Christ Is King, Never Vivek: The Speech That Aged Perfectly

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!Somebody tried to get our sponsors to drop us, and it accidentally became the funniest kind of promo. We start with that sponsor-email drama, why it failed, and what it reveals about modern cancel tactics in podcasting. Then we veer into something that sounds like a bit but is very real: an AI voice assistant that can place phone calls. We used it to prank the producer, and the laughter quickly turns into a real conversation about how automated calling changes harassment, persuasion, and online influence overnight. After the chaos, we settle into the main event: Cardinal Zen’s critique of the Synod on Synodality. We read large chunks, pause often, and say the quiet part out loud about what feels solid and what feels off. That takes us straight into Vatican II debates, the long shadow of religious liberty, and why so many Catholics feel like modern catechesis is failing their kids. We talk Baltimore Catechism, the “separated brethren” language problem, and why confusion doesn’t start with one pope, one document, or one decade. We also dig into the mechanics of synodal politics: hidden agendas, pre-planned outcomes, study groups, and the Fiducia Supplicans fallout. If you care about Church authority, Catholic moral theology, and what “local experimentation” does to unity, you’ll hear exactly why we think this moment matters and why “subtle” leadership can be more dangerous than loud leadership. Subscribe, share this with a friend who follows Catholic Church news, and leave a review with your take: is the synodal process reform or a loophole machine?Support the showGet 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=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

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!You can feel it after this election: the old scripts are breaking. We sit down with Stephen Cox to talk through the fallout, the fury aimed at Catholics who refuse to “just press R,” and the deeper issue underneath the internet drama. When political identity becomes a substitute for moral reasoning, even serious Catholics start excusing what they used to call evil, as long as it comes packaged as conservative.We dig into the heart of the argument: the “lesser of two evils” approach has trained generations to normalize corruption, foreign policy disasters, and moral compromise while calling it prudence. We walk through Catholic moral theology in plain language, including material cooperation with evil, proportionate reasons, and why scandal matters when you publicly back candidates who keep moving the line. Along the way we challenge talking points on abortion politics, abortion pills, IVF, and contraception, and we ask why so many leaders treat “pro life” as branding rather than policy.The conversation also turns to how certain historical and religious debates become taboo, how edited texts and social penalties shape what Catholics feel safe discussing, and why media narratives can control a movement without ever winning an argument. We close with what all this means for the next few years: immigration pressure, war politics, growing distrust of establishment figures, and the search for a coherent Catholic public witness.If this hit a nerve, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review. Where do you draw the line between prudence and compromise?Support the showGet 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=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

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!That new trailer moment where Christian TV starts to look like superhero cinema is the kind of thing that makes us pause and ask a serious question: are we being entertained into believing the wrong things about Jesus? We react to The Chosen’s latest direction and explain why “creative liberties” stop being harmless when a show puts brand-new words in Christ’s mouth, dodges His divinity, or frames Him like a reluctant hero who needs help finding His confidence. If you care about the Gospels, Catholic teaching, or just honest storytelling, this is a conversation worth having.From there we branch out into the wider culture and the way institutions bend under pressure. A Ryan Long comedy clip about women priests turns into a blunt, practical discussion about confession, secrecy, and why some ideas fail not only theologically but humanly. Then we pivot into geopolitics, where the loudest headline is often the least important detail. We talk foreign aid to Israel, what “leverage” really looks like, and why focusing on a single dollar figure can miss the deeper machinery behind policy and war.We close by connecting the uneasy “pre-COVID” vibe a lot of people feel right now to real vulnerabilities: cyber disruptions, smart devices, AI surveillance, inflation that outpaces wages, and the creeping pressure toward digital money control. Our most grounded takeaway is also the least glamorous: build community now, know your neighbors, and don’t let the next crisis script isolate you again. If this hit a nerve, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave us a review with your take on where all of this is heading.Support the showGet 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=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

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 word can flip a villain into a victim, and that’s what sent us down a rabbit hole after watching the Elizabeth Holmes documentary. What bothered us wasn’t just Theranos or Holmes’ “character,” but the feeling that the film is actively working on the viewer. Once you see the fingerprints of narrative framing, you start asking a different question: who is manipulating whom, and why does it work so well?To make sense of it, we trace the logic back to Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal and his obsession with controlled reality, reenactment, and perception management. From there, the conversation gets uncomfortably personal: we take the same idea into everyday life, where two people can attend the same party and walk away with totally different stories of what happened. That gap between intent and interpretation is where most arguments live, and it’s also where media narratives thrive.Then we hit the deeper problem: memory. A Kathy Bates clip becomes the perfect illustration of how confidently wrong a person can be for decades, which forces hard questions about how we process long-ago events, public accusations, and “what I remember” as a substitute for evidence. Finally, we zoom out to the bigger anxieties of the moment: Pentagon guidance on 90-day self-sufficient military bases, governments nudging citizens toward emergency supplies, AI-driven cybersecurity incidents, and what a real power or internet disruption would do to modern life.If this made you rethink how you trust stories, memory, and “official narratives,” subscribe for more, share this with a friend who loves media breakdowns, and leave a review with the moment that stuck with you most.Support the showGet 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=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

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 packed auditorium, a national candidate, and one question that made the whole room squirm: when politicians say “God,” who do they mean? We sit down with Alex (American Reform), now writing with Integrity Magazine, to break down the viral Charlie Kirk tour clip where he confronts Vivek Ramaswamy on faith, public language, and the temptation to hide behind safe, generic spirituality. The moment is bigger than one Q and A. It’s a window into how American civil religion works, why audiences reward vagueness, and how “Christian values” can become a substitute for actually naming Jesus Christ.From there we zoom out to the deeper framework: the founding story, Thomas Jefferson, and why deism and religious indifferentism still shape modern conservative politics. We talk about the Jefferson Bible, the way founders get treated like secular saints, and why Catholics who care about political theology can’t ignore the moral assumptions baked into the system. If your instincts tell you something feels off when faith gets reduced to a campaign aesthetic, we put real words and examples to that feeling.We also wrestle with the practical question everyone dreads at election time: what do you do when the choices are bad? We discuss the “lesser of two evils” argument, principled abstention, and how voting blocs actually gain leverage when parties stop taking them for granted. Along the way we touch on libertarian framing around culture issues and why the “as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone” standard can’t carry a society.Follow Alex’s work at Integrity Magazine and the Journal of American Reform, then stick with us on Locals for the extended aftershow. Subscribe, share this with a friend who argues politics like theology doesn’t matter, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.Support the showGet 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=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

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!France is burning on your timeline and it’s hard to look away, not because it’s “foreign news,” but because it feels like a preview. We bring on Adrian from Sips with Sarah to talk through the France riots, the copycat unrest spreading across Europe, and the sickening vulnerability of churches, cathedrals, and historic landmarks when the state hesitates and mobs realize there’s no consequence. We keep coming back to a concrete question: what does real, non-vigilante resistance look like when sacred places and public order are on the line? From there, we get into the bigger drivers people don’t want to name: European immigration policy, the collapse of assimilation expectations, and a cultural formation pipeline that can teach both natives and newcomers to despise the very place they live. We also unpack why so many officials seem frozen, including the idea that the post-war moral framework treats “racism” as the ultimate heresy, making leaders qualify everything while cities burn. Adrian adds a Catholic lens, including what older Catholic teaching says about borders, obligations to the common good, and the duty to respect a nation’s religious heritage. The conversation doesn’t stay purely political. We talk about why watching formerly Catholic countries drift from their roots feels like a spiritual wound, what the Church’s leadership gets wrong when it defaults to dialogue alone, and whether any recovery requires something like a Nineveh-level return to God. If you care about Europe, Christianity, mass migration, assimilation, and the future of Western civilization, this one will challenge you. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with your take: are you hopeful or bracing for worse?Support the showGet 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=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

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!Your feed wants you furious, but your soul can’t live there. We start by unpacking why a recent guest conversation sparked such a split reaction, and why we still think friendship, charity, and real dialogue matter even when we strongly disagree. The internet trains us to be adversarial on reflex, but we’re trying to keep a Catholic framework: speak honestly, avoid performative dunking, and remember there’s a real person on the other side of the take.From theology we move straight into the interior battle: what happens when fear turns into scrupulosity and despair. We talk about hell, how different saints describe judgment, and why obsessing over the harshest interpretations without Mass, confession, and grace can wreck your spiritual health. Along the way we share a powerful Marian intervention story tied to the rosary, suffering in the NICU, and a slow conversion that comes through patience, devotion to Our Lady, and the beauty of the Latin Mass.Then we hit the cultural flashpoints that tempt people to lose their souls: immigration policy and planned resettlement, the pain of walking into a familiar place and feeling like a stranger, and the danger of letting justified anger harden into disgust. We also talk about modern spectacle: phones ruining presence, social media turning everything into content, and why livestreaming executions crosses a line by making justice feel like entertainment. Finally, we dig into the Noahide laws controversy, Ben Shapiro’s rhetoric, and why Christians should be clear-eyed about theological conflict instead of sleepwalking through influencer politics.Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who’s sick of rage bait, and leave a review that tells us where you think righteous anger ends and spiritual danger begins.Support the showGet 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=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

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!“Non-human intelligence.” “Non-human biologics.” “Crypto-terrestrials.” If UAPs are simply aliens from another planet, why does the public language keep getting fuzzier instead of clearer? We take that question seriously and use it as a map through the UFO and UAP conversation, from congressional testimony to whistleblower interviews, and we ask what the wording is trying to include, or avoid.Then we follow the other thread that keeps showing up alongside UAPs: AI. Drawing on Diana Pasulka’s way of watching belief form in real time, we talk about why AI and “alien” narratives so often intertwine, and why the most unsettling part might be spiritual rather than sci-fi. When AI becomes the “god that answers,” always available, always confident, always responsive, discernment can get blurry fast. We connect that to reenchantment, the return of pagan frameworks, and the modern struggle to even name the weird without flattening it into superstition or PR.We also dig into the latest AI doom reporting, catastrophic cybersecurity predictions, and why regulation talk can double as competitive strategy. That opens into TESCREAL, effective altruism, longtermism, transhumanism, and the Frankenstein logic of “we have to build it because someone will.” Along the way, we get practical about how we actually use AI tools for podcast prep, outlines, clips, and posting, without pretending the machine is the author.If this conversation hit a nerve, subscribe, share it with a friend who loves UAPs or AI, and leave a review so more people can find the show.Support the showGet 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=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

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!Something feels off when the rules look flexible for everyone except the people who grew up here. We follow that feeling straight into the most charged corners of immigration policy: H1B visas, workplace gatekeeping, housing access, and even who ends up staffing hospitals. Along the way we push back on the comforting slogan that “America is an idea” and argue that national identity, shared culture, and assimilation are the real center of the conflict.We break down allegations we keep hearing from listeners and seeing firsthand: managers hiring only within their own networks, visa dependency that keeps workers silent, and the sense that fraud is tolerated until it becomes impossible to hide. Then we zoom in on North Texas examples like Frisco and Plano, where rapid demographic change and housing competition turn politics into something local and personal. When people believe apartments and opportunities circulate through closed channels, “affordability” becomes a question of enforcement and fairness, not just interest rates.Healthcare takes the pressure to a new level as we react to reporting about residency programs filled overwhelmingly by foreign-trained doctors and what that does to trust, quality control, and accountability. We also get into the political theater around it all: how scandals suddenly surface near elections, who gets scapegoated, and why we think the real story is the system that incentivizes it.If you care about immigration reform, assimilation, national identity, and how policy choices hit jobs and housing in real life, hit play. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review with the biggest question you want answered next.Support the showGet 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=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

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 text about a grandma refusing to babysit shouldn’t break the internet, but it did, and we could not let it go. We read the viral “boomer mom” childcare thread line by line and ask the uncomfortable questions: when does family help become entitlement, what does gratitude actually look like, and why does “I need a reliable backup plan” hit such a nerve for grandparents who feel like they already did their time raising kids?From there, we zoom out into the bigger generational fight. We talk about baby boomers and millennials without pretending it’s simple, including how post-war culture, propaganda, the sexual revolution, and family trauma shaped the way people parent. We also get practical about discipline, the “fun grandma” role, the resentment that builds when one parent becomes the constant disciplinarian, and the difference between real safety boundaries and trendy no-contact culture.Then we pivot into money and systems: Social Security, fixed income fears, taxing younger workers, inflation, national debt, and why so many people feel like the whole economy is held together with duct tape. We also break down inheritance realities like capital gains exposure and why trusts matter, because losing a family home to an unexpected tax bill is not theoretical. Finally, we give a grim true-crime update and debate the death penalty from a Catholic lens: justice, deterrence, and whether swift punishment can be a severe kind of mercy that forces repentance instead of decades of denial.Listen, share it with someone who has strong opinions about boomers, and leave a review if you want more episodes like this.Support the showGet 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=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss