Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-tvvyz-1b6f108 Four true sentences became, for a lot of us, the entire gospel. They were a trailer. They were never the film. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. You are a sinner. Jesus is God’s only provision. You must receive him as Savior and…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-tqpyc-1b5f55b A myth does not want a conversation. It wants you on defense: ten charges in a minute, each one cheap to shout and expensive to answer. This episode is about refusing that game without refusing the person. Love runs both ways — toward the critic, and toward the…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-c66pu-1b47cb7 In the second conversation, Ed turns from his own story to the people who write in every week and say they are exactly where he was two or three years ago. He talks about the things that actually help: treating your relationship with God as the most important…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-hq8bp-1b44f2c The hardest part of becoming Catholic is often not the doctrine. It is the moment a friendship, a marriage, or a family table starts to feel the strain. In this episode, Greg talks about recent conversations with listeners and people in OCIA whose families experience their interest in…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-j586f-1b3ca7d You cannot unring a bell. Once it has sounded, you can leave the room or cover your ears, but you cannot reach backward and make the ringing not have happened. That is the Catholic claim about the sacraments: they are not snapshots of a spiritual mood, and they…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-p6bbm-1b2c0f2 Thomas named a frustration many people feel when they look seriously at Catholicism: on paper and in history the Church looks strong, bold, and majestic, yet in many ordinary parishes and contemporary voices it can feel soft, embarrassed by its own doctrine, and eager to concede to the…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-5ka2q-1b22749 Thomas raised two related difficulties with the Mass: what the Catholic Church actually claims is happening on the altar, and how underwhelming or casual many ordinary parish celebrations can feel. In this episode Greg stays focused on the first question. Drawing on Scripture, the early Church, and the…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-v5jbv-1b1a8c1 Thomas asked a question that a lot of people carry quietly: if Christ has already paid the full price for our sins, why does the Catholic Church still talk about penance, temporal punishment, and making satisfaction? In this third episode of the Dear Doubting Thomas series, Greg takes…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-8mkvz-1b10a05 Thomas wrote with a question that sits underneath almost everything else: Can the Catholic Church really be trusted with its extraordinary claims? In this first episode of the series, Greg responds personally and honestly to that foundational doubt. Drawing from his own long journey out of self-selected Christianity…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-ap5eg-1afce73 In this installment of Mary in the Dock, we put the claim of Mary’s perpetual virginity on trial. Many Protestants see the “brothers of Jesus” mentioned in the Gospels and the word “until” in Matthew 1:25 as decisive proof that Mary and Joseph had a normal married life…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-s5j3a-1af765d In the wake of the Pentagon’s recent effort to simplify its religious affiliation codes — and the resulting controversy when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was initially listed separately from other Christian groups — Utah senators Mike Lee and John Curtis publicly pushed back, insisting…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-mzask-1adcbae In Episode 5 of the series Mary in the Dock: Ordinary or Extraordinary?, Greg Smith puts the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception on trial. Protestants often object that it has no clear biblical basis, appears to contradict “all have sinned” in Romans 3:23, and was a late invention…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-z2yu3-1adc501 The Acorn and the Oak: Development of Doctrine, Part 2 Picking up right where Part 1 left off, Greg and Cory apply the principles of authentic development to some of today’s most contested questions. They examine recent papal teaching on capital punishment and just war as examples still…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-f6u7n-1aa0c63 In Episode 3 of the series Mary in the Dock: Ordinary or Extraordinary?, host Greg Smith puts the Catholic doctrine of Mary as the New Eve on trial. Protestants often object that it’s typology overreach with no explicit New Testament warrant, risks elevating Mary at Christ’s expense, and…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-hzqsk-1ad1930 Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical today — Magnifica Humanitas — addressing the dignity of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and rapid technological change. In this short update episode, Greg reflects on the long anticipation for this document (echoing Leo XIII’s Rerum…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-mqbs3-1ac7a46 In the final part of this three-part series, Greg takes the philosophical foundation from Episode 1 and the moral schematics from Episode 2 and applies them directly to four very ordinary, everyday situations: money lending and usury, lying versus legitimate deception, disciplining children (including spanking), and gambling. Using…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-sdzdb-1ab929b In a world of loud moral arguments and social-media slogans, real precision often gets lost. In this three-part series, Greg unpacks one of the most attractive features of Catholic moral theology: its remarkable clarity around evil as a privation (not a substance), intrinsically evil acts, prudential judgment, and…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-bcyus-1aa73d3 In this candid monologue, Greg retraces his own path from campus-ministry apologetics at a liberal university into the tight, intellectually satisfying world of Calvinism—training in a Calvinist seminary, embracing TULIP, and finding real comfort in the doctrine of Total Depravity. He walks through what made that system feel…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-9s2ce-1a9bf01 This is Part 4 of our four-episode series “What Is Man That You Are Mindful of Him? Imago Dei in the Age of AI.” As artificial super-intelligence seems ready to out-perform us on every measurable scale, the Catholic Church gives us a breathtaking final answer: our destiny is…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-nqdfv-1a9b3b4 This is Part 2 of our four-episode series “What Is Man That You Are Mindful of Him? Imago Dei in the Age of AI.” In a world that increasingly measures human worth by output, efficiency, and market utility, the Catholic Church insists our dignity is ontological—not something we…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-4b97q-1a8d184 In the New Testament, Paul gives clear qualifications for presbyteroi—elders—who must be the husband of one wife, manage their household well, and hold fast to sound doctrine. When Greg was a Protestant pastor, that seemed to describe exactly what church leadership should look like under sola scriptura. So…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-f8wee-1a78633 Why do some Catholics want more Latin even in the regular Sunday Mass? In this episode, Greg explores how praying familiar parts like the Pater Noster or Sanctus in the Church’s historic tongue undoes a bit of the Tower of Babel’s confusion and brings us closer to the…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-i2cmw-1a6e96e Ever wondered what actually happens at the Easter Vigil—the "Super Bowl of the Catholic liturgy" where catechumens are baptized, confirmed, and receive their first Eucharist? In this second part of our OCIA: The Bridge to Rome series, Greg and Cory walk you through the whole nighttime journey: the…
Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-ahcxx-1a6b28e After four years of raw, honest conversations, Ed the Protestant returns with big news that longtime listeners have been praying for and waiting to hear. What started as burnout on modern church life in episode #8 has led to a profound shift—one that changes everything for Ed and…
