Right, Iguana people, it’s time to get down to work. We gotta raise 8500 bucks so that a group, as Susan put it, of predominantly older, white people can listen to a black guy talk about bullying.
“What,” you’re saying, “don’t these guys have enough money to pay the fee? And who’s the group; who’s the guy?”
The group is St. Dunstan’s Church; the guy is LeRoy Butler, who everybody but Susan and me will know is an ex-Green Bay Packer. And Butler is apparently quite a guy—he spent his childhood wearing leg braces and, at times, using a wheel chair. From that he gets to this, as described in Wikipedia:
Butler was selected by the Packers in the second round of the 1990 NFL draft. He played in 181 games, earned a Super Bowl ring, for Super Bowl XXXI, following the 1996 season, was selected as an All-Pro five times and was selected to the Pro Bowl four times (1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998). He was named to the 1990s NFL All Decade Team, by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and was later inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, in 2007.
Wow—that’s a turn around! So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Butler moved into action, after he chatted with a fan wearing his jersey but adorned with a little pink ribbon. The fan was a little girl, but quite knowledgeable about breast cancer, and she filled Butler’s ears with statistics.
OK—Butler has four little girls, so he knows: when little girls speak, you listen!
And act—which is why he set up the LeRoy Butler Foundation, an organization that will give up to $800 to women who need financial assistance following breast cancer treatment. Here’s what the foundation website has to say:
After retiring, Butler founded the LeRoy Butler Foundation, whose mission is to “to help women going through breast cancer treatments obtain the assistance they need to focus on the job of healing verses (sic) the financial impact to their families.” Money from the foundation goes directly to patients who may be having financial struggles—such as home foreclosures—because they’ve spent so much on treatment and prescriptions.
Right—it should be “versus,” not “verses,” but how many typos do I make every day? And what a truly great cause, coming from a guy who presumably doesn’t need to do anything, after twenty years or so as a pro football player. Those guys make money.
Butler also has another cause—bullying. Or rather, anti-bullying, perhaps because he was the target of some barbs slung at him when he was limping around with his leg braces as a kid. So it was natural, apparently, for him to start speaking on the topic, for which he charges $8500.
And that may be why he decided to tweet Jason Collins, the gay basketball who came out recently. Butler wrote, or rather tweeted, these incendiary words:
Congrats to Jason Collins
Sorry—should have warned you to have the smelling salts near to hand…..
OK, so then he got the news—the minister wanted to cancel the contract. “Why,” asked Butler. “Check out the moral clause,” was the response. Oh, and then he was told that he could speak—and earn his fee—if he retracted his tweet, apologized, and asked God for forgiveness. (Question—what if God said “no?” Or better, here’s what my God would have said: “No frigging way. I am NOT gonna accept an apology from anybody—pro football player or not—who kisses ass to a bunch of bigots for 8500 bucks. Get some balls, LeRoy!”)
Well, perhaps LeRoy’s God and my own were running on parallel tracks that day—or maybe, just to keep the metaphor consistent, playing on the same team. Because LeRoy did tell the minister—don’t know why I didn’t put quotes on that—to go jump. Actually, here’s what he said, in a Milwaukee Sentinel article:
“This is a form of bullying, what you’re doing. You’re trying to get me to do something I don’t want to do. He disagreed, and I said, ‘We agree to disagree’ and he said ‘No, I’m right and you’re wrong.’”
All right—so Butler lost the fee, which apparently was to have gone to his foundation. Into this story steps St. Dunstan’s Church, of which my friend Susan is a parishioner. And although St. Dunstan has a number of gay people, most of the congregation is older and white—the demographic that should be against Butler’s tweet.
Nope—not these guys.
And they were talking about it—no wonder everybody hates Christians; who wouldn’t, since it’s always the idiots like the “minister” above who gets the attention? And yes, St. Dunstan’s has some money, but guess what? It’s earmarked for the usual things: snowplowing the parking lot, salaries, and also, well, for the poor. As Susan says, “we chronically run a deficit budget but don't cut funding for the poor even if we have to cut other expenses to the bone.” So no, there’s not $8500 in the budget for a speaker fee. But wouldn’t it be great if…..
So they contacted Butler, and he agreed to come speak in the middle of June of this year. And they did it, as Susan frankly admits, in part to spread the message: for every church that cancels on Butler, there is (minimally) another that will engage him.
Moral—there are good Christians out there…..
And no, they’re not gonna let bad Christians create the image.
Right—so here’s the challenge. I will match 10 dollars for the first ten dollars donated to St. Dunstan’s to bring Butler to speak. That’s 100 bucks. If you agree that Butler’s message should be heard, write the amount that you’d like to contribute in the “comments” section below. If you match one dollar for the first ten dollars, your contribution will be 10$; if you match two dollars, your contribution will be 20$, and so on. Then, send an email to marcnewhouse333@gmail.com with your contact information.
The challenge ends on Friday, 31 May 2013. That weekend, you’ll be notified of the results and sent a link to the site set up by the church to contribute funds for the activity. It’s the honor system, guys—I’m trusting you to contribute the amount pledged. And here, by the way, is the link you’ll be sent: http://www.stdunstans.com/wp/members/bringing-leroy-butler-to-st-dunstans
Second thing to do: copy and paste the following message into an email, and send it to all of your friends.
Do you love football and fairness? If so, please consider supporting a fund of St. Dunstan’s Church, which has engaged former Green Bay Packer LeRoy Butler to speak—for $8500—after he lost a speaking engagement at another church. Why? Only because Butler tweeted a message of support to Jason Collins, the gay basketball player, who recently came out. The minister of the other church demanded that Butler rescind his tweet, apologize, and ask forgiveness to God. Butler refused.
St. Dunstan’s Church is located in Madison, Wisconsin, and is a small parish of about 100 people. Most of their funds--beyond those for necessary expenses--are earmarked for helping the poor; the sum of $8500 for a speaking engagement is a true challenge for them.
Butler, who played for 12 years as a Green Bay Packer, speaks nationally about bullying, which will be his topic at St. Dunstan’s in mid-June.
If you can help, please send a donation to: http://www.stdunstans.com/wp/members/bringing-leroy-butler-to-st-dunstans
For more information, and to contribute to a matching fund, please click here: http://lifedeathandiguanas.blogspot.com/2013/05/muscular-christianity.html
Look, if every guy who loves football and fairness chips in a buck, we can easily get to $8500. Actually, I think we can go over the top. Here’s my proposal—anything over $8500 to the LeRoy Butler Foundation.
Hey, Butler—you in?
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