Breakfast with a Heathen EP5: Hungry Babies & The Cost of Faith: Sex, Consent, and Religious Hypocrisy
This week’s episode examines the contradictions between faith and social welfare, highlighting churches’ failure to provide aid to the needy. It also discusses the changing views on sex and consent, questioning the relevance of traditional religious beliefs. The episode raises critical philosophical issues around the nature of faith and consent.
This week, we dive into the deep and often hypocritical intersections of faith, social welfare, and personal ethics. The discussion opens with the shocking findings from the viral TikTok experiment where churches denied basic aid like baby formula to the needy, contrasting this with the impending government shutdown and asking: Where is the promised Christian charity when the most vulnerable are suffering? The episode also explores the data showing a massive drop in religion’s importance in America.
We pivot to the evolving moral landscape of sex and consent. Is the traditional religious argument against premarital sex fundamentally flawed? We explore the secular, pragmatic case for physical intimacy outside of marriage, focusing on mutual respect, consent, and well-being over outdated contractual concepts. Finally, the conversation tackles a foundational philosophical problem: The cost of faith and the question of consent—from mandatory school activities and Bibles in public spaces to the ethics of infant baptism and the profound, unconsenting nature of existence under a supposedly loving God.
Here is the blog post draft based on the November 16, 2025 transcript. It retains the structure of the previous posts—starting with the “Show Notes 2.0” hook and personal Chicago weather update, followed by the polished Q&A segments.
Title Suggestion: The TikTok “Baby Formula” Experiment, Infant Baptism Desperation, & Why God Seems Cruel (Breakfast with a Heathen)
Read the Q&A Highlights
It’s the middle of November in Chicago, which means we’ve entered that weird seasonal limbo where it snows on Monday and hits 60 degrees on the weekend. But regardless of the weather, we are here for another Sunday morning of questions.
Today, we couldn’t ignore the massive story taking over TikTok about churches refusing to help a single mother, plus we dive into the plummeting religious stats in the US and the logical nightmare of Original Sin.
Q: “I watched the TikTok of a woman calling churches for baby formula. Why did almost all of them say no?”
The Heathen’s Take: This story is impossible to ignore. A woman named Nikalie Monroe on TikTok conducted a social experiment: she called churches claiming to be a single mother with a two-month-old baby who ran out of formula.
The results? Out of 41 churches, 32 said no.
This is a PR disaster for the church. We are told that churches are charities—that they exist to help the community. But when a woman calls saying her baby is hungry, and the church’s response is “We don’t do that” or “Have you called the food bank?”, they have failed their basic premise.
Pastors on TikTok fired back, claiming she was “faking it” or that they “don’t stock formula.” Stop digging. It doesn’t matter if she was faking it—the person answering the phone didn’t know that. And she wasn’t asking for a specific can of Enfamil; she was asking for help. A $20 Walmart gift card or $20 from the petty cash drawer would have solved the problem.
If I see a hungry person in Chicago, I can buy them a burger for $10. If a church with a congregation of hundreds can’t do the same, something is wrong.
Q: “Why has there been a 17-point drop in Americans who say religion is important?”
The Heathen’s Take: Gallup reports that in 2015, 66% of US adults said religion was important to their daily life. Today, that number is 49%. That is a massive drop in just a decade.
I think part of this is generational. My parents (Boomers) joined everything—bowling leagues, the Masons, the Elks. My generation (Gen X) joined less, and my kids (Millennials/Gen Z) join almost nothing.
If you don’t “join” a church, you aren’t going to services, choir practice, or pancake breakfasts. Without that constant reinforcement, religion stops being a daily influence. Add in the toxic rhetoric of Christian Nationalism, and it’s no wonder people are walking away.
Q: “Have you ever thought about how messed up infant baptism is?”
The Heathen’s Take: I have, and it’s one of the things that pushed me away from religion.
When I was 19, my girlfriend (now wife) was pregnant. We went to a baptism class at her Catholic church. I remember a woman in the video tearing up because her baby was born ill, and she was terrified the priest wouldn’t arrive in time to baptize the baby before it died. She believed that if the priest was late, her baby wouldn’t go to heaven.
I was floored. You’re telling me an innocent baby’s eternal soul depends on traffic and whether a guy across town can drive fast enough? I couldn’t buy that.
Also, what sins does a baby have? They are brand new. Adult baptism makes sense—you’re making a choice. But splashing water on an infant to save them from a hell they can’t comprehend seems cruel and unnecessary.
Q: “Am I the only one who thinks the Christian God is cruel?”
The Heathen’s Take: No, you aren’t. If I stood by and watched your spouse die in a tornado when I had the power to stop it, you would call me cruel. But when God does it, we give him a pass.
If God sends a flood to drown the entire world because he’s unhappy with them, that is cruelty. The definition of a loving God doesn’t match the actions described in the Bible.
Q: “Is there anything objectively harmful about premarital sex?”
The Heathen’s Take: No. My wife and I weren’t married when we had our daughter, and we’ve been together for over 30 years.
Think about it: If you are committed on Monday, get married on Tuesday, and have sex on Wednesday, what actually changed between Monday and Wednesday? Nothing. The relationship is the same. The commitment is the same. A piece of paper doesn’t magically change the morality of the act.
Humans existed and procreated for thousands of years before the modern institution of marriage existed. There is no objective harm in two consenting adults expressing love.
Q: “My child’s public school is allowing Gideons to distribute Bibles. Can I distribute other materials?”
The Heathen’s Take: You absolutely should. The Satanic Temple does this brilliantly. If a public school opens the door to distributing religious materials, they legally have to allow all religious materials.
If the Gideons can hand out Bibles, you can hand out books from the Satanic Temple or any other group. It highlights the hypocrisy. Schools should be for learning math and reading, not for religious indoctrination.
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