Intolerance Unmasked: The Persecution of Harrison Butker

'Everything is allowed to the activists who promote bended knees, pride nights, and alternative national anthems. But, ... nothing is allowed for the God of Hosts.'

From The Imaginative Conservative

By John Horvat

The god of sports has long bowed before the god of woke. Everything is allowed to the activists who promote bended knees, pride nights, and alternative national anthems. But, as the left’s reaction to Harrison Butker’s recent commencement speech shows, nothing is allowed for the God of Hosts.

The controversy over Harrison Butker’s fiery commencement address at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, has set the liberal world ablaze. The left is furious. His statements against abortion, contraception, feminism, and homosexual pride month, and his support for the Traditional Latin Mass—and so much more—leave no doubt about where he stands.

In reply, the woke mobs, pitchforks in hand, are mobilizing with commentaries of rage. At least two petitions, each with tens of thousands of signatures, demand that he be kicked off the Kansas City Chiefs football team. Unintimidated, Mr. Butker is doubling down.

Showing its True Face

The curious effect of this standoff is that the opposition is forced to show its true face, which is often hidden behind a mask of tolerance.

The incident exposes the hypocrisy of those liberals who affirm that people can say or think anything they want as long as it hurts no one.

Harrison Butker’s speech at the conservative Catholic Benedictine College hurt no one in the audience, which gave him a prolonged standing ovation. He was preaching to the choir and giving it what it wanted to hear, pulling out all the stops.

Conservatives can point out that, consistent with liberal ideas, anyone outside this select audience who disagreed was free to not listen. However, the problem is not only the things he said but that he broadcast it so loudly and clearly. His remarks upstaged all the pro-Gaza commencements nationwide. Everyone is talking about it.

Kneeling Before the God of Woke

The resulting uproar reveals the contradictions of liberal society. This was expressed by the liberal sports establishment and fans, who condemned the 28-year-old football star whose field goal won the Super Bowl. Not even the immunity of being the best goal-kicker in the world can save him from the wrath of these “tolerant” liberals.

These same liberals tolerate those on the other side who express themselves not in secluded graduations but even in the stadiums. Indeed, the god of sports has long bowed before the god of woke. Everything is allowed to the activists who, in the name of freedom, promote bended knees, drag queens, pride nights and alternative national anthems in postmodern sports. Nothing is allowed for the God of Hosts.

Persecuted for His Beliefs

Thus, the real issue revolves around what Harrison Butker thinks, not how he plays. He is persecuted and reviled because he holds ideas that are unacceptable to the unknown, unnamed and unelected liberal and censorial demigods who dictate what is now allowed to be vocalized.

His ideas are not esoteric or harmful doctrines that have never been tried. Rather, they were once mainstream in America during better times. Indeed, nothing could be more apple-pie American than the love of country, support of family roles and a vibrant, public and unapologetically expressed Faith.

Based on Religious Convictions

However, a closer look will reveal that it is not only his ideas that cause his unjust persecution. A few unorthodox ideas might be tolerated here or there if affirmed weakly and timidly.

The problem is these ideas come from his strong religious convictions. He affirms a belief in the One True God and His Holy Law. His ideas come from a higher authority than his own. He believes God’s law is a higher law superseding all others. This just God judges good and evil based on an objective right and wrong. The goal of life is obtaining Heaven and avoiding Hell.

Such affirmations must be suppressed because no moral judgments can be allowed in today’s woke world, where no one can be blamed for anything. All must be attributed to systemic structures and oppressive forces.

Harrison Butker is criticized for using “dehumanizing remarks” to “undermine human rights” and “perpetuate division.” He is being judged by liberals who have set themselves up as self-appointed Inquisition judges who determine what is acceptable.

He is judged for his sound moral judgments. He is being punished because he believes in a law that holds that evil should be punished and good rewarded. He is being excommunicated from fashionable circles because he desires for all the “dehumanizing” goals of sanctity and eternal happiness with God in Heaven.

Affirming Strongly the Catholic Faith

Finally, he affirms that these ideas and religious convictions come from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. He proudly does so, “not [with] the deadly sin sort of pride that has an entire month dedicated to it, but the true God-centered pride that is cooperating with the Holy Ghost to glorify Him.”

He delivers all these ideas, beliefs and convictions boldly, manfully and without shame. For parched, faithful Catholics, such language and delivery is the glass of pure, crystalline and sparkling water they are so often denied. To the opposition, it is an outrage rarely encountered.

The Lessons of the Case

The Harrison Butker incident reveals much more about the left than the field goal kicker.

In their rage, the leftists show their true colors, which, for them, are best left hidden.

These supposedly tolerant liberals reveal to the world that they will not tolerate on any public platform the affirmation of certain ideas, moral judgments, or religious affiliations that challenge their own.

These same people claim to defend the “truths” of all individuals. However, they unite as one when someone affirms the existence of Truth, absolute, objective, and eternal. Only this Truth is false for liberals and must not be tolerated.

By their rage, these liberals show that they are the ones who divide. All it takes is one brave man like Harrison Butker to stand up and proclaim the Truth in the public square, and the left enters into the hideous contortions and orchestrates a campaign to destroy him and all who are like him.

Unable to look at the brilliant light of Truth, such leftists are willing to bulldoze anything that stands in their way to bury it, even if it means toppling the god of sports.

The featured image is a photograph of Harrison Butker and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.