For a man who went to a Presbyterian seminary, James Talarico sounds very Unitarian. If that.
I’ll be honest in tackling this with a certain amount of reluctance. People can come to Christianity, and especially Catholicism, through a variety of sources. To some extent, Christians can profit from outside philosophical resources, principally from Greek and Roman sources. When it comes to theology, however, risks escalate rapidly of becoming so flexible as to be heretical.
Of course, that assumes a level of honesty that likely doesn’t exist in this statement from Talarico:
🚨UNEARTHED
James Talarico — who said he “hates Christianity” — praised Islam for inspiring his religious beliefs:
“I’ve learned as much about my faith from Salman’s tradition, from the Islamic mystics, from poets like Rumi, as much as I have from Christian authors…” pic.twitter.com/2UeksY9Hko
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 27, 2026
The Daily Wire picked this up earlier in the week as well:
On the campaign trail, Democrat candidate James Talarico often describes his faith as “biblical Christianity.” But the Senate hopeful once credited Islamic mystics with shaping his faith just as much as Christian writers, audio unearthed by The Daily Wire reveals.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Talarico asserted that his faith was rooted in “biblical Christianity.” During an appearance on The State of Belief podcast in April 2024 alongside Muslim state Rep. Salman Bhojani, Talarico praised Islam for shaping his religious beliefs. Those comments could come into play as debate heats up in Texas about Islam’s growing presence in the state.
“I know personally that I’ve learned as much about my faith from Salman’s tradition, from the Islamic mystics, from poets like Rumi, as much as I have from Christian authors and Christian writers,” he said. “This kind of interfaith dialogue, it doesn’t water down your tradition, in fact it strengthens it, it brings out new flavors and new colors.”
Ahem. Without delving too much into comparative theology, this poses an obvious problem. Christianity presents itself as the culmination of salvation history, starting with the Garden of Eden and ending with Pentecost. The epistles give us the contours of church teachings in the first generation, as well as the foundation of the Magisterium, the collections of teachings from church doctors over the last two millennia. Certain philosophical sources predate Christianity that can give insight and structure to applications of the faith, and even a few contemporary-ish sources to the church’s founding. For instance, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations provides much food for thought about the proper perspective on materiality, some of which echoes in the teachings of Ignatius of Loyola.
The core theology of Christianity is rooted in the Gospels, however, and in the epistles that follow it, not to mention the Old Testament. Catholics also rely on theological teachings and practices of our Church, as well as its ordained leadership and apostolic structure. For mainstream Protestants (such as Presbyterians like Talarico), theological instruction is entirely limited to the Bible. Presbyterians embrace sola scriptura, presumably even more in the seminary.
Islam, however, came 600 years after Pentecost. It does not proceed from Christianity, but belongs to another tradition entirely. It rejects the Gospel message of Jesus as the Son of God and Savior through his death and resurrection. Islam adopted Jesus as a prophet (Issa), but rejects His divinity. Needless to say, that would require the rejection or at least rewriting of the entire New Testament, so having a sola scriptura seminarian claim that he learned his faith from mystics who reject the scriptures is, at best, somewhat incoherent. Interfaith dialogue is a good practice, but understanding and respect for the faith of others does not a Magisterium make. Especially when your own faith rejects the idea of a Magisterium.
Now, all of this makes for a very confused idea about how to learn about Christianity, but I seriously doubt that Talarico meant a word of it. The Left has embraced Islam of late as an avenue for deconstructing Western civilization and virtue-signaling against its colonialism. Anyone who understands the history of the Arabs and of Islam would choke on that irony, but it permeates the progressive Left these days, especially in its obsession with supporting Hamas and the Palestinian cause. Talarico almost certainly was attempting to pander to the Left by turning himself into a human Coexist pretzel.
The date of these comments tracks, too. In 2024, the Left demanded that the US abandon Israel and defend Hamas-controlled Gaza, as well as Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon. Progressive activists demanded action from Joe Biden before the fraud of his presidency got exposed, and then pushed hard for Kamala Harris to explicitly abandon Israel. Talarico ran for reelection in 2024 in deep-progressive Austin, where this kind of incoherent theology not only would not get noticed, but would signal that Talarico was part of the radical-Left cognoscenti to a state legislative district that values those signals.
But here’s the problem with Talarico’s candidacy: Austin is not Texas, and Texas is not Austin. The state is chock-full of Christian voters who know very well that Islam does not inform Christian theology, not to mention people who will see right through the pandering Talarico attempted. This is the problem with nominating candidates who not only do not represent the mainstream of a statewide electorate, but have spent their lives blissfully disconnected from it.
I doubt that Ken Paxton will want to debate theology with Talarico, given the target-rich environment Talarico will provide on policy. I do wish, though, that someone will ask this Protestant seminarian what specifically he learned about the Christian faith from Muslim “mystics” and poets. The answer would be sola scriptura gold, I’m sure.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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