Republicans are panicking because James Talarico wants people to act more like Jesus
The Texas Democrat’s faith-based critique of Christian Nationalism is something the GOP doesn’t know how to fight
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This is how you know Republicans are doing everything in their power to avoid facing James Talarico in the upcoming U.S. Senate election in Texas: They’re trying to attack him for saying Jesus was a good guy.
The 36-year-old Texas State House member, progressive Christian, and seminarian is currently one of the frontrunners in the Democratic primary—polling suggests he’s currently in a “dead heat” against outspoken Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett heading into the March 3 primary—and that means Republicans are doing everything they can to sway the primary race in favor of Crockett, whom they believe is less electable statewide. (For similar reasons, Democrats are trying to push Christian Nationalist and scandal-prone attorney general Ken Paxton to the top of the Republican ticket.)
Crockett has been vociferously critical of Donald Trump and MAGA cultists in general, and her strategy appears to be treating Republicans as lost causes and aiming to excite Democrats who might not otherwise vote. Talarico is aiming to win over persuadable moderates and some Republicans by talking about how his Christian faith aligns with his liberal views.
To that end, Talarico recently appeared on the “Politics War Room” podcast with longtime political strategists James Carville and Al Hunt, where he talked about the importance of living up to Jesus’ actual message, not what Republicans pretend that message is.
TALARICO: … So, like I said, I’m not living up to the radical teachings of Jesus Christ. But I do think that, 2,000 years later, He is still pushing us to be better neighbors, to look out for the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, the vulnerable, to stand up to powerful people.
You know, we often times think of Jesus as this really nice… polite… gentle person—which He was, of course—but when people were hurting His neighbors, He walked into the seat of power and He flipped over the tables of injustice. That was a powerful example of non-violent direct action—protest—and it’s what got Him killed.
The Roman Empire didn’t kill Jesus for being a nice guy. He was a threat to their wealth and their power. And so, again, that should unsettle us in the wealthiest country in the world.
We should be asking ourselves, what does it mean to truly follow these teachings? Are we really looking out for the least of these? And I think when you look at our current government, you look at our current society, the answer is a resounding no.
So instead of putting the Ten Commandments in every classroom, instead of forcing school children to read the Bible against their wills, why don’t we—all of us—look inward and figure out how we can be more Christlike, even when it’s uncomfortable.
HUNT: And that applies to Muslims and Hindus… they can learn a lot through Jesus.
TALARICO: Listen… I have met so many Hindus, Buddhists, Sikh, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics who are more Christ-like than some of the Christians I serve with in the Texas legislature.
It is about how you treat other people.
…
… Matthew 25 tells us exactly how we’re going to be judged and how we’re going to be saved: by feeding the hungry, by healing the sick, by welcoming the stranger, which is more timely now than it’s ever been before.
There’s nothing in Matthew 25 about reading your Bible. There’s nothing about going to church. There’s nothing about being a good Christian. It is all about how you treat other people.
And so I’ve met a lot of people from different faith traditions, people who aren’t religious at all, who embody that teaching better than some of the really loud Christians that we have in public office.
It’s a beautiful message and it’s perfectly in line with Talarico’s entire persona. When Republicans in the legislature were debating a bill to force public schools to put up posters of the Ten Commandments, Talarico used the language of faith to call out Christian hypocrisy. He didn’t just do it once either.
What he said about the importance of acting like Jesus shouldn’t be controversial at all. It’s the sort of message that pastors ought to be celebrating; after all, this is a politician making their religion look a hell of a lot better than it actually is in practice.
But Texas Republicans can’t handle that. So they’re now pretending what he said was blasphemous.
A headline on FOX News made it sound like Talarico was denouncing Christians while celebrating atheists, when that’s a complete distortion of what he said.
It’s a bad headline. He didn’t say atheists were more Christ-like than his Christian colleagues. He said he’s met “many” non-Christians who were more Christ-like than “some” of the Christians he serves with in the legislature. That nuance matters. He’s not throwing his own religion under the bus, nor is he ranking any of these groups.
FOX also included a quotation from a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, whose job was spinning those comments to make them sound extreme:
"James Talarico has once again broken out his anti-Christian Christian shtick," RNC spokesman Zach Kraft said of the comments. "There isn't a woke cause that he won't claim to find buried in the Bible. Twisting Christian principles to promote woke talking points might play well with coastal elites in New York and California, but he's going to learn real quick that won't fly in Texas."
To be clear, the “woke talking points” include saying Christianity calls on followers to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and welcome the stranger. This is apparently anathema to what Republicans want, which is to force their religion down everyone’s throat because they have no ability to persuade anyone to do it on their own and terrorize everyone whose skin color is slightly darker than a Norwegian.
If you think anything Talarico said was “anti-Christian,” then you’re the problem, not him.
When the RNC’s opposition “Research” account posted this clip online, the responses were just as deranged, with one Republican staffer called it a “slap in the face to christians everywhere.”
Other popular commentators said “They love putting Christians down,” that people like Talarico were “counterfeit Christians,” and that Talarico was trying to “bash Christians, placing all other religions and even atheists above them.”
If that’s your takeaway from what he said, it’s because you don’t have reading or listening comprehension. Talarico isn’t bashing Christians; he is one. He’s just doing what conservative pastors do all the time: taking a stand for what he believes his faith represents and calling out those who choose to distort it for personal or political gain. The difference is Talarico can actually back it up.
(Hilariously, the FOX piece ends with this line: “Fox News Digital reached out to Talarico's campaign for additional comment Friday.” What additional comment did they want? He said what he said. The mic was dropped. There’s nothing more to add.)
In any case, as I’ve said before, this is why the threat of a not-weird white Christian who can comfortably speak about his faith without using it as a weapon against the marginalized poses a real challenge to Republicans. They don’t know how to fight someone like him. They can’t resort to Islamophobia or racism. They can’t pretend he’s not Christian (though they’re obviously trying). They can’t understand how someone can quote Scripture to defend the oppressed rather than attack them. They can’t pretend he’s not a decent dude because it’s clear that he is every time he’s on camera.
Talarico’s theology is dangerous precisely because it’s inclusive. He represents a version of Christianity that actually resonates with millions of Americans who might identify as religious but are sick of the moral rot of right-wing Christian Nationalism.
(Portions of this article were published earlier)
NSGOP: "Be more like Jesus!" ***𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘰 𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴*** "No, not like that!"
What is written about Jesus comes to us through multiple layers of hearsay. No one knows who wrote the Gospels. There are no original copies, and nothing that was signed. No contemporary historian noticed the guy, the Romans never mention him and as Richard Carrier has pointed out the region was swarming with itinerant preachers. So, acting more like Jesus is a problem because we don’t actually know if he even existed, much less how he acted. I’m beyond sick of politicians of any stripe who put their supernatural belief systems forward as solutions to modern day problems.