(LifeSiteNews) — Joining me on this episode of The John-Henry Westen Show is Anthony Abbate, Catholic podcaster and co-founder of the YouTube channel Avoiding Babylon. We discussed young people’s fascination with several politically incorrect topics such as feminism, race, immigration, and the Jews.

I began the episode by asking Abbate about race. He stressed that many young American men are trying to understand their cultural identity after growing up in a country that has seen a mass influx of immigrants who aren’t assimilating.

“(Young men are) seeing, especially during the Biden era, where they just allowed mass immigration from places in the world that really aren’t Christian,” he said. “So you’re talking about allowing mass Muslim immigration … just from all over the place.”

“And they come in here, and they aren’t assimilating like (immigrants) from the past. When we were younger, there was always immigration, but people would come in, and within a generation, the kids would be American,” he added. “And it seems like the way immigration is happening now is … there’s no assimilation, and they’re keeping their culture. So it’s leading to things like you’re seeing in Minneapolis, (where) you had the Somali daycare fraud … happening.”

Abbate further underscored that instead of identifying as “white” or with one ethnicity, the faithful should identify as “Catholic,” noting how his family tree, like many others, includes multiple ethnicities, but we’re ultimately all Catholic.

“(F)or me, especially because my family history is a little bit mixed now between the Irish and the German side, I don’t actually know my family history that well. Beyond my great-grandfather, I can’t go back further than that, so my ancestry is in the Church,” he said.

READ: Why young people are asking ‘forbidden’ questions on taboo political issues

“The saints are my ancestors … So that’s where I actually do derive my identity from … I don’t know who came before my great-grandfather, but I know about St. Anthony, and I know about St. Francis, and that’s where I see my ancestral tree from.”

Later in the episode, I asked Abbate about young people’s interest in the Jews, noting that discussion on this “taboo” topic has dramatically risen since the October 7 attacks. He emphasized that young Catholics are realizing the significance of the birthright and covenant in Scripture, and the Gentiles replaced the Jews as the chosen people, leading them to ask controversial questions.

“The birthright was supposed to go to the firstborn son, and instead it goes to the second born. It starts with Abraham, where he has Ishmael and Isaac, and Ishmael is the firstborn, but the birthright goes to Isaac, because he’s the son of the promise,” he said. “Isaac then has Jacob and Esau. Esau is the firstborn; he’s supposed to get the birthright, but he forgoes his birthright, and it winds up going to Jacob.”

Abbate continued:

Really understanding that whole thread that runs throughout Genesis is all about the birthright and the covenant promises should go to the firstborn, but they don’t. God says to Moses, ‘Tell Pharaoh, Israel is my firstborn son.’ So, Moses, by implication … Israel is God’s firstborn, but what does that mean? The nations are his second born. And when Christ comes, the Jews reject the covenant, and the covenant goes to the nations instead.  Now, (there’s) that enmity there that they crucify the Messiah, and then there’s this antagonistic relationship. From the book of Acts, you read about the Sanhedrin persecuting the church.  That story plays out throughout history, and it’s been going on for 2,000 years.

Abbate stressed that the Church had cited this scripture to teach clearly that there was no salvation outside the Church but shifted to teaching co-existence with Jews and other false religions after World War II, and now discussing the Jews no longer being the chosen people is considered “antisemitic.”

READ: Scholars break down why Zionism is incompatible with Catholicism

“The events of World War II shocked people so much that the Church probably looked at that and said, ‘Oh, maybe we contributed to this.’ And I think they took a softer approach,” he said. “And instead of saying ‘There’s no salvation outside the church,’ they started making it (as if) all religions can coexist.”

“(The Church has) been telling us since the (Second Vatican) Council (to) never view Jews with suspicion. But Jews, since World War II, have been told Christians … (will) make another Holocaust,” he added. “So, they view us with suspicion while we don’t view them with suspicion. And that’s the problem and the dynamic that’s going on right now, and any time you even try to have a conversation like we’re having right now, the accusation of antisemitism comes your way.”

To hear much more from Anthony Abbate, watch my full interview above or by clicking here.

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