Politico: How Dare GOP Candidates Rebut Dems’ Sermons!

As it happens, I had hoped to hit this topic today at some point in relation to the race in Texas. However, I wondered whether the news cycle would provide a fresh hook into James Talarico’s attempts to use his progressive theology as an electoral argument in Texas. 

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Politico takes note of the Democrats’ attempts to appeal to voters of faith in this cycle by nominating progressive preachers like Talarico. And it takes a dim view of Republicans who point out that their sermons push well into the realms of heresy:

A slate of Democrats are running for Congress leaning on their Christian bona fides. Republicans are trying to portray them as wolves in sheep’s clothing.

In Texas, Republicans are running ads blasting seminarian James Talarico for saying he’s “a Christian who hates Christianity.” In Iowa, they are going after a pair of clergy in key House races as “PINOS” — “pastors in name only,” because they “don’t profess the true gospel of Jesus Christ.” In Kansas, Republicans pan megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton as “too woke and too weak.” …

The closing arguments on these Democrats — as evidenced by the most recent ads — shows a concerted effort to turn their preaching against them to paint them as fake, corrupt or even blasphemous.

What exactly is the problem? If Democrats want to deliver sermons on the campaign trail as arguments for their policies and candidacies, then those sermons are fair game for criticism. Democrats like Talarico are using theology to argue for their election; their opponents are playing on the same field by pointing out their heresies. 

Talarico in particular uses the Gospel explicitly to argue for progressive policies, such as in this recent sermon:

When Jesus healed the sick, he didn’t ask for a deductible.

When he fed the hungry, he didn’t price gouge for a profit.

When the Hebrew prophets saw corruption, they spoke truth to power.

When I take on this corrupt system, I’m doing it on biblical grounds. pic.twitter.com/cpxUXeYE5W

— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) September 27, 2026

There are more than a few problems with this sermon, both politically and theologically. In the first place, Jesus didn’t confiscate goods from some disciples as the means of healing or feeding the others. Jesus offered one and only one political position in the Gospels, which was to pay your taxes, as an issue of temporal concern. And the context of that is telling, too; the Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus into either taking the position of a tax rebel or to paint Him as complicit in Augustus Caesar’s self-divinization. Jesus solved the problem simply by explaining that His Gospel provided for eternal salvation, not for revolution in this world, a lesson that Talarico apparently never learned in the seminary. 

Even theologically, though, progressive/liberation theology doesn’t hold up, especially from a Protestant point of view. Talarico isn’t “speaking truth to power”; he’s attempting to aggrandize power and seize resources for government redistribution. His Presbyterian denomination exists, historically at least, as a rejection of centralized power within the Church. The Reformation split the Western Christian church away from the centralized authority of Rome, and in most cases (the Anglicans being an exception) devolved power sharply downward toward congregationalism. The emphasis within Protestant theology is on personal action, in accepting Christ as Savior and in forming one’s life to Him directly rather than organizationally. 

Having a Protestant seminarian sermonize on the need for hierarchical control of the goods of salvation is somewhat akin to chickens extolling the beneficence of Col. Harlan Sanders. Or, for that matter, having Pride parades celebrate Queers for Palestine. And that’s without considering the major heresies Talarico has floated, including “God is non-binary” when the scriptures and Gospel refer to Him as “Father,” and the claim that humans have six genders when the Bible clearly and directly states that God created us as male and female. 

On top of that, Talarico has hardly modeled charity in this election cycle toward his opponent. This is not a reference to messaging from PACs or super PACs, but from the candidate himself. This is just one example in which Talarico’s own campaign has deliberately mischaracterized Paxton’s record, but this example lands directly on an issue of faith:

Today’s political discourse. This is what Paxton actually said: https://t.co/5uvGL10StW pic.twitter.com/yrWRb2d4C5

— Byron York (@ByronYork) September 28, 2026

This is the real issue of using the campaign stump as a pulpit. Talarico and other Democrats are not running as pastors, but merely leveraging their connections to push a progressive cult that has no charity within it, nor room for personal action. Talarico’s agenda is indistinguishable from that of the Democrat Socialists of America and their desire to nationalize everything into a Marxist economy under the control of a Politburo. It is not out of bounds for their opponents to point this out and to debate these matters on the terms they use to argue for socialized everything. 

“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” Jesus told His disciples, but only what is Caesar’s. We are not saved by Marxist central planning. As history has proven time and again, Marxism condemns the masses into serfdom and worse, and true Christianity has been one of the few paths to exit from that degradation. Shame on the pastors who lead their sheep into slavery. 

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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