That commencement speech didn't need to be on the internet

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1. A take I haven’t written elsewhere

That commencement speech didn't need to be on the internet

(via)

By now you likely will have heard of the controversial commencement speech from Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker at Benedictine College in Kansas. If not, you can watch it here or read the transcript.

Butker and Benedictine are both Catholic, and apparently pretty culturally and theologically conservative, and so was the speech. There was a lot that got people riled, but probably the single most contentious part was a couple paragraphs on roles of women. In brief, Butker told the female graduates in his audience that he imagined most of them “are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world” and that homemaker is “one of the most important titles of all.”

After the backlash came the anti-backlash. Here on Substack,

Jesse Singal

rightly rejected “the idea that something must be ‘done’” about Butker’s comments or “at least we need to tut about [them] a lot.”¹

Similarly, writing for

The Free Press

,

Kat Rosenfield

made the point that Butker is “a Catholic man saying Catholic things at a Catholic university,” and his comments were very well-received by his in-person audience. As for everyone else, Rosenfield said, maybe chill out a little. This speech was not for or about you, so why are you so mad?

If Butker broke into my house, tied me to a chair, and forced me to watch the whole thing with my eyelids taped open Clockwork Orange–style, I wouldn’t be thrilled! But he didn’t do this, and as such, I am far less mad at him than I am the shrieking discourse hall monitors demanding I be outraged by it. Not only is it hard to imagine a more joyless—or fruitless—way to spend my limited time on this planet, it’s hard to see how Butker’s comments differ from the hundreds of thousands of speeches delivered to approving crowds every day, in various settings, by faith leaders of all stripes.

On Twitter, my former colleague Joel Mathis was among those skeptical of this take. “If I understand this correctly, a culture of free speech means we shouldn't criticize Harrison Butker?” he asked. In a subsequent post, Joel clarified that he’s not endorsing the petitions calling for Butker to be ousted from his job, “but that's not really the case being made in the [The Free Press] piece. It’s more ‘this is a Catholic speech for Catholics, so why are you weighing in?’”