Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democrat running against Attorney General Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, decided this week that what Texans really needed was a theology lesson from a guy who once declared on the Texas House floor that "God is non-binary." In an interview with Jamie Kern Lima, the Austin Democrat and self-described Presbyterian seminarian claimed that "Jesus never talks about abortion. The Bible is silent on abortion."
Bold strategy, Cotton. Running in Texas and telling Christians they've been reading their own book wrong. That's like showing up to a barbecue cook-off and telling everyone brisket is overrated.
Watch that part of the interview here...
Talarico — first elected to the Texas House in 2018 — has made a career out of progressive theological hot takes that would make a megachurch pastor spit out his coffee. This is the same man who stood on the House floor back in 2021 and announced that "God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between." He also opposed a bill protecting women's sports by declaring that "trans children are God's children, made in God's own image." So we're not exactly dealing with Billy Graham here.
The "Bible is silent on abortion" claim is one of those lines that only works if your audience has never actually opened a Bible. Psalm 139. Jeremiah 1:5. Luke 1:41. We could keep going, but apparently seminary didn't cover those chapters.
What makes this particularly entertaining is the context. Talarico is running for Senate in Texas — a state that moved decisively to protect the unborn after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade. And his response to that? He told Texans that "every one of our neighbors with a uterus became property of the state." Property of the state. That's how he describes a law that protects babies. Charming.
Look, Democrats have spent 20 years trying to crack Texas. They've thrown everything at it — money, celebrity endorsements, Beto's skateboard. Now they're trying theological revisionism. James Talarico looked at the most church-going state in America and thought, "You know what'll win them over? Telling them their Bible doesn't say what it says."
As reported by Breitbart, this is the man Democrats chose to go up against Ken Paxton. The same Ken Paxton who just steamrolled John Cornyn in the primary because Republican voters wanted someone who actually fights. And the Democrats countered with a guy whose platform is basically "the Bible is whatever I say it is."
Here's a free campaign tip, James: when you're running in Texas, maybe don't lecture Texans on scripture. Especially when your greatest theological hits include "God is non-binary" and the Bible is "silent" on the thing half the state went to the polls to vote against. But hey, keep going. We're enjoying the show.