Avoiding Babylon

Avoiding Babylon Crew
  • 4.7 (192)
  • Christianity

Avoiding Babylon was started during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During these difficult and dark days, when most of us were isolated from family, friends, our parishes, and even the Sacraments themselves, this channel was started as a statement of standing against the tyrannical mandates that many of us were living under. Since those early days, this channel has morphed into an amazing community of friends…no…more than friends…Christian brothers and sisters…who have grown in joy and charity.  As we see it, our job here at Avoiding Babylon is to remind ourselves and those who enjoy the channel that being Catholic is a joyful and exciting experience. We seek true Catholic fraternity and eutrapelia with other Catholics who, like us, are doing their best to live out their vocation with the help of God’s Grace.  Above all, we try to bring humor and joy to the craziness of this fallen world, for as Hillaire Belloc has famously said: “Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!”

AVOIDING BABYLON PLUS+

Get access to the FULL episodes. Locals included!

$2.99/mo or $29.99/yr after trial

  1. 9h ago ·  Video

    "Endless Scrolling": Pope Leo's Blunt Warning to Catholics

    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

  2. 11h ago • Subscribers Only

    "Endless Scrolling": Pope Leo's Blunt Warning to Catholics (Full LOCALS Show)

    A two-minute clip from Pope Leo kicks off a much bigger conversation: where do we actually look for joy, and why are so many Catholics being formed more by screens than by silence, prayer, friendship, and real community? We react to his blunt list of modern traps: endless scrolling, pornography, promiscuity, superficial relationships, and obsession with image, then ask why that kind of moral clarity feels rare in public Church life right now.From there we get personal and practical. We talk about daily Mass vs Sunday Mass, why obligation can warp desire, and how “do the thing” faith often comes before feelings or certainty. A strange daily Mass prompting becomes our on-ramp into the deeper theme: American Catholicism can drift into intellectual Catholicism, shaped by Protestant convert culture, apologetics-first catechesis, and a constant need to argue instead of embody the faith.We also wrestle with what a uniquely American Catholic culture could look like without becoming performative. We trade ideas like parish pilgrimages, seasonal traditions, rosary walks, and building local customs that grow year by year. Along the way we connect it to pop culture through The Odyssey as an allegory of crisis and restoration, plus a frank take on how leadership failures can damage trust in institutions.If any of this hits home, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s one Catholic tradition you wish your parish or family would start this year?

  3. 5d ago • Subscribers Only

    Meat Cleaver Road Rage (LOCALS Only Show)

    A “road rage” headline is easy to skim past, until it happens on your block, in front of your job, and the footage lands on your phone. We talk through a brutal Queens attack involving a meat cleaver, what our coworkers actually saw, and why the news framing doesn’t always match the reality on the street. The dashcam video leads to the question everyone asks but few can answer honestly: if you’re unarmed and untrained, do you step in, or do you step back?We get into the bystander effect without pretending it’s simple. There’s shock, confusion, fear of getting hurt, fear of legal consequences, and the very real possibility that you’re walking into a dispute you don’t understand. We also pull something practical out of the horror: what basic first aid readiness looks like, how to think about personal safety, and why de-escalation and road rage avoidance are underrated self-defense skills in New York City and anywhere else people drive angry.Then we pivot into the broader culture side of the show. We react to a critique of Fulton Sheen that leans into modern “purity tests,” debate Americanism and evangelization style, and question whether nitpicking public figures helps anyone build a healthier faith or a clearer moral compass. We close with a heated reaction to a viral divorce and marriage rant, plus straightforward advice about choosing a spouse, setting expectations, and talking before resentment becomes your whole relationship.Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who always “would’ve done something,” and leave a review if you want us to keep going. When you picture yourself in that street scene, what would you actually do?

  4. Jul 22 • Subscribers Only

    Rerum Novarum LOCALS Show

    A Friday meat post shouldn’t turn into a purity test, but online Catholic culture often makes it one. We get into why public callouts feel satisfying yet rarely help, how converts and cradle Catholics talk past each other, and what fraternal correction looks like when you actually want someone to grow. Along the way we unpack the deeper issue behind so many timeline fights: the pull to be seen as righteous instead of becoming righteous.We also react to a clip that raises questions about flirting, boundaries, and the near occasion of sin for married public figures. Even when nothing “technically” happens, tone, context, and incentives matter, especially on camera. We share why we’ve built our own guardrails around guest choices, one-on-one dynamics, and content that can create scandal or bait curiosity.Then we switch gears with an absurd real-life story: riding on a two million dollar pink “Barbie” speedboat that does 100 mph and attracts a crowd everywhere it docks. It’s funny, but it also surfaces something serious about wealth, status, envy, and how people judge what you buy. We close with a sobering funeral-home service story that felt liturgically and theologically confused, plus a careful note on why clear Catholic teaching around suicide and despair matters.If you care about Catholic fasting, social media virtue signaling, marriage boundaries, and keeping your spiritual life real in a performance-driven world, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who lives on the timeline, and leave a review. What’s one practice you try to keep private, even when the internet begs you to post it?

  5. Jul 22 ·  Video

    Rome Has Spoken: The Pope Who Fought Capitalism AND Communism | Rerum Novarum Part 1

    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 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. 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

  6. Jul 17 ·  Video

    The Catholic Case for a Young Earth | Christian Bergsma

    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! 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. 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

  7. Jul 17 • Subscribers Only

    The Catholic Case for a Young Earth | Christian Bergsma (Full LOCALS Show)

    A dinosaur bone with intact hemoglobin proteins should make you stop mid scroll. If the standard story says “millions of years,” what do we do with evidence that looks more like “thousands,” and why do the stakes feel bigger than a science argument? We sit down with Christian to talk through the young earth vs old earth debate from a Catholic lens that starts where most conversations never start: what creation is meant to reveal about God Himself. We get into why the Church Fathers and scholastic theologians treat creation as a deliberate act of divine teaching, not a distant process God simply watches unfold. That opens into hard questions about Genesis interpretation, the theological problem of death and suffering before the Fall, and why modern “trust the science” instincts can quietly replace the authority of Scripture and tradition with a new default creed. Along the way, we talk dinosaurs and soft tissue, the pitfalls of sediment based dating assumptions, and why radiometric dating rests on big premises about closed systems, contamination, and constant decay rates. Then we widen the lens: Graham Hancock’s lost civilization claims, global pyramid style structures, the flood question, and the Sphinx weathering debate. Whether you agree with every conclusion or not, you’ll leave with clearer categories, better questions, and a stronger sense of what’s actually being claimed when someone says “science has settled it.” If this conversation helped you think more clearly, subscribe, share it with a friend who loves origins debates, and leave a review with the question you still can’t shake.

  8. Jul 15 ·  Video

    Shia LaBeouf's Stalker Thinks He's a Clone of Her Dead Husband - And She Found Him!

    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 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? 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

See All (689)

4.7
out of 5
192 Ratings

About

Avoiding Babylon was started during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During these difficult and dark days, when most of us were isolated from family, friends, our parishes, and even the Sacraments themselves, this channel was started as a statement of standing against the tyrannical mandates that many of us were living under. Since those early days, this channel has morphed into an amazing community of friends…no…more than friends…Christian brothers and sisters…who have grown in joy and charity.  As we see it, our job here at Avoiding Babylon is to remind ourselves and those who enjoy the channel that being Catholic is a joyful and exciting experience. We seek true Catholic fraternity and eutrapelia with other Catholics who, like us, are doing their best to live out their vocation with the help of God’s Grace.  Above all, we try to bring humor and joy to the craziness of this fallen world, for as Hillaire Belloc has famously said: “Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!”

Information

  • Creator
    Avoiding Babylon Crew
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    689
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Avoiding Babylon
  • Show Website
    Avoiding Babylon
  • Provider
    Robert Blyton