At what point are we going to stop calling James Talarico a Christian? The Apostle Paul warned young Christian leader Timothy about people like Talarico and his fellow-traveling progressive Christians:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 (ESV)
The Senate hopeful from Texas once used a heretical Gnostic “gospel” to call Jesus a feminist and preach in favor of transgenderism. He grew up in a church with squishy, unbiblical theology. He has repeatedly said that “God is nonbinary” and gushes over a “TransQueer, Latinx” activist theologian.
Talarico has been guilty of eisegesis (reading his own desired meaning into scriptural texts) time and time again. He even claimed to lefty podcaster Ezra Klein that the Bible doesn’t say you have to be a Christian to get into heaven.
Last week, the New York Post unearthed a sermon — Good grief, they let this guy preach? — in which he discussed his shame at calling himself a Christian and declared that God is “not a Christian.”
Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico once delivered a sermon titled “God is not a Christian” as part of a fiery rebuke of conservatives whom the Democrat accused of trying to transform America into a theocracy.
Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and Texas state rep., admitted in his 2023 sermon that he is sometimes reluctant to share his faith, while warning, “There is a cancer on our religion.”
Of course, Talarico brought all the problems back to that bugbear of all bugbears: “Christian nationalism”:
“Christian nationalism is a sectarian movement based on mutual hate,” he argued. “Jesus came to transform the world. Christian nationalism is here to maintain the status quo. They have co-opted the Son of God.”
“They’ve turned this humble rabbi into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fear-mongering fascist,” he added. “And it is incumbent upon all Christians to confront it and denounce it. Christian nationalism is on the rise.”
“We are closer than we think to a Christian theocracy.”
Of course, that’s not how conservative, faithful, small-o orthodox Christians view Jesus. But you can’t tell a progressive Christian nothin’.
Side note: We all know that the left’s definition of “Christian nationalism” is essentially conservative Christianity combined with love of this country. There is, however, a subset of true Christian nationalists who want to establish a state religion that criminalizes deviation from a strict set of theological beliefs. That’s a dangerous idea that the left’s smearing of faithful believers makes more difficult to call out.
Talarico also said that the only way we can call America a “Christian nation” is if we let government provide everything for everybody:
“If this was truly a Christian nation, we would make sure every child in this state and in this country was housed, fed, clothed, educated, and insured,” he said.
“If this was truly a Christian nation, we would never make it a Christian nation, because we know the table of fellowship is open to everybody, including our Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and atheist neighbors.”
[Checks notes] The vast majority of Christians don’t exclude anyone we don’t agree with.
Related: The Left Mistook a Salvation Metaphor for a Death Threat
The Post also points out that Talarico has a “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” relationship with Christianity:
But the aspiring senator, who once called God nonbinary, previously explained in a 2021 podcast that “I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity,” though he also noted that despite his misgivings at times, “I always get drawn back into it.”
Those remarks were made during an interview with self-described “TransQueer, Latinx” activist theologian Roberto Henderson-Espinoza, whom Talarico described as a model for his faith.
That's quite a comedown from Paul, who told the church in Rome, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Whose example sounds more worthy of emulating: Paul's or the one from the heretical twerp?
All of this brings me back to my original question: When can we stop calling Talarico a Christian? He’s proven time and time again that he doesn’t believe even the fundamentals of the faith, and he surely doesn’t understand Christianity or Christians.
One day, James Talarico will stand before the throne of God and answer for his life. No, I don’t know his heart, but I fear that he will hear, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23, ESV).
It’s not too late for him to repent. But will he?
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