The front page of Tuesday’s New York Times was graced with a profile of James Talarico, the elitist media’s newest hope to finally elect a Democrat in Texas: “Progressive Faith Powers Texas Democrat’s Run -- Evangelicals See Threat in Talarico’s Pastor.”
The online headline and subhead was more provocative: “Are Texans Ready for Talarico’s Kind of Christianity? -- Jim Rigby, a pastor who rarely uses the word “God,” is a key to understanding the Senate candidate trying to pull off something unusual in Texas."
As usual, all concerns about mixing religion and politics evaporate once a Democrat seems in striking distance of winning a statewide seat in Texas.
The long profile by Ruth Graham (who covers religion for the paper) and Texas bureau chief J. David Goodman conveniently skipped over most of the theological complications that would render the pastor’s view, and by implication those of Talarico himself, contradictory and absurd.
From the liberal heart of Texas came this excoriation of the Apostle Paul’s hopelessly troglodyte moral philosophy:
On a recent Sunday morning at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, Jim Rigby asked his congregation to share what came to mind when he mentioned the Apostle Paul, the major Christian figure to whom 13 books in the Bible are attributed. They cheerfully complied:
“Villain!”
“Homophobic!”
“He’s a jerk.”
Paul’s attributed writings include passages seen as encouraging wives to submit to their husbands and instructing them to be quiet in church, and others condemning same-sex sexual behavior as sinful.
Mr. Rigby acknowledged the trouble. But in a sermon that also cited the Bhagavad Gita and the Buddha, he nudged his congregation to reconsider the apostle, one of the most important in the early Christian church….
One longtime member of St. Andrew’s was not there, although he had attended the previous weekend: James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate….
The Times has been looking for their Democrat hero in Texas for years. Anyone remember future senator and president Beto O’Rourke?
At 37, Mr. Talarico has become one of the Democratic Party’s fastest-rising stars in part by talking about his identity as a Christian. Unlike some politicians who forge politically strategic relationships with faith leaders deep into their careers, Mr. Talarico has an authentic lifelong relationship with a local pastor, and speaks easily about his personal faith.
As the Democratic base becomes increasingly secular, Mr. Talarico’s faith-forward approach is unusual for a white Democrat. And it seems to be working….
Check out this simplistic, slanted summary of the theological argument:
But as the race intensifies, Mr. Talarico’s religious identity is also coming under new scrutiny. He is a seminary student at Mr. Rigby’s alma mater, a progressive institution in Austin. And he has injected unusually complex theological arguments into discussions of progressive policy. In return, political and theological conservatives have called Mr. Talarico a heretic, compared him to the serpent in the Garden of Eden and suggested he could be the Antichrist.
So Talarico is making sophisticated arguments while his right-wing opponents are offering caricatures?
By his own account, Mr. Rigby has been a major influence and inspiration. And now, Mr. Talarico’s opponents are also turning a critical eye to the pastor. They are finding a spiritual leader whose views on political issues like immigration and abortion, but also questions like the historical truth of the resurrection of Jesus, are out of step with the teachings of many other churches.
One need not be particularly devout to know that believing in the resurrection of Jesus is a basic Christian requirement (Talarico himself believes it).
Mr. Rigby does not use male pronouns for God, for example, because it is a kind of “violence” to imply to a girl that her brother is more like God than she is, he said in an interview after the service....
There was more flattery about Talarico’s supposedly complex theological arguments.
Mr. Talarico, who is on leave from his studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, often veers into the theological weeds in a way that other politicians who talk about their faith do not….
PS: One mild challenge to Talarico’s skewed Biblical views came near the end, linking the story of Mary the mother of Jesus with abortion rights.
“The angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do, and she says: If it is God’s will, let it be done,” Mr. Talarico said....
Mr. Rigby recalled preaching on the passage in the past. He wasn’t bothered by the fact that in the text, the angel does not, in fact, “ask” Mary if she accepts the pregnancy, as Mr. Talarico framed it, but rather tells her it will happen.
