Avoiding Babylon

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America doesn’t have a “neutral” public square, it has a creed it rarely names. We take on the rising debate over Catholic integralism by reacting to Jeremy Boreing’s interview with a Catholic academic and then pulling the thread all the way back through Catholic social teaching, church and state history, and the modern liberal order that most of us were taught to treat as inevitable.

We start by defining liberalism in plain terms, not as a generic insult, but as a set of ideas with real consequences: religious liberalism that separates civil society from the Church, political liberalism that grounds authority in popular consent, and economic liberalism that elevates individual autonomy in markets. From there, integralism becomes easier to understand as a competing vision of the common good, where the state is not a “theology-free zone” and where spiritual ends outrank temporal ones without collapsing into theocracy.

We also tackle the hard part Catholics keep circling: Vatican II and religious liberty. We talk through why Dignitatis Humanae is invoked as a conversation-stopper, why older papal condemnations like Quanta Cura still matter to many Catholics, and what it means when people read everything through a conciliar lens. Then we test popular claims about Spain, Ireland, and Quebec by looking at the timing of religious decline, the role of Catholic education, and the way culture shifts can break practice faster than any single policy.

If you care about Catholic integralism, post-liberalism, Americanism, or the future of Catholic institutions, this is a sharp, source-driven conversation that refuses easy slogans. Subscribe, share this with a friend who disagrees, and leave a review with your best question: can a liberal state ever be truly neutral?
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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!
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A couple hundred bucks lost in Atlantic City turns into a surprisingly honest gut check: why do some temptations feel instantly disgusting, while others slowly become normal? From that cold open, we move into two listener stories that hit the opposite note: real momentum in Catholic life through community, courtship, conversion, and even a vocational step forward. It’s a reminder that small choices and daily habits can compound in either direction.

Then we tackle the main spark for the night: a viral clip featuring Jimmy Akin and a question about the golden calf. Were the Israelites attempting to worship the one true God through an image, or was it a flat-out return to pagan idolatry? We don’t just react to the clip, we walk through why the framing matters, why “context” can still leave a bad argument intact, and how Catholic apologetics can drift when novelty starts replacing clarity. Along the way, we talk about Church messaging, interreligious dialogue, and how vague language can leave ordinary Catholics unsure about mission, conversion, and what the faith actually demands.

We also widen the lens to modern pressures that shape the soul and the headlines: prescription stimulants and the fear of spiritual numbness, AI and cyber-panic narratives, and Canada’s MAID assisted dying program as a case study in the culture of death Pope John Paul II warned about. If you’re tired of recycled talking points and want an unfiltered conversation about doctrine, culture, and discernment, press play, then share this with a friend and leave a rating and 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
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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 single phrase can light the fuse on half the Catholic internet, and we’re watching it happen again. We start with the behind-the-scenes fallout in Catholic media as friendships fracture, platforms rebrand, and old “trad movement” alliances look shakier by the week. The bigger question we keep coming back to is what all this conflict does to regular Catholics trying to hold the faith without getting dragged into constant faction warfare.

Then we dig into the real flashpoint: new talk around Nostra Aetate, Vatican II, and the claim that God’s covenant with the Jewish people is “irrevocable,” paired with the insistence that Christ is the one and only Redeemer. We wrestle with how Catholics should read that language, how Romans 11 gets invoked, and why unclear wording fuels suspicion, bad arguments, and endless online escalation. We also talk about the pressure-cooker created by modern rhetoric, where people fear labels more than they fear confusion, and where “interreligious dialogue” sometimes gets treated as a substitute for straightforward Catholic evangelization.

One of the most powerful moments comes from a viral clip at a Novus Ordo Mass: a priest appears physically shaken, struggling with the chalice, and overwhelmed as he prays. We take it seriously as a reminder of Eucharistic faith, the weight of sin, and the danger of letting our hearts grow cold, especially when our first instinct is to sneer instead of to pray.

If you care about Catholic theology, Catholic Jewish relations, Vatican II debates, and the future of online Catholic media, you’ll find plenty to wrestle with here. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who needs a calmer take, and leave a review with your biggest question from the conversation.
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!
Fear doesn’t always feel like fear. Sometimes it shows up as “being responsible,” “being prepared,” or “staying in control.” We sit down with Elliot Hulse to talk about the moment that illusion breaks, and what happens when God starts asking for more than your habits, your hustle, or your plans.

Elliot walks us through his backstory: growing up Catholic, drifting after the sacraments, wrestling with identity, and going deep into philosophy and Eastern spirituality before finding his way back to Jesus through charismatic Protestantism. Then YouTube success hits hard, and so does the crash. What follows is one of the most concrete parts of the conversation: repentance that leads straight to confession, daily Mass, and a Catholic reversion that reshapes his marriage, his parenting, and his entire home.

We also go into modern masculinity and the manosphere, why young men look online for the guidance they can’t find elsewhere, and how “red pill” insights can rot into rage when Christ is removed. From there we turn to the pandemic mindset, prepping, homesteading, and the spiritual trap of believing we can save ourselves. Elliot connects it all to Abandonment to Divine Providence and the daily practice of acting from love and peace instead of fear and mammon.

If this conversation challenges you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review so more people can find it.
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!
A highway can change more than traffic, it can dissolve a community. We talk with Dr. E. Michael Jones about the argument behind *The Slaughter of Cities*: how urban renewal, redevelopment, and forced dispersion reshaped Catholic ethnic neighborhoods and quietly reduced their cultural and political influence. Along the way, we get specific about the mechanics, not just the slogans, including what archives revealed, why certain neighborhoods emptied out, and how “progress” can become a tool of social engineering.

The conversation also turns to credibility and censorship: what happens when a controversial writer is removed from major platforms, and why citations and documentation matter more than ever. We dig into how information travels through Catholic media, how narratives get framed, and why funding, gatekeeping, and distribution channels can determine what the average listener even hears. Some of the claims raised are provocative and hotly disputed, so we constantly come back to a practical listener question: what can you verify, and where are the sources?

We close by zooming out to demographic decline and mass migration in Europe, plus the deeper issue of institutional formation, from Catholic schools to public history. Whether you come for urban planning, Catholic culture, deplatforming, or media literacy, you’ll leave with a clearer sense of how power operates through infrastructure, publishing, and “respectable” messaging.

If this episode challenges you, share it with someone who will actually argue the details, then subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.
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