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James Talarico Church Attendee Laughs: St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church 'Is Really a Cult.'
Townhall.com ^ | 1 October A.D. 2026 | Kyle Olson

Posted on 10/01/2026 4:08:31 PM PDT by lightman

Attendees of U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico’s church laugh that it “is really a cult,” an undercover video obtained by Townhall shows.

The video, the latest in a string of them published by numerous outlets, calls into question the “Christian” foundation for the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin.

“It’s unlike any church I’ve been to,” someone can be heard saying in the video.

“I’m not even a Christian, I just saw the sign out there and I was like, I might check this place out,” a woman identified as Mina Rao says. “Three years later, I’m still here.”

“I keep forgetting it’s a church,” the person responded.

“Yeah. No, it’s really a cult. But it’s a fun cult, like in the good ways.”

“It’s one of those – you can drink the Kool-Aid safely,” another woman identified as Heather Malkawi says. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding.”

Malkawi works for a group called Texas Impact, which “equips people of faith and conscience with information, opportunities, and outreach tools to educate their communities and engage with lawmakers on pressing public policy issues,” according to its website.

“Some people that are (St. Andrew’s) members are Republican,” Malkawi lamented.

After joking that they aren’t “MAGA Republicans,” Malkawi added, “Unless they’re a masochist.”

Perhaps ironically, Minister to the Parish Babs Miller criticized evangelical Christians as “almost cult-like” in another undercover video published by Texas Scorecard.

“Evangelical churches are almost cult-like, and they’re just, I think, slightly or maybe greatly misguided about what is intended by anything that the Bible says,” Miller said. Recommended Why the Dem-Friendly Polls May Be Way Wrong Kurt Schlichter There Was a Big Clue That the Omani FlyDubai Hijacker Was a Religious Extremist Matt Vespa

“It’s really a lot of selling of ideas that keep the group together and keep them convinced that everybody else is wrong and they’re right,” dismissing it as “white Christian nationalism.”

“The white, predominantly the white males in Texas, have discovered that they are no longer in the majority,” said Miller.

“I really do think that they are afraid that if the blacks and browns get in control, that they’re going to treat the white people like the white people have always treated the blacks and browns,” she added.

“If you polled our members, and asked them if they were Christian, agnostic, or atheist, the vast majority would say agnostic or atheist because they don’t buy the religion that we got from the Puritans,” Miller said, according to another video cited by Newsweek.

Even more undercover footage released by Texas Scorecard showed Rev. Carol Johnson saying, “We don’t have a lot of people who are religious here.” Johnson went on to describe St. Andrew’s as “not a belief-based church.”

The Democrat nominee has called St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church home since he was two years old, he says. It has been led for 35 years by Rev. Jim Rigby, whom Talarico calls a “mentor.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: talarico
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1 posted on 10/01/2026 4:08:31 PM PDT by lightman
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To: aberaussie; Aeronaut; aliquando; AlternateViewpoint; AnalogReigns; Archie Bunker on steroids; ...
In August of 1997 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) established a "Full Communion Partnership" with three Reformed denominations--including the Presbyterian Church USA-- through the adoption of "A Formula of Agreement".

Therefore:



Lutheran (EL C S*A) Ping!

* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.

Be rooted in Christ!

2 posted on 10/01/2026 4:13:36 PM PDT by lightman (Beat the Philly fraud machine the Amish did onest, ja? Nein, zweimal they did already!)
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To: lightman

Ahhh yes, Talefreako. The man the RINO’s are hoping to sabotage into office. Talefreako, the one the RINO’s want to win so they can say, ahead of 2028, “see see, we told you Trump was bad!! Support our guys, support the managed decline wing of the party!!!”


3 posted on 10/01/2026 4:44:28 PM PDT by FlipWilson
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To: lightman

Just out of curiosity, where are all the protests of the separation of church and state leftists regarding this race? (rhetorical, of course)


4 posted on 10/01/2026 4:44:51 PM PDT by neverevergiveup
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To: lightman

Jim Jones comes to mind.


5 posted on 10/01/2026 4:45:59 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: lightman

No surprise that they have many Republican members


6 posted on 10/01/2026 5:07:42 PM PDT by bigbob (We are all Charlie Kirk now)
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To: lightman

Sounds like a bunch of Unitarians.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pe6Ol5kO0Ks&pp=ygUTdW5pdGFyaWFuIGljZSBjcmVhbdIHCQktDAGHKiGM7w%3D%3D&ra=m


7 posted on 10/01/2026 5:15:09 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: lightman

I spell “Sodomy” with a capital-S because it is the name of a religion.


8 posted on 10/01/2026 5:16:37 PM PDT by Salman
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To: lightman

Prayer meeting scene with Talarico leading.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062885/mediaviewer/rm434866945/?ref_=ttmi_mi_27_1

Another.
Ride With the Devil (1975) ——SET IN TEXAS.
“Roger, his friend Frank, and their wives find themselves, to their misfortune, caught up in a cult mess when they decide to head to Texas for some off-road motocross fun.”

“A gang of Devil-worshippers sacrifices a young girl to gain favor with Satan. But they get deeply unsettled when they learn that they have been watched. They decide to chase the couple down the freeway to kill them and silence them forever.”


9 posted on 10/01/2026 5:22:30 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: lightman

Talarico and his church claiming to represent Christ is like someone claiming to be an authority on Steinbeck after only reading Of Mice and Men.


10 posted on 10/01/2026 7:39:49 PM PDT by william clark (A man who is unwilling to be proven wrong has little regard for truth.)
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To: lightman

>equips people of faith and conscience with information, opportunities, and outreach tools to educate their communities and engage with lawmakers on pressing public policy issues

So it’s a PAC illegally masquerading as a church in order to get that status.


11 posted on 10/01/2026 8:38:08 PM PDT by No.6
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