Avoiding Babylon

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A neighborhood isn’t just a place to sleep. It’s a memory machine, a network of elders, a parish rhythm, and a shared story that tells your kids who they are. When that breaks, everything else gets easier to break too.

We start with a clip-driven conversation that spirals into a bigger question: how do narratives and propaganda reshape what a nation believes it is? Using the Darryl Cooper conversation as a jumping-off point, we talk about “myth” not as fantasy, but as the framing stories that decide what you’re allowed to say, what you’re allowed to defend, and what you’re trained to fear. From there we connect identity to faith, especially the Catholic instinct to see ourselves in a long historical line of saints, martyrs, and Christendom.

Then we get concrete about urban planning and social engineering. We discuss how suburbanization and mid-century “renewal” projects, including the Robert Moses era in New York, fractured ethnic Catholic neighborhoods and dispersed parish communities into isolated households. Once people are cut off from community, mass media and institutional pressure work far better. We also wrestle with the internet as a double-edged sword: it can reveal truth and help believers find each other, but it can also turn Christianity into content instead of lived community.

We close by talking about fear and preparedness: why “collapse” may look less like a movie and more like financial leverage, digital currency, and normalized control. Along the way we touch on civil conflict, division, martyrdom, and a listener question on millennials going no contact with parents, including the difference between boundaries and unnecessary rupture. If this conversation hits home, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
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Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
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Something feels off for a lot of men right now: more content than ever, more arguments than ever, and somehow less real community. We get into that discomfort head-on with Jason Craig, co-founder of Fraternus and editor behind Sword and Spade, and we talk about the missing ingredient most Catholic masculinity conversations avoid: actual brotherhood, in real places, with real responsibility.

We unpack what Fraternus is and why it starts with forming men before trying to “fix the youth.” Jason lays out a clear framework for men’s formation, rites of passage, and why fatherhood requires other men around you. Then we go practical: living historically, building for future generations, and turning the household back into a productive unit instead of a consumption machine. Whether you have acreage, a small yard, or a tight urban lot, the question stays the same: what are you building with your family that your children can see, touch, and eventually carry forward?

From there, we zoom out to American Catholic culture, localism, and the threats that quietly hollow out towns and parishes. We talk private equity, zoning battles, and why “defense” starts with cultivation, showing up, and refusing to abandon your ground. We also take listener questions on awkward converts who need formation, discernment about relocating for the Latin Mass, and how Catholic men should think about healing and hope in hard personal struggles.

If this conversation challenges you, share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review, then tell us: what is one concrete thing you can build locally in the next 30 days?
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
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Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
A 500-foot granite cross rises north of Madrid, and underneath it lies a story most of us were never taught to see straight. The Spanish Civil War is usually packaged as a clash between fascist generals and a democratic republic, with Hemingway and Orwell standing in for the whole moral picture. Today I walk through historian Warren Carroll’s counterclaim from The Last Crusade: that the core conflict is faith against revolution, and that once you follow the evidence, the familiar narrative starts to invert.

We trace the five-year runway to 1936: church burnings, anti-Catholic laws, and the Popular Front’s own revolutionary promises, followed by a country slipping into open political violence. Then we hit the moment that makes “normal politics” feel impossible: the murder of opposition leader José Calvo Sotelo by state security forces. From there the focus shifts to Navarre’s Carlists and the religious framing that turns a rising into what Carroll calls a crusade, complete with confession, Communion, hymns, and the Sacred Heart.

The hardest section is the one Carroll says the modern world prefers to minimize: the systematic persecution of the Catholic Church in Republican zones, the disappearance of public Mass, and the martyr stories, including Barbastro. We also look at the siege of the Alcazar of Toledo and why symbolic promises can outweigh tactical advantage, then follow Carroll’s documentation of Soviet influence, the NKVD presence, and Spain’s gold shipped to the Soviet Union. Finally, I deal directly with Nationalist abuses and Carroll’s argument about judging a war’s original cause versus the sins committed within it.

If you care about Spanish Civil War history, Catholic persecution in Spain, Franco-era memory, or how propaganda shapes what becomes “common knowledge,” this one will stick with you. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who thinks they already know this war, and leave a review with the question you can’t stop turning over.
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
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Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
A saint’s cause gets cleared for the finish line, then suddenly stalls for years. What happened, who pushed back, and why did it revolve around something as physical as Fulton Sheen’s remains? We walk through the full timeline with Dr. Peter Howard, who has spent decades studying Sheen’s life, writings, and prophetic edge, and who helped rally a grassroots movement to push for clarity and progress.

We talk about the New York vs Peoria clash, the court case led by Sheen’s niece, and the quiet urgency of moving a body once the courts ruled. Then we get into the official “caution” explanation that kept coming up: the looming New York attorney general report on clergy abuse handling. Howard shares why he believes Rome never had a theological or canonical problem with Sheen’s cause, and how institutional fear and American church politics combined into an indefinite postponement that left the faithful confused and frustrated.

From there the conversation opens up into the bigger questions people bring to Sheen: his “anti-church” warning, his apocalyptic language as an “unveiling,” and the sense that our era is accelerating into spiritual conflict. We connect Sheen’s insights to Marian themes, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fatima, and we wrestle with modern pressures like propaganda, ideological capture, gender ideology, and the rush toward AI and transhumanism. It’s a Catholic Church conversation that stays anchored in history, theology, and the practical need for hope.

We also share details for the Fulton Sheen beatification conference and pilgrimage, built to help Catholics understand why Sheen matters now and how “America’s saint” could shape a uniquely Catholic culture in the United States. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who loves Fulton Sheen, and leave a review. What part of the Sheen story still feels unanswered to you?
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe
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Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
Joy is not hiding at the bottom of your feed, and Pope Leo says it out loud. We start with his short, direct warning about endless scrolling, pornography culture, promiscuity, superficial relationships, and obsession with image, then pull on the thread that really matters: what happens to Catholic life when attention is constantly fractured and faith turns into something we only argue about instead of something we actually live.

From there we go straight at a problem a lot of serious Catholics feel but rarely name clearly: American Catholicism can end up as intellectual Catholicism shaped by Protestant convert habits and argument-first catechesis. We’re grateful for solid apologetics, but we also ask why videos of Holy Week in Spain go viral while many American parishes struggle to sustain processions, festivals, and the ordinary customs that used to form families and neighborhoods. We talk about what broke the chain, including liturgical disruption, catechesis failures, the collapse of local community, suburban dislocation, online life replacing in-person life, and the lingering trust crisis around clergy.

Then we get practical. “Uniquely American Catholic culture” does not mean copying European aesthetics or doing something cringe on purpose. We explore small, repeatable, parish-level traditions like a yearly rosary walk, a local pilgrimage, seasonal devotions, and family practices that become culture over time. We also share a surprising read of The Odyssey as an allegory for disorder, the suitors, and the return that puts the house in order, plus why that storyline hits so hard in the middle of a Church crisis.

If this conversation lit a fire or hit a nerve, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people who care about Catholic life can find us. What’s one concrete tradition you’d start in your parish this year?
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe
RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss