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What James Talarico gets wrong — and right — about Christianity

By now, you’ve heard of the controversy surrounding CBS lawyers’ decision not to air Stephen Colbert’s interview with Texas candidate for U.S. Senate James Talarico (D) — likely for fear of offending President Trump’s FCC. This all but guaranteed that everyone immediately wanted to see it.

Media observers call this the “Streisand effect,” which occurs when an attempt to hide something makes it more famous — named for Barbra Streisand’s effort to suppress aerial photos taken of her home in 2003.

This unexpected attention could give Talarico a meaningful boost in his upcoming Democratic primary. If he ultimately wins the nomination — and the subsequent Senate campaign — the ripple effects could extend far beyond Texas, potentially flipping the U.S. Senate to Democratic control.

Talarico is well positioned to pull off this kind of upset, in part because he has the potential to connect with Texas voters who usually vote Republican. A major reason for that appeal stems from his background as a seminary student and the grandson of a South Texas Baptist preacher. This allows him to speak about faith in a language that feels familiar and authentic, rather than distant or out of touch.

Still, some of his claims invite scrutiny.

As such, it is perhaps worth spending some time on what Talarico actually told Colbert — a prominent Catholic, who was no doubt intrigued by Talarico’s more liberal interpretations of the faith

In the interview, which has already been watched by millions on such video platforms as YouTube, Talarico argued that the religious right spent decades convincing Christians that abortion and gay marriage should be the litmus test for politics, even though they aren’t in the Bible and Jesus didn’t address them.

This is a partial truth that often makes pastors reach for the aspirin. Abortion isn’t explicitly named in scripture, but many Christians infer moral positions on the issue both from the general ethos of Christ’s teachings and from broader biblical passages. And although gay marriage is considered a modern institution, there are biblical verses that explicitly condemn homosexuality.

On the narrower point — that Jesus didn’t focus narrowly on these issues — Talarico has more solid footing. He emphasizes Jesus’ teachings about feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and welcoming strangers — all things Jesus did and encouraged, and all things Jesus discussed more than abortion or sex.

Talarico frames these teachings as the criteria for judgment and salvation, adding that there’s nothing in the Bible about going to church or voting Republican. Here, again, his statements are both partly true and oversimplified. Traditional Protestant theology emphasizes salvation through faith, not works. When it comes to church attendance, Jesus modeled it by attending synagogue. There are also New Testament scriptures telling Christians to assemble together and recounting how they did so from the beginning, suggesting that organized worship wasn’t the invention of some mega-church coffee committee.

Talarico is correct that Republicans don’t have a franchise license for Jesus. But it’s worth considering whether he might be engaging in the same sort of cafeteria-Christian rebranding effort (take what you like, discard everything else) that the religious right engaged in for decades — just in reverse.

That is to say, as The New York Times’ Ross Douthat wryly described Talarico’s message, “The other guys misled you into believing that Jesus was entirely on their political party’s side, but as it turns out Jesus is entirely on *my* political party’s side.”

Toward the end of his conversation with Colbert, Talarico also invoked the separation of church and state — a phrase that originated in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was a deist who created his own Bible (full of morals but devoid of miracles), yet he also attended church services in the House of Representatives.

As Jefferson’s complex story may suggest, the U.S. has always mixed civic life and religion pretty freely. This can be seen in some fairly modern presidencies, including presidents Talarico would most likely revere. And no, you don’t even have to evoke Lincoln’s rhetoric or cite Sunday School teacher Jimmy Carter. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example, sang the 19th century hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” with Winston Churchill, while aboard the ship, Prince of Wales.

The same hymn was also used during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s funeral.

None of this resolves deep theological questions, nor does it address the current rise of Christian nationalism — a movement that threatens to undermine pluralism and the rights of conscience of people who do not happen to practice the same faith as the leader du jour.

While Talarico is a talented political figure who could potentially parlay this canceled television appearance into a successful Senate bid, Bible-believing Christians should be equally cautious about accepting Talarico’s liberal interpretations of the faith as they are about those promoted by the religious right.

As the late Pastor Tim Keller pointed out, “When you come to the Bible, you need to shake your mind free from human political categories, of liberal, conservative — the Bible does not fit in them, and you should not be trying to read the Bible through those kinds of glasses.”

Matt K. Lewis is a columnist, podcaster, and author of the books “Too Dumb to Fail” and “Filthy Rich Politicians.”

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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