Yes, Virginia- Liberal Christians are real

Jesus isn't real...but if He was, he'd be a flaming Librul, knowhutimean??

I devote a good deal of time, energy, brain cells, and column inches to calling out Christian hypocrisy in its myriad forms. As I’m doing that, I grow increasingly weary of the obligatory disclaimer I feel it necessary to add: No, I don’t hate Christians, and I don’t hate God. I can’t hate something I don’t believe exists. Nor do I hate Christians. What I despise is their hypocrisy—calling themselves “Christians” even as they behave in decidedly un-Christ-like ways.

The American Taliban, or Christian Nationalists, are about as “Christian” as I am. They’re an assemblage of holier-than-thou, self-superior zealots who believe their “faith” places them at the top of the socioeconomic food chain.

It does nothing of the sort.

So, when I come across someone who calls themselves a “Christian” for all the right reasons—and lives those beliefs—I feel compelled to highlight that person, if for no other reason than to show I can appreciate those making a legitimate effort to not only live their faith but also do the right things for the right reasons.

(Let’s be real for a moment; if Jesus were real, He’d be a flaming, bleeding-heart Liberal…and a socialist to boot. If you find that difficult to stomach, just look at the things He stood for—He definitely couldn’t haven’t been described as a Conservative Republican.)

Say hello to James Talarico, a rarity in Texas—a Liberal Democrat—who also happens to be a committed Christian:

Texas Rep. James Talarico, the 35-year-old Presbyterian Democrat from Austin, has been making an early career of denouncing far-right Christians that he believes wrongly interpret biblical verses in pursuit of political power.

Rep. Talarico is someone who fervently believes that God isn’t a Republican (or a Democrat), but more than that, he believes that the GOP doesn’t have an exclusive claim to God, though Republicans have convinced themselves otherwise.

Do you ever notice that it's the politicians that talk the most about being a Christian who are the least Christ-like? You can't call yourself a Christian and deny healthcare to the sick. You can't call yourself a Christian and vote to cut food stamps to the poor. You can't call yourself a Christian and reject the stranger seeking asylum.

- Texas Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin)

Talarico has become one of Texas’ most visible publicly religious politicians and has gained renown for his stinging criticisms of those on the Far-Right who take very un-Christian positions even as they insist on calling themselves “Christians.”

By Friday, more than 850,000 people viewed the X recording of Talarico saying people can't call themselves Christians if they "destroy God's creation with greenhouse gases" or "discriminate against your neighbor because of their race, gender or sexual orientation." Talarico has about 286,000 followers combined across his X, Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Talarico’s criticism of the American Taliban and Christian Nationalists has struck a few sore spots amongst those who firmly believe that God is a Far-Right Republican, which ipso facto makes Jesus a White guy.

The targets of Talarico’s criticism have not taken it well, which stands to reason. If you see yourself as the political voice of God, having a Liberal upstart claiming your place in the sun can’t be fun.

Except that Talarico is doing nothing of the sort. All he’s doing is highlighting the hypocrisy of Texas Republicans who claim God as one of their own.

As one of Texas' most publicly visible religious lawmakers, Talarico has made a habit of slinging criticisms on social media to gain support from Christian liberals and draw out conservatives carrying a deep disgust for his talking points. "Opie's theory: Christians can't call themselves Christians unless they rob families, give away their money an and [sic] let lawbreakers into the country, but can call themselves Christians if they support murdering a baby at 9 months gestation & sex changes or kids," Matt Rinaldi, the Texas GOP party chair, wrote in an X post on Thursday. (Talarico had said he believes in restoring abortion rights under the now fallen Roe v. Wade.)

Turn the other cheek much?

This morally vacant response merely demonstrates that Republicans do not argue to counter Talarico except through hollow hot-button issues with no substance.

U.S. Senator Mike Lee, a Republican of Utah who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and who served a mission in the Texas Rio Grande Valley, postured in an X post that Talarico is essentially saying, "Blessed are they who support the social welfare state" and "cursed are they who doubt the wisdom of collecting money at the point of the sword to redistribute in whatever manner Caesar deems appropriate." Lee, who once compared former President Donald Trump to a hero in the Book of Mormon, said he didn't see Talarico's points in the Bible. "Where is it?" he went on.

That’s funny; I could say the same about Sen. Lee and the rest of the GOP “Christians.” Where’s the love, tolerance, inclusion, acceptance, understanding, and other things Jesus taught in the Gospels? Wouldn’t the “social welfare state” be more in line with Christ’s teachings than the dog-eat-dog world Republicans stand for?

Have you noticed how compassion is noticeably absent from the Republican flavor of Christianity? It’s hard to miss.

Republicans, especially in Texas, are so convinced that they and only they are the true representatives of the Christian faith that the idea of a politically Liberal Christian seems anathema to their conviction that God’s a kill-’em-and-grill-’em Republican. Never mind that if one were to honestly evaluate the values Jesus taught in the Gospels, one would walk away convinced that the Prince of Peace was indeed a bleeding-heart Liberal.

Tell that to a “MAGA Christian,” and it’s almost enough to make their ears bleed.

Appearing on Talarico's side, John Cusack, an actor who played in films like Say Anything…, High Fidelity, Serendipity and Being John Malkovich, responded to the post, saying "if you wanna tell the whole truth—you can't be agnostic on war war makers and economies based on death."

Talarico, the grandson of a Baptist pastor and former schoolteacher with degrees from the UT Austin and Harvard, won a House seat in 2018. The clean-cut Presbyterian Democrat has been considered a possible challenger to Gov. Greg Abbott, a right-wing Catholic, in the 2026 gubernatorial election.

Despite Texas’ trending increasingly purple, gubernatorial races in the Lone Star State have been decidedly uncompetitive since Ann Richards. After she left office, Texas Democrats seemed to lose their way and essentially ceded the state to an increasingly batshit-crazy GOP. Despite being in many cases so far to the Right they could look over the edge and see into Purgatory, Texas Republicans have owned the Lone Star State—the exception being the Rio Grande Valley.

Texas Democrats have occasionally found a strong candidate—Beto O’Rourke being the most recent—but they’ve been unable to break the GOP’s hold on the Lone Star State. I live in Oregon, where Democrats hold every statewide office. That makes for a political environment that’s blessedly dull.

Texas, by comparison, is the exact opposite. A Republican holds every statewide office, and its politics are, to borrow an overused phrase, batshit crazy. The yearly GOP convention is a combination tent revival, QAnon convention, and all-out MAGA-fest. All of that makes for one seriously Looney Tunes mess.

James Talarico has been a refreshing combination of gadfly and irritant. The GOP wishes he would go away, but he hangs around and continues to make them uncomfortable by reflecting their hypocrisy back to them.

In recent years, Talarico has gone viral on several occasions, which include trying to get Fox host Pete Hegseth to admit that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election, blasting GOP state Rep. Candy Noble for sponsoring an "unconstitutional," "un-American" and "deeply un-Christian" bill to require the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms statewide, and for criticizing Republicans for considering gun-loosening legislation days after a mass shooting in Dallas last year. Talarico has garnered support from David Axelrod, a top advisor to former President Barack Obama, along with California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Last week, Talarico, who's studying to become a minister at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, told the Dallas Morning News reporter Gromer Jeffers Jr. that "it would be great to have more Christians in public office who actually practice Christian values, like healing the sick and liberating the poor and caring for God’s creation."

However, Talarico believes Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican Southern Baptist who recently delivered a sermon full of anti-transgender sentiments at Ed Young's SBC-affiliated church in Houston, hasn't followed God's commandments. "He didn’t say love all your neighbors except the gay ones, or the trans ones, or the poor ones," Talarico told DMN. "There were no exceptions. It was love your neighbor, regardless of race, class, gender or culture."

Lt. Gov. Patrick is a Christian like Timothy McVeigh preached nonviolent conflict resolution. As a racist, homophobe, transphobe, and general hater of all those not White, Conservative, Christian, Cisgender, and Heterosexual, the Lt. Gov. is about as Christ-like as Donald Trump.

Talarico is right about Patrick, whose Christianity has little, if anything, to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The problem, of course, is that there are far more Republican “Christians” like Dan Patrick in office in Texas than those who live the values of the Jesus Christ they claim to revere.

James Talarico is a Christian who firmly believes that the Far-Right has a corrupted view of Christianity and has turned it into something that would be unrecognizable to Jesus if He were to come to Earth today.

I find all of this rather fantastical, but if I were a Christian, my sentiments would be with Talarico. Republicans don’t have a monopoly on God. If anything, the version of Christianity they espouse is the polar opposite of that preached by the Jesus Christ they claim to worship.

GOP Christianity has nothing to do with welcoming strangers, feeding the hungry, treating the sick, or housing the poor. To Republicans, all of that smacks dangerously not just of socialism but SOCIALISM!!!!, the most dangerous of “something for nothing social trends. Nothing is more repellant to a Republican than something that could lead—however slight that chance might be—to dependence upon government assistance.

Suppose there’s even the slightest chance that a beneficiary might develop a dependency upon government largesse and thus lose the incentive to do for themselves. In that case, the government must step aside and do nothing. This cautious approach is, of course, intended to preserve the dignity of the individual.

That’s what Republican “Christians” will tell you, of course. In reality, it’s about inflicting gratuitous cruelty on those down on their luck. Republicans believe that government isn’t the solution but rather the problem. So, they’d rather see people continue to suffer than marshal the government's resources to assist those in need.

Because that’s SOCIALISM!!!!, don’tcha know? As any REAL Christian knows, SOCIALISM!!!! is the stuff that destroys empires from within.

And it’s NOT what Jesus would do—at least if you listen to Republican “Christians.” The problem with these folks is that they wouldn’t recognize Jesus if He arrived in Washington dressed like someone experiencing homelessness.

No, they’d expect the Prince of Peace to show up in a $1500 Armani suit and $800 Italian loafers.

That, according to James Talarico, is precisely the problem with Republicans who call themselves “Christians.” I can’t argue with that. The Jesus I learned about in Sunday School didn’t care about what someone looked like. He cared about what was in their heart, and what’s in the hearts of Republicans these days couldn’t buy a case of warm Lone Star beer.

Republicans don’t like being called hypocrites. No one does, but it hurts when it’s true. And when James Talarico shines a spotlight on the Christian hypocrisy of Texas Republicans, it hits a sore spot.

Then again, if it wasn’t true it could easily be ignored—and Republicans know that Talarico is spot on, which is why they react to his criticisms with such venom. They don’t have a strong comeback, so they default to the usual weak sauce.

SOCIALISM!!!! HE’S A LIBERAL!!!!

If showing love, kindness, and compassion makes one a socialist, I’ll wear that label as a badge of honor. And I suspect James Talarico would as well.

All of my posts are public at this time. Any reader financial support will be greatly appreciated. There’s no paywall blocking access to my work (except for a few newsletters). I’ll trust my readers to determine if my work is worthy of their financial support and at what level. To those who do offer their support, thank you. It means more than you know.