Avoiding Babylon

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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?
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A pope under siege, with no army and no worldly leverage, writes a letter that rattles the rising powers of modern life. Rerum Novarum is Pope Leo XIII’s answer to an age that demanded a choice between two harsh gods: the factory that grinds families down for profit, or the revolution that promises paradise through blood and the abolition of ownership. We read it as a direct challenge to both, and as the clearest Catholic statement on money, work, and human dignity in centuries.

We start with the world Leo is writing into: the industrial revolution’s wealth built on long shifts, child labor, dangerous factories, and slums where disease spreads fast and families break under pressure. That misery helps explain why Marxism sounds so seductive to the worker, yet Leo insists the socialist “cure” trades one master for another. Then we turn the spotlight where many modern conservatives don’t expect it: Leo’s warnings about unchecked competition, inhuman treatment of labor, and the shocking claim that even a mutually agreed wage can still be unjust.

From there, we lay out the Catholic third way that doesn’t fit neatly on today’s political spectrum: private property as a natural right, property as stewardship with obligations, the dignity of labor, the just wage and family wage, unions and associations, and a limited state guided by the moral law. We also connect it to a very current question: if AI disrupts work at scale, what happens when a culture built on career as identity runs out of jobs to worship?

Subscribe for the second part, share this with a friend who’s stuck in the capitalism vs socialism trap, and leave a review with the one line from Rerum Novarum you think every worker and employer needs to hear.
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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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The older we make “creation,” the easier it gets to picture God as distant, hands-off, and only occasionally involved. That’s the nerve we keep pressing with our guest Christian as we dig into why Genesis isn’t just a timeline question, but a question about revelation, providence, and what God wants us to know about him through the way he creates.

We walk through the Catholic case that the Church Fathers and scholastic theologians aren’t optional background reading on creation, but central witnesses to how Christians historically understood Scripture. From there we tackle the modern pressure points: why “trust the science” often turns into a one-way authority claim, why debates about evolution and old earth assumptions reshape theology downstream, and why the burden of proof matters when scientific models rely on interpretation and starting premises.

Then we get concrete. We talk dinosaurs and the controversy around soft tissue and hemoglobin claims, what uniformitarian geology assumes, and why radiometric dating ends up carrying so much weight in the modern story. We also connect creation to the Fall by asking what millions of years of suffering and predation before Adam would mean for original sin and nature’s relationship to humanity. Finally, we pivot to Graham Hancock, global flood memory, ancient structures across cultures, and the Sphinx weathering question, highlighting where alternative history is strongest and where it gets methodologically sloppy.

If you enjoy thoughtful Catholic apologetics, Genesis interpretation, creation theology, and honest friction with mainstream narratives, hit subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave us 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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A state is on fire, we’re cooked from the sun, and somehow that turns into a conversation about stalking, marriage, and what the Catholic internet does to your brain. We’re joined by Alexander Poe, a recent Protestant-to-Catholic convert who started making short Catholic apologetics videos just to explain the faith to people around him, then watched it grow into interviews, bigger topics, and real pushback. If you’ve ever felt like you don’t have anyone in your day-to-day life to talk Catholicism with, you’ll recognize why this online world pulls people in so fast.

We also react to a viral Shia LaBeouf clip that looks one way on first watch, then flips when the backstory appears. The deeper context points to a woman making intense claims about clones, stolen DNA, and harassment, and it becomes a case study in how social media framing can distort reality in seconds. It’s funny, unsettling, and way more revealing than a simple celebrity moment.

Then we get to the part that stays with you: a Peter Kreeft clip from Matt Fradd’s show, recorded shortly after Kreeft’s wife dies. His marriage advice is blunt and deeply Catholic: if you only love the body, don’t get married, because real love has to survive age, sickness, wrinkles, and suffering. From there we talk practical marriage and parenting realities, including what changes when the first baby arrives, how husbands and wives can lose connection if everything becomes child-centered, and why fatherhood often “clicks” when your kid recognizes you and lights up when you walk in the door.

Subscribe for more candid Catholic commentary, share this with a friend who needs a serious take on marriage, and leave a review if you want more conversations like this. What’s one lesson you learned the hard way about marriage, conversion, or the internet?
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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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https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
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The Catholic internet can make you feel like you have to pick a team every five minutes and if you refuse, you’re the enemy. We’re tired of that, so we talk honestly about burnout after the SSPX blowups, the pressure to perform certainty online, and why stepping away for a weekend can reset your head and your heart. Sometimes the most “traditional” move is closing the apps and living your actual vocation.

We also get into the most sobering kind of reality check: a funeral Mass where basic Eucharistic discipline and liturgical boundaries feel optional. When priests refuse to clarify Communion norms or let the liturgy turn into something improvised, families leave confused and scandalized. That experience feeds right back into the bigger SSPX and Traditional Latin Mass debate, Traditionis Custodes, and the question we keep circling: how do we acknowledge authority while still naming injustice and bad governance?

Then we deliberately pivot to real life: Fourth of July on the water, fireworks, a sudden storm that changes everything, travel plans for an anniversary trip, and the very normal joys and risks of hobbies like quadding and side-by-sides. We close by reacting to the tradwife trend and the media’s caricature of marriage, work, and “fulfillment,” with a blunt reminder that meaning is usually built slowly, at home, with your spouse and kids.

If this resonated, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who needs a break from the drama, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
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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