Whoopi Goldberg and different View panelists are weighing in on Kansas Metropolis Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker‘s latest controversial graduation speech at Benedictine School.
The NFL participant was slammed on social media this week for his speech to graduating college students on the non-public Catholic faculty, the place he condemned abortion, euthanasia, IVF, surrogacy and the LGBTQ neighborhood, in addition to instructed that girls ought to embrace being a “homemaker.”
After mentioning the controversy on Thursday’s episode of The View, Goldberg went on to defend Butker’s proper to free speech, even when she doesn’t share the identical beliefs and perspective.
“I like when folks say what they should say,” the EGOT winner mentioned. “He’s at a Catholic faculty, he’s a staunch Catholic. These are his beliefs and he’s welcome to them. I don’t should consider them, I don’t have to simply accept them, the women that had been sitting in that viewers don’t have to simply accept them.”
She continued, “The identical method we would like respect when Colin Kaepernick takes a knee, we need to give respect to folks whose concepts are completely different from ours as a result of the person who says he desires to be president, You-Know-Who, he says the way in which to behave is to remove folks’s proper to say how they really feel. We don’t need to be that. We don’t need to be these folks.”
Whereas The View co-host Sara Haines additionally disagreed with Butker’s feedback, she mentioned she doesn’t assume folks must be “shut down or fired” for his or her views, referencing requires the Chiefs participant to be faraway from the crew.
Nevertheless, Haines disagreed with Goldberg’s comparability to Kaepernick, the previous soccer star who sparked controversy in 2016 amongst conservatives after he refused to face up throughout the Nationwide Anthem at NFL video games in protest of police brutality in America.
“Colin Kaepernick was standing up for the rights of many and saying, in a social justice second, this can be a reminder that we’re not there but,” she mentioned, including that Butker’s phrases are “divergent from nearly all of Catholics.”
Panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin later mentioned that whereas there have been some issues she “agreed with,” she took subject with many factors, together with his LGBTQ and homemaker remarks.
“He selected to focus on the LGBTQ neighborhood. There was a method you might converse with humility concerning the beliefs you stand for, however you may’t alienate sure components of the scripture,” she defined. “I’ve this enormous subject with this tradwife homemaker factor. What a exceptional privilege. If you happen to get to marry an NFL kicker who wins the Tremendous Bowl, you too may get to be a homemaker on this financial system!”
Sunny Hostin additionally expressed that she felt Butker’s phrases had been “problematic,” particularly in the direction of the LGBTQ neighborhood. “He mentioned it was sinful habits,” Hostin mentioned. “When the Pope, the chief of the Catholic church, mainly has accomplished extra for the LGBTQ neighborhood than any in Catholic historical past.”
Whereas Butker additionally took goal at President Joe Biden’s insurance policies as he’s additionally a Catholic, Hostin famous that Biden “understands there’s a distinction in church and state.”
After listening to the opposite panelists’ ideas, Goldberg continued to emphasise that Butker “has the correct to say what he says.” She added, “While you say to any person, ‘I don’t like what you mentioned, and so I’m going to get your job taken away since you disagree with me,’ for me that’s a problem. It occurs to us on a regular basis.”
Following the backlash on-line, the NFL launched a press release relating to Butker’s speech, noting that it was in his “private capability.”
“His views should not these of the NFL as a corporation,” Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice chairman and chief range and inclusion officer, mentioned in a press release. “The NFL is steadfast in our dedication to inclusion, which solely makes our league stronger.”