The Chiefs remain quiet about Harrison Butker, but the Hunt women are speaking out
You’d be hard-pressed at this point to find anyone who doesn’t have an opinion about Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s commencement speech Saturday at Benedictine College.
While the Chiefs haven’t made a statement, the wife and eldest daughter of team CEO/chairman Clark Hunt shared their thoughts.
Daughter Gracie Hunt was on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” on Friday and was asked to provide “the reaction from the Hunt family regarding the kicker, Harrison Butker.”
“Well, I can only speak from my own experience, which is I’ve had the most incredible mom who had the ability to stay home and be with us as kids growing up,” she said. “And I understand that there are many women out there who can’t make that decision, but for me in my life, I know it was really formative in shaping me and my siblings to be who we are.”
Gracie, a former Miss Kansas USA, added: “I really respect Harrison and his Christian faith and what he’s accomplished on and off the field.”
Her mother, Tavia Hunt, meanwhile, did not mention Butker by name in an Instagram post Thursday, but called for celebrating “families, motherhood and fatherhood.” The post had been liked more than 9,000 times as of Friday morning.
They did not address other comments Butker made that have angered some people. He shared his personal opinion on a range of political, religious and social issues, criticizing President Joe Biden and referring to LGBTQ Pride Month as an example of the “deadly sins” as well as saying one of a woman’s most important titles is “homemaker” when speaking of his wife, Isabelle Butker.
Butker, a devout, proudly outspoken conservative Catholic, delivered his opinions at a private Catholic school.
“Affirming motherhood and praising your wife, as well as highlighting the sacrifice and dedication it takes to be a mother, is not bigoted,” Tavia wrote. “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.”
She also warned people “against taking things out of context. “Sound bites overlaid with hateful comments are not what we want to model for our children or others. We need more dialogue (and VALUES, IMO) in this country and less hate.”
Clark and Tavia Hunt have three children. Gracie is the oldest. Son Knobel attends Southern Methodist University, where the Hunts are longtime benefactors. Gracie and her father are SMU alumni.
Youngest daughter Ava is about to graduate from The Covenant School, a K-12 Christian private school in Dallas, and also plans to attend SMU.
“I’ve always encouraged my daughters to be highly educated and chase their dreams,” Tavia wrote. “I want them to know that they can do whatever they want (that honors God).
“But I also want them to know that I believe finding a spouse who loves and honors you as or before himself and raising a family together is one of the greatest blessings this world has to offer.
“Studies show that committed, married couples with children are the happiest demographic, and this has been my experience as well.”
She wrote that society “desperately needs dedicated men and women to raise up and train the next generation in the way they should go.”
She quoted Proverbs 31:28: “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
Last weekend for Mother’s Day, Tavia posted photos of herself with her children, noting how she had just helped Gracie move into a new apartment, Knobel move into a new condo and was preparing for Ava’s graduation.
In that post she wrote that she is “in awe of the miracle of motherhood and that I had the divine blessing of raising three precious souls. I am full of gratitude for family and the lavish love and grace of God.”
Comments on her post about Butker’s speech are mixed, reflecting the general debate. Several are similar to this: “I’m very happy for you ... I wish all of us could afford to stay home and do stuff with our kids because another person is paying the bills.”
She only replied to a couple of comments, including one person who challenged her assertion that married couples with children are the happiest.
“Do the research,” Tavia responded. “Check out American Family Survey, American Family Association, and research done by Focus on the Family, among countless other polls and sources.”
The American Family Survey is a nationwide study of 3,000 Americans by the Deseret News and the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University.
The Mississippi-based American Family Association is one of the largest “and most effective pro-family organizations in the country,” according to its website.
Focus on the Family is a Christian ministry based on six principles “drawn from the wisdom of the Bible and the Judeo-Christian ethic, rather than from the humanistic notions of today’s theorists,” the organization’s website says.
The comments from the Hunt family members and the subsequent response from others show just how divided people are about Butker’s speech.
