The Verdict Regarding Butker's Address Should Be Good From 55 yards
To judge by the internet reaction, Kansas City Chiefs place-kicker Harrison Butker is guilty of a dreaded double-doink -- a missed field-goal attempt that embarrassingly hits both uprights -- with his commencement address the other day.
The NFL has distanced itself from Butker's unadorned socially conservative speech at Benedictine College, a Catholic school in Kansas. He's accused, meanwhile, of potentially driving women away from the NFL and, even worse, perhaps offending Taylor Swift by quoting one of her lyrics.
The first thing to say about this is that Butker is a traditionalist Catholic who gave a speech to traditionalist Catholic students graduating from a traditionalist Catholic school. Should we be surprised he sounded like a traditionalist Catholic?
He wasn't going to endorse abortion, or pride month, or transgenderism. And if you're not a Catholic (I'm not), his views on priests and the power of the Latin Mass are going to leave you cold, for a simple reason -- they aren't for us.
Complaining about the intensely Catholic subject matter of his address is a little like listening to the keynote at a philately convention and being shocked that it's all about stamp collecting.
Of course, the substance of Butker's talk was much more serious, and he had important, indisputably correct things to say about men and women.
His line that has drawn the most fire was directed at the graduating women: "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."
Butker was surely making a sociologically true statement about the women of Benedictine. If he had been talking at Vassar, he might have couched his remarks differently. Still, his observation has a more general applicability.
According to an analysis of public-opinion surveys by the Institute for Family Studies, "Strong majorities of mothers under 55 agree that housework is as fulfilling as employment. Depending on the year and the survey you prefer to cite, between 53% and 79% of mothers had this view." Yes, some mothers find employment outside the home more fulfilling, but many stay-at-home mothers "see the work they are doing as valuable, important and satisfying."
It should be OK for someone to occasionally give voice to their perspective. No one walked out when Butker delivered these lines; in fact, he got applause. And he wasn't being callous -- he broke down when talking about his own wife embracing "her vocation as a wife and as a mother."
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