The Cost of Consciousness: Standing with the Vulnerable | Joe Enders

March 10, 2026·1 hr 5 min·5 clips

Jason Jones says his wife believes World War III has already begun, setting the stage for a conversation about standing with the vulnerable.

1. The Jason Jones Show presents Joe Enders, a 31-year-old Catholic filmmaker from Detroit who was fired by the Archdiocese of Detroit on Ash Wednesday for advocacy related to Palestinian Christians. 2. Enders was a parish business manager in the Archdiocese of Detroit; he describes himself as a 'Zillennial,' born in 1995, bridging Millennial and Gen Z. 3. The episode's framing thesis, drawn from French Catholic anthropologist René Girard, is that standing with the scapegoat exposes you to the same vulnerability as the scapegoat. 4. Jones applies Girard's framework to define 'ecclesiastide' — the erasure of a religious community from its homeland — and says the Christian community in Bethlehem is being cleansed, with residents forced to choose between losing access to schools and work or fleeing land held since the first century. 5. Enders was placed on administrative leave on Shrove Tuesday after screenshots of his Twitter were maliciously sent to the archdiocese by an outside party; he was fired on Ash Wednesday with no severance and no explanation of what he said. 6. His pastor told him the archdiocese had explicitly instructed him not to reveal the content of the offending tweets or how Enders had violated the code of conduct. 7. Enders describes himself as consistently uncompromising on Catholic magisterial teaching — on abortion, contraception, sexual morality, and the Gaza war — and says none of his positions were novel or hidden from the archdiocese when it hired him. 8. The episode opens with an extended personal exchange: Enders describes attending the Conclave in Rome after flying from Paris to Florence, being patched live onto NBC with Lester Holt, and learning from Holt that Pope Leo was from Chicago. 9. Jones and Enders connect over their shared Chicago backgrounds — Jones from the South Side / Homewood Flossmoor, Enders from the west suburbs — and banter about Pope Leo's pizza preferences and whether he is a Cubs or White Sox fan. 10. Jones argues that Christian Zionism is an apostasy rather than a heresy, and that Paul's letters were written to address precisely this kind of confusion about the relationship between Jewish ethnicity and Christian faith. 11. Jones describes the Vulnerable People Project's work in Nigeria, adding 26 new churches under security protection in the past month and expanding to 20,000 new people served. 12. The conversation turns to Enders' generation: Jones argues Gen Z is 'the most abandoned and brutalized generation in the history of America,' citing divorce, pornography, absent fathers, and a stolen economic inheritance. 13. Enders states that Boomers hold 50% of national wealth at historically unprecedented levels, that houses are 500% more expensive than a decade ago, wages have barely moved, and 75% of current jobs could disappear to AI within four years. 14. Enders describes Boomers as having abandoned their communities: where previous generations sold businesses, joined the Lions Club, Knights of Columbus, and mentored successors, Boomers retire to golf carts in Florida. 15. Jones and Enders discuss the Groyper movement and Nick Fuentes, with Enders saying he knows many of these men personally and is trying to ensure they understand the faith properly. 16. Enders argues that Gen Z men told their race, history, and gender are evil are tempted toward racialism the same way Cassius Clay was tempted toward the Nation of Islam — as an overcorrection to genuine abuse. 17. Enders says he can watch Nick Fuentes 'being tempered by the Catholic faith in real time' on his livestream, and argues this is the only mechanism that prevents campy performative antisemitism from becoming actual racial hatred. 18. The episode is conducted as a personal, wide-ranging conversation between two Catholics from Chicago, moving fluidly between theology, economics, generational politics, and personal testimony. 19. Listeners interested in Catholic social thought, Gen Z identity, and the intersection of cancel culture with political Catholicism will find the episode dense and directly stated. 20. Listeners who want political or theological balance, or who are uncomfortable with discussion of movements like the Groypers, will find the episode challenging.

As heard by us

A blunt conversation about vulnerability, church solidarity, and the cost of standing with the vulnerable.

Jason Jones and Joe Enders shape a conversation about the cost of public solidarity. After Enders lost his Archdiocese of Detroit job, the discussion keeps circling the tension between a church that says it stands with the vulnerable and the person who ends up carrying the…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a blunt conversation about cancellation, conscience, and Christians under pressure, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Jason Jones Show