers than about earning their college degrees.
Butker said, “I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told you.” He was referring to the seemingly progressive idea of women having autonomy over their own bodies, livelihoods and careers. (This condescension sounds somewhat familiar to Trump recently claiming that he’s going to “protect” women “whether the women like it or not.”)
Butker continued: “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.” “I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother,” Butker added. He argued that his wife embraced “one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.”
Butker also made snide comments about the LGBTQ-plus community, Pride Month, President Biden and abortion throughout his tiresome speech. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with a woman being a wife, mother or homemaker if that is their choice. But, in a time where women’s rights to make decisions about their own bodies are being ripped away, it is inconceivable that a graduation commencement speech would be filled with these notions. Suggesting to a group of young women on the day they receive their college degrees that they are destined to be wives and homemakers, and that they will be happiest there, is exhausting.
Alongside his outdated views about women, Butker has certainly earned his “theocrat” title for telling Christians to vote for Trump to “keep God in America” and trying to depict the religious right as a persecuted group.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.