@crouchingbruin, thanks for the response, but issue was actually not getting the PHP code to work.
The issue was that (because the PHP code was treated as text) a white background with a shadow had appeared around said text, and around anything I then placed under Appearance>Theme Options>Home Page>Featured Content.
SOLUTION: Using Inspect Element, I found that the white background was a
Pre tag, and that my content was within it. I made my way back to Appearance>Theme Options>Home Page>Featured Content and discovered that my shortcode was inside of a Pre /Pre tag. I deleted that and then it was resolved.
So either Responsive or my TinyMCE Widget (which handles input boxes like that one) decided to put
Pre tags around whatever I typed into Featured Content.
