Together in the Middle
Together in the Middle
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker has once again made headlines and rattled cages with his straight talking. You may remember he was scoffed at for connecting fatherlessness and gun crime in the wake of the tragedy at the Chief’s Superbowl victory parade. This time, Butker was invited by a small Catholic college in his home state to speak to graduates. He did not waste words, calling out Rome’s clergy and Catholic politicians, while exhorting the Class of 2024 to make a difference by living out their God-given vocations.
Society is disordered, he said, because leaders don’t “stay in their lanes”. Bishops and priests got an earful for caring more about their reputations than for the souls in their care. Cowardice on the part of church leaders sent a message that the “sacrament didn’t matter” during the pandemic. Those in the “church of nice” who refuse to speak truth and live their convictions are playing a losing game, Butker said.
Political leaders, professing to be Catholic, including President Biden, were also rebuked for supporting every deviant sexual cause and perpetuating a culture of death. The “growing support for degenerate cultural values in media all stems from the pervasiveness of disorder; our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith but at the same time is delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally.” Maybe a pro-abortion event looks like the Mass to someone non compos mentis?
To make sure he ticked off a wide variety of people, Butker then addressed women and men separately, encouraging them to consider the “diabolical lies” being fed to them. Women will find most fulfillment in their vocations as homemakers while men need to “set the tone” for society. “Be unapologetic in your masculinity, fighting against the cultural emasculation of men. Do hard things. Never settle for what is easy.”
Well, that was all too much for some. Triggered progressives heard what they wanted to hear and pounded their laptops to make sure their objections were noted. The hostess of one “comedic and feel-good” podcast said she hoped Butker was “cancelled to hell and back” for being so disrespectful to women. “I forget that this type of person exists everywhere. This is evangelical Christianity.” (Should we tell her? Benedictine College…Oh, never mind.) The NFL are reportedly seething that one of their players would say such hateful things and someone at Kansas City’s official website doxxed the kicker (for which he is suing).
Yes, this could be one of those online “tempest in a teacup” moments or as Pastor Fiene put it, “the stupidest, fakest outrage I think I’ve ever seen.” Likely some of those who posted didn't even bother to watch Butker’s speech. But I tend to think these social/ media storms are sometimes instructive distillations of the attitudes of our ruling elites, and often an insight into who they think their enemies are. Let me build a case.
Do you remember President Obama’s “Life of Julia” campaign? A girl is portrayed as she ages, dependent on the state for education, healthcare, childcare and retirement pension. One child, no marriage, no husband, no church. Just entitlements all the way down. The campaign was mocked but still, the idea that you should look to the state for all your needs was clear. Just last week, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi participated in a debate over whether populism is good or bad. At one point, Mrs Pelosi said that God-fearing Americans are “blocked” from seeing the solutions that government is offering because of their “cultural views”. Clinging to their Bibles and their guns.
Mrs Pelosi’s apparent bewilderment was a way to disguise her contempt for conservative Americans, but she is one who wants to reshape the world in her image, through power and control. She and her tribe want to be the arbiters of what is good, just and true. If you look to family or tradition or history to make decisions about your life, then you need to be discouraged from that. If you take your marching orders from the word of God, that’s even worse. You are the enemy.
The unhinged response when anyone stands for life, for family and for marriage reveals there is genuine hostility against goodness, truth and beauty. I suspect idolatry is at the heart of it, because humans want to set those standards for themselves. They wish that reality would conform to how they want it. But these things are gifts from God. When challenged by the real deal – a man who praises his wife for embracing her vocation as a mother – the resentment that their fakery from is shown for what it is spills out.
A number of posts on social media expressed the desire that Butker would wind up injured or worse when he next plays; someone at his own city’s council clearly didn’t care if people attacked his family in his home. Just the thought that Justice Kavanaugh might rule in favor of the unborn prompted attacks against him including dubious rape allegations and a failed attempt on his life. Pro-life pregnancy centers were firebombed before the overturning of Roe was even confirmed. Churches in Canada were burned over a racially-motivated hoax. The US Department of Justice has held pro-lifers at gunpoint in their homes. Transgender shooters are defended when they kill kids at a Christian school.
The divide in America is not really left versus right, country versus city or even upper classes versus low. Those who see a “uniparty” in Washington when it comes to things they care most about know that it’s not really even shown in political affiliation. Two sides want very different things. One side looks to smash all that came before and turn all eyes to the state. The other knows that a good nation prizes marriage, families, life and faith; things that the state cannot produce.
And despite the blanket condemnation of someone like Butker, podcast lady was right: “This type of person exists everywhere.” Entrepreneur and Mises Institute contributor, C Jay Engel refers to these folks as “heritage Americans”. They can be found across all walks of life because they are motivated by place and kin. He points out in an essay at the American Reformer:
Middle Americans are the ones that prioritize the maintenance of their way of life, desire to be left alone by the coastal elites, and identify much more with memories of folk and kin than with postwar America as an ideological engine of world transformation. They understand instinctually that America was a place and a people, an inherited social order, not a propositional nation.
In a recent conversation between Engel and Auron McIntyre, he suggested a new “long march” was needed on the part of middle Americans, planning ways to build for posterity:
AM: Don't worry about the ideological implications of every given policy, worry more about whether or not it benefits your friends, the people you're trying to protect. If the answer is yes, then engage.
CJE: The thing is, your enemies are operating on that standard while you're staying principled. That's how the conservative movement lost – your enemies operate on identity politics and they've convinced you to operate on principle. Who's going to win that fight?”
I am hoping that the connection is clear enough: this is not a call to ditch the Constitution but to caution that it will not be enough. It is not a call to retreat and abandon the Biblical mandate of preaching the Gospel and serving our neighbors. (Nor to engage in unscrupulous living, just to be clear!) It is warning that you have enemies and they hate you for what you stand on. It is an encouragement to think about ways to use talents and resources to build back better, to focus on our families, our churches, communities and counties.
To those who want to upend every custom, every institution, those who cling to their fear and their idolatry, the enemy is traditional families. The enemy is strong men. The enemy is contented women. The enemy is a fearless church. The enemy are those who know that “Christ is king to the heights” as Mr Butker declared, concluding his speech. Butker says he never coveted the platform he has, but he takes the opportunity to speak as a gift from God. There are others in the “middle” who are keen to push back on godless agendas, even if they can’t name why.
