Avoiding Babylon

"Your Father Is the Devil" — Fr. Mawdsley on Knowing Your Real Enemy

Avoiding Babylon Crew

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:32:01

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 book so controversial the author half jokes he may have to “press publish” live just to see how long it survives. We’re joined again by Father James Mawdsley to talk about Know Thy Enemy, the personal cost of writing it, and why certain questions Catholics were told to stop asking keep forcing their way back into view.

We dig into how propaganda and education build the “frame” that decides what you’re allowed to notice. That takes us from post war narratives and Vatican era assumptions to today’s arguments about interfaith language, “Abrahamic” messaging, and what the Gospel actually says about spiritual fatherhood and spiritual adoption. Along the way, we connect the dots between ideas that sound religious and ideas that quietly replace religion.

From there we get into the culture side: Teilhard de Chardin, Fulton Sheen, and the lure of progress talk that treats borders, traditions, and inherited identity as problems to be dissolved. We also discuss evolution in Catholic schools as a faith breaking domino, and why a purely political “universal brotherhood” cannot do the job of the New Covenant.

The back half turns practical and personal: what to do when online accusations become a distraction campaign, how to stay charitable without going soft on truth, and why Father’s advice on mental health is blunt. He argues that regular confession, prayer, and real community often do more than therapy culture and pharmaceuticals for people trying to rebuild a stable interior life.

If you want more long form Catholic conversation on Vatican II debates, interfaith dialogue, propaganda, national sovereignty, Catholic anthropology, and confession as therapy, hit subscribe, share this with a friend, 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

RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss