In the latest “Sunday Special” episode, Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro discussed the importance of religious communities and traditional values in combating societal decline with Catholic author Matt Fradd.
During the wide-ranging interview, both Shapiro and Fradd agreed that religious communities play a crucial role in preserving traditional morality and family structures in the face of secularization.
“When we talk about the West and Western civilization, a muscular pursuit of religious values — and in the West you’re talking about Christian values — is absolutely necessary to the upholding of the West,” Shapiro stated. “All the fundamental premises of the West are built on these Christian values.”
WATCH THE FULL ‘SUNDAY SPECIAL’ EPISODE WITH MATT FRADD
Shapiro added that “the loss of community is the single greatest factor in the decline of religion,” highlighting how religious institutions historically provided economic support and fostered bonds across class divides. He emphasized that such community ties “cannot be duplicated” by government programs.
Fradd agreed, arguing that family life is so important that he encouraged couples to “get married before you’re ready, have more kids than you can afford, and then move into a bubble of other like-minded people and raise them in the faith.”
“Of course, I could qualify all those things,” Fradd said. “Obviously, you should discern.”
He also clarified that by living in “a bubble,” he did not mean complete isolation, but rather living among those with shared values.
“My 15-year-old daughter doesn’t have a cell phone, and it’s never really occurred to her to ask for one because we hang out with other homeschooling families who also, of course, wouldn’t give their child a smartphone,” Fradd said.
Shapiro concurred, stating: “I am very much the same way.”
The conversation also touched on the topic of pornography, an issue Fradd has written a book on. He emphasized the need to educate children early about pornography, and said he points to specific words of Christ to battle the sinful practice.
“I think the man who continually kind of gives over his life to pornography is becoming emasculated. He’s being robbed of the ability to be masculine,” Fradd said.
“I would look at Christ’s words, ‘So this is my body given up for you,’ and that this act was the most masculine act,” he added. “And it’s something that I should try to replicate with my own wife in that I deny myself for her good. But pornography trains a man, not to say this is my body given up for you, but the opposite: This is your body taken by me. I deny and forsake and trample over your dignity for the sake of my pleasure.”
