Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica call out Harrison Butker

“As a founding institution and sponsor of Benedictine College, the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica find it necessary to respond to the controversial remarks of Harrison Butker as commencement speaker,” the statement on their website said. “The sisters of Mount St. Scholastica do not believe that Harrison Butker’s comments in his 2024 Benedictine College commencement address represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested.”

Currently, the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica contain more than 80 women “devoted to a communal life of prayer, work and hospitality,” according to their website.

“Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation, and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division. One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman. We sisters have dedicated our lives to God and God’s people, including the many women whom we have taught and influenced during the past 160 years. These women have made a tremendous difference in the world in their roles as wives and mothers and through their God-given gifts in leadership, scholarship, and their careers.”

Seven Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica arrived in Atchison, Kansas in 1863 and founded St. Scholastica Academy (now Maur Hill–Mount Academy) for local young women. Mount St. Scholastica’s Junior College was opened in 1924 so that young women could further their education and a senior college was opened in 1932 for women to obtain bachelor’s degrees.

Yes family can become an idol. Lots of good things can if we’re not careful: health, beauty, etc...

The Mormon religion in particular makes family an idol, so much so that there is even marriage in Heaven. (Which Jesus explicitly says there isn’t.) Marriage in Christianity is ‘till death do us part’ — it’s not an eternal institution. It is temporary symbol however of the eternal love between Christ and His bride: the church.

Being fruitful and multiplying is likely the good and righteous plan God has for the vast majority of men and women, believers and non believers alike.

But not all men and women are called to marriage.

8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

10 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

....

25 Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. 27 Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

32 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.

(From 1 Corinthians 7)

Basically you’re doing what the nuns and the media did to Butker, which is ignore the entire context of the speech and find the one statement to pounce on and diminish him outright. Butker addressed a lot of topics, but the main takeaway was the all women should aspire to be homemakers part. And you are ignoring the nuns’ point about their legacy in promoting women’s education and Christian women being called to things both in the home AND beyond the home.

God bless You though if you’ve laid down your life for others as numerous nuns and other religious faithful have done throughout history and continue to do:

Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world. - James 1:27

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