This week, we unpack the U.S. military operation in Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro, not as a breaking-news spectacle, but as part of a much longer story.

We talk about America's history of intervention in Latin America and beyond, why so many people are cheering this moment as "strength," and what gets ignored when power replaces diplomacy. From oil and sanctions to immigration narratives, drug trafficking claims, and selective outrage about legality, we ask what it means when the rules suddenly don't matter—and who pays the price when they don't.

This conversation connects history, faith, empire, and memory: how quickly we forget past interventions, how language is used to sanitize violence, and why "no U.S. casualties" is never the whole story. We also wrestle with the moral questions underneath it all—what responsibility looks like, what loving your neighbor actually demands, and why long-term consequences rarely factor into short-term celebrations.

As always, this isn't about defending dictators or excusing abuse. It's about refusing to flatten complex realities into slogans—and insisting on critical thinking when it matters most.

Books, article, and poem mentioned:

How to Hide an Empire

Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present

Grenada Revisted

Mark Twain's The War Prayer

For our final episode of the year, we step back from the headlines to focus on the people who've been showing up anyway. Inspired by John Lewis's call to make "good trouble" and Fred Rogers' reminder to look for the helpers, we reflect on the groups and individuals who have resisted harm, protected their communities, and quietly done the work of care in a hard year.

We talk about parents, students, clergy, librarians, journalists, judges, organizers, and everyday neighbors who stepped in when systems failed—especially around immigration, free speech, public knowledge, and basic human needs. Along the way, we wrestle with what faithful resistance actually looks like, the limits of persuasion, and why actions matter more than statements.

We end by reflecting on faith, courage, and responsibility—what it means to call yourself a Christian in moments that demand more than comfort, and how change often happens slowly, relationally, and out of sight. As we look toward the year ahead, we ask a simple but challenging question: what are the things we can no longer accept, and how are we willing to help change them?

Bless your heart—we made it to the end of the year.

SHOW NOTES:

Christian Century - When Caesar Gets Demanding

Christian Century - Imagining the Grace to Come

Christian Century - Auschwitz Absolution poem

Matthew's blog posts:

The Quotidian and the Reproduction of Hate

How Do We Look at Ourselves in the Mirror? Action vs Apathy in Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These

This week on This Ain't It, we dig into health care—how we got here, why it works the way it does in the United States, and who gets left behind when coverage is treated as optional instead of essential.

We talk through the current news around expiring ACA subsidies, rising premiums, and what it actually means for families who already live paycheck to paycheck. From there, the conversation zooms out into the history of American health insurance, how employer-based coverage became the norm, and why the U.S. broke from other developed countries that chose universal care.

We also wrestle with the moral and theological questions underneath it all: what Scripture says about caring for the sick, why GoFundMe has become a stand-in for compassion, and whether health care should be considered a human right or a market privilege. Along the way, we reflect on our own experiences with insurance, life abroad, and the disconnect between political talking points and real-world consequences.

It's a conversation about policy, power, faith, and what it says about a society when access to care depends on employment, income, or luck.

SHOW NOTES:

History.com - How Health Insurance Got Its Start in America

Matthew's blog posts:

The History Kept Hidden from Me

The Costs of Graduate School and Healthcare

This week on This Ain't It, we're finally diving into a topic we've circled for months: immigration. We look at what's actually happening right now—from canceled citizenship ceremonies to political rhetoric about who "belongs"—and how fear has become the driving force behind so much of the national conversation.

From the long, expensive maze of the legal immigration process to the economic realities most people never hear about, we talk through why so many Americans misunderstand how the system works. We also trace the deeper historical patterns behind today's policies and the ways racial hierarchy has shaped U.S. immigration law for more than a century.

And then we turn to scripture. We explore the Bible's consistent commands about welcoming the stranger, the refugee experiences of figures throughout the biblical story, and the tension between "law and order" arguments and the biblical witness that often celebrates civil disobedience for the sake of protecting life. It all builds to a central question: what does faithful, humane treatment of immigrants actually look like?

Bless your heart… this one is packed.

SHOW NOTES:

Immigrants kept from Faneuil Hall citizenship ceremony as feds crackdown nationwide

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops - Why Don't Unauthorized Migrants Come Here Legally?

How Undocumented Immigrants Contribute to Our Economy

Matthew's blog post: Amidst the Cruelty, Where Do You Stand?

Baptist News Global - Dobson group blasts bishops' 'radical' message of love for immigrants

Baptist News Global - Homan defies Scripture and church in defense of immigration policy

This week on This Ain't It, we're talking about the newest culture-war claim: that empathy is dangerous, unbiblical, or even a sin. Starting with 2 Thessalonians and the recent headlines about "empathy as a Christian battleground," we look at how compassion got politicized — and why some Christians are working so hard to separate love from empathy.

We also dig into how scripture actually treats compassion, what Jesus models in his own ministry, and why conversations about empathy always seem to circle back to immigration, poverty, and power. From boundary-setting to bad theology, we unpack what's really going on underneath the anti-empathy movement — and what's at stake when Christians start treating care like a liability.

SHOW NOTES

Axios - "Empathy is the New Christian battleground"

AP - "Can empathy lead to sin? Some conservative Christians argue it can."

Matthew's blog post: "What Is Our Obligation to Others?"

Straight White American Jesus - It's in the Code ep 146: "Empathy is...What, Exactly?"

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Film: "13"

This week on This Ain't It, we're digging into national Christianity (a bit different than Christian nationalism), Pentecost, and why so many American churches still resist the radical inclusion the early church was built on. We talk through Mac Loftin's critique of "national Christianity," the idea that faith in the U.S. has become a national identity instead of a global one, and why some American Christians act like they own Christianity itself.

We also dive into W. Benjamin Boswell's Pentecost sermon and what it means that the Spirit was poured out on all flesh. From the Babylon Bee dismissing Christians killed in Gaza to churches gatekeeping who "counts," we wrestle with the difference between the church we inherited and the church Pentecost calls us to be.

Bless your heart… this one has fire.

SHOW NOTES:

For the Facing of this Hour: Preaching that Resists White Christian Nationalism by Benjamin Boswell

The Christian Century - The Blasphemy of National Christianity by Mac Loftin

Sojourners

Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich

This week on This Ain't It, we're sitting with the Beatitudes and asking a simple but uncomfortable question: Are we actually "blessed"? From Russell Moore recalling pastors being accused of "liberal talking points" for quoting Jesus, to 30,000 Charlotte students staying home out of fear of immigration raids, we talk about what happens when compassion gets labeled as weakness.

We dig into W. Benjamin Boswell's sermon How to Be Blessed, written during the 2017 Muslim ban but still painfully relevant today. We talk about why so many churches have twisted "blessing" into wealth and status, how the Puritan work ethic shaped today's bootstrap theology, and why individualism keeps separating faith from the care Jesus commanded.

We also get into churches turning people away for baby formula, the myth of laziness in capitalism, Ludwig Müller rewriting the Beatitudes for Nazi Germany, and why empathy is one of the first casualties when a culture slips toward authoritarianism.

And finally, we read Boswell's modern Beatitudes — blessings for refugees, immigrants, disabled people, Black and brown lives, Muslims, mourners, and all who stand for dignity — and wrestle with where we see ourselves in them.

SHOW NOTES:

For the Facing of this Hour: Preaching that Resists White Christian Nationalism by Benjamin Boswell

A Church Undone: Documents from the German Christian Faith Movement, 1932-1940 by Mary M. Solberg

Axios - Charlotte Faith Leaders Push Back on Trump's Immigration Agenda

NPR - Russell Moore on 'an altar call' for Evangelical America

Propublica - "Ticking Time Bomb": A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn't Get an Abortion in Texas.

Huffpost - A Woman Tested Faith Centers' Willingness To Donate Formula. What She Found Says A Lot About Charity In The U.S.

This week on This Ain't It, we're diving into the wild claim making the rounds online: that women have "ruined" the workplace. A New York Times podcast and a viral essay insist that empathy, emotional awareness, and accountability are destroying American institutions so we pulled the receipts, the history, and the Bible verses they conveniently left out.

From Paul's actual teachings on equality to the long, complicated road women have walked to even enter the workforce, we unpack the sexist logic behind blaming women for everything from HR complaints to "wokeness." We talk tradwife nostalgia, toxic femininity, why "emotions" only seem to be a problem when women have them, and how patriarchy still shapes the workplace.

We also dig into the history of women's labor, wage gaps, the Equal Rights Amendment's long fight, intersectionality, and why calls for women to "pick a part-time job so they can have babies" are insulting.

If you've ever been told women are too emotional to lead, too empathetic to manage, or too "woke" to belong in positions of power, bless your heart… this episode has thoughts.

Articles We Talked About:

The New York Times: Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?

The Atlantic: No, Women Aren't the Problem

Books Mentioned:

The First Paul by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Red Valkyries by Kristen Ghodsee

Motherland by Julia Ioffe