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The vicious response to a simple speech about the blessings of marriage, family, and God’s design for men and women shows that in “a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” It also shows why we must all join in this “revolution of normalcy.”
It didn’t used to be like this. Really, it didn’t. There was a time in America, not even all that long ago, when Evangelical Christians, Catholics, and anyone with some common sense could state true things about what it means to be a man or a woman without having a woke mob break out the metaphorical torches and pitchforks — or the very real online petitions — and demand that you be run out of town. Or, in our moment, canceled, fired, and relegated to the “wrong side of history.”
But the world that some of us grew up in no longer exists, as Harrison Butker just found out in spades.
For the treason of encouraging women to embrace their God-given nature and pursue the high calling of becoming wives and mothers during a commencement address delivered to a Catholic college, the dysgenic priests of progress are now calling for the scalp of the Kansas City Chiefs’ star kicker.
Liberal harpies of both sexes are taking to social media to share their disgust and dismay that Butker would defend such backward beliefs that one of the “most important titles of all” that a woman can embrace is that of “homemaker.” By Thursday night, a petition on Change.org to “Demand the Kansas City Chiefs to Dismiss Harrison Butker for Discriminatory Remarks” had gained almost 170,000 signatures.
As the Standing for Freedom Center reported yesterday, “Outraged feminists claim that Butker is ‘telling women to stay in the kitchen’ and to quit working or pursuing a career…Scores of articles and social media posts claim that Butker is sexist and homophobic.”
The NFL, which can always be counted on to take the wrong side, “distanced itself from Butker’s comments, saying, ‘Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity. His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.’”
Commitment to inclusion? Apparently, not for the millennia-old belief that being a wife and mother, a homemaker, is a worthy and fulfilling calling. Get back into the rat race, ladies. Sit in those cubicles, punch the clock, eat fast food lunches, and by all means, avoid getting married to a good man and having children. That will show them!
And all this outrage is over what amounts to little more than a personal testimony. It’s not like Butker was mandating anything. He simply shared about how he and his wife have embraced their God-given roles in the home and how that has led to happiness and flourishing.
Here are the very normal — I’m sorry, scandalous — remarks in a fuller context:
“For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.
I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother. I’m on the stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation. I’m beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.”
Congratulations if you could read that and aren’t shaking with rage. You’re either a biblically literate Christian or just a normal person who hasn’t had their mind infected by feminism.
There it is. The “f” word. That’s what’s at the root of this entire overreaction. The only reason Butker’s remarks are controversial at all is because the toxic teachings of feminism have so corrupted our modern understanding of both men and women in society.
Had Butker delivered this same talk — plainly stated and simple truths in line with centuries of biblical teaching in both the Christian and Catholic traditions about what men and women are made for (our teleology) — before the feminist movement had sunk its rotten roots into our “social imaginary,” no one would have batted an eye. No one would have tried to get him fired. No one would have launched a petition accusing him of every ugly “ism” and “phobia” under the sun.
Because it didn’t used to be like this.
We used to understand that men and women are different because God made us to be different. As Catholic philosopher J. Budizewski says, “The difference between men and women is not invented or constructed, but simply recognized. It lies in the nature of things. Yes, of course, cultures try to nuance the difference between men and women in different ways, but that does not make the difference itself just a product of culture.”
God made men to be fathers — and, yes, women to be mothers. This is a high and glorious calling for both sexes. It is the fulfillment of the “dominion mandate,” given to the first father and mother in the world, Adam and Eve: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground’” (Genesis 1:28).
This isn’t to say that women can’t have productive careers or work outside of the home. But what our feminist-infected society currently tells women is that a successful career is somehow of greater worth than being a wife and mother — and that just isn’t true. It’s not true for men, either. Getting married, having children, and building a family is a wonderful thing. It’s a blessing, not a burden. Aspiring to do that — for men to become fathers and women to become mothers — isn’t regressive. It’s what we used to call “normal.”
And yet, we must remember that in the glorious pursuit of marriage and children, God calls men to be the providers and protectors of their families in a way that women aren’t. Both men and women are called to “work,” yes, but that work is different, and rightly so. A woman’s “work orientation” is towards the home, while a man’s takes him outside of it. Men appropriately shoulder the responsibility of going out into the world to secure the necessary provisions for their families, meaning their wives and their children.
I could go on at length to defend these “antiquated” concepts that now sound like a thousand nails ripping across a chalkboard in the ears of our “modern” society. But I’ll close with this: The main reason that Butker’s speech has evoked such a reaction is because he told the truth. And in “a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
In order to fully and finally smash the deceitful idol of feminism, which lies to both men and women, we are going to need more revolutionaries.
If you want to join this revolution of normalcy, this revolt against modernity, and help us collectively return forward to a time in which it didn’t used to be like this, here’s a simple prescription for men and women everywhere:
Embrace your God-given gender, your nature, and the roles that are rightly derived from it. Then get married, have kids, and make a home together. Fill it with a love for the Lord, with children, and with laughter.
And next season, turn on a Chiefs game and cheer for Harrison Butker.
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