Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker gave a commencement address this month at Benedictine University in Kansas. Butker is a devout Catholic and was speaking at a Catholic institution. As such, many of his observations, such as his expressed preference for the traditional Latin Mass, were intended for a Catholic audience.
But other points Butker made had broader applicability, and quite a few of them provoked blowback, including his reference to the "tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion." The National Football League distanced itself immediately from Butker's remarks. "[Butker's] views are not those of the NFL as an organization," said Jonathan Beane, NFL's senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer. "The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger."
It's worth noting that (a) the NFL is not a Catholic organization, and (b) the league has had its share of players arrested for domestic violence and convicted of wire fraud, forgery, money laundering, counterfeiting, tax evasion, drug trafficking, driving while intoxicated, burglary, armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape, manslaughter and even murder. Perhaps it's a bad look to criticize a player calling for men to be God-fearing, responsible husbands and fathers.
But it's also an opportunity to observe that the terms "diversity" and "inclusion," like "choice" -- another contemporary buzzword -- have little meaning without context.
For example, to say I'm "pro-choice" explains nothing unless I denote the choices that I'm in favor of someone being able to........