James Talarico wanted an abortion clinic in every federal courthouse and national park.
He wanted the federal government to hire abortionists so they'd be federal employees.
pic.twitter.com/3fo6ED5EP9— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) March 5, 2026
Posted on 03/07/2026 8:30:52 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico has prompted a flurry of controversy and scorn in recent days as footage of his past sermons and social media posts have resurfaced since his decisive win in the U.S. Senate primary in Texas on Tuesday.
Talarico, a lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who is working toward a Master of Divinity degree at the denomination's Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, was first elected in 2018, at 29 years old, to represent the liberal Austin area in the Texas House of Representatives.
Now 36, Talarico has since become a rising star in the Democratic Party as he has railed against "Christian nationalists" while positioning himself to "flip the tables of injustice" in the halls of power like Jesus Christ.
Despite making his Christian faith a key pillar of his political platform, some of Talarico's theological assertions have raised eyebrows and prompted widespread accusations of heresy. Some have suggested the worldview of the young lawmaker, who has attended a PCUSA church since he was a child, is symptomatic of a deeper, long-festering spiritual rot in the mainline Protestant churches and seminaries.
Here are six controversial theological takes Talarico has expressed in recent years.
Talarico has taken particular flak in recent days for a resurfaced 2022 sermon in which he buttressed his claim that "Jesus was a feminist" by citing the Gospel of Thomas, despite its status as a discredited Gnostic text written at least a century after the apostles.
"In the Gospel of Thomas, which was later omitted from the Bible by church officials, the Gospel of Thomas quotes Jesus as saying, 'When you make the male and female one and the same; when the male is not male, and the female is not female, then you will enter the Kingdom of God,'" he said.
Typically dated to the mid-second century A.D. and sometimes even later, the so-called Gospel of Thomas is not a coherent narrative, but instead contains 114 secret "sayings" attributed to the risen Jesus that most scholars dismiss as fake, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
"It's hard enough to write when you're alive; it's very difficult when you're dead," New Testament scholar Brant Pitre said of allegedly "lost gospels" like the Gospel of Thomas. "Even skeptical scholars recognize that these documents are too late to be authentic."
Church fathers Hippolytus of Rome and Origen, both of whom were born in the second century, spoke negatively of the Gospel of Thomas, and the fourth-century church historian Eusebius described it as among the texts the Church had rejected as "absurd, impious, and heretical fictions."
The full text was considered lost until being rediscovered in 1945 amid the Coptic Nag Hammadi library in Egypt, which contained other texts steeped in Gnosticism, the first major heresy the Church faced.
Gnosticism, from the Greek word "gnosis" for "knowledge," generally taught that salvation was found in secret, esoteric knowledge and that the physical world was not redeemed by the Resurrection, but rather something to be escaped. Gnostics disagreed with each other over gender, though many saw the biological sex of the physical body as inferior to the genderless soul.
Gnostics believed the Resurrection was not a physical reality, but rather something purely spiritual or symbolic, which is a teaching the Apostle Paul rebuked in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19 when he argued such would mean Christians "are of all people most to be pitied."
Talarico's lifelong pastor, Jim Rigby, echoed the Gnostic view in a 2015 Facebook post that claimed the Resurrection was simply "a poem about the whole life process" and mocked Christians who believe otherwise. Talarico has touted Rigby as one of his most influential mentors, claiming he played a role in convincing him to go to seminary and get into politics.
Talarico has used Scripture, including the story of the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke, to defend his enthusiastically pro-abortion views, which he has extended to trans-identifying individuals.
During a viral interview with podcaster Joe Rogan last July, Talarico claimed the Virgin Mary consenting to the angel Gabriel's message suggests that the Bible is pro-choice, and that a woman's consent is an inextricable part of the creation process. He also said Genesis teaches life begins with breath, echoing an argument put forth in 2019 by former Secretary of Transportation and outspoken Episcopalian Pete Buttigieg to justify late-term abortion.
Talarico further noted to Rogan that some scholars believe the Torah even offers a recipe for an abortifacient potion, in an apparent reference to Numbers 5:11-31.
Known as "the ordeal of bitter water," the passage refers to a woman suspected of adultery drinking water mixed with tabernacle dust and ink from a written curse, which would invoke supernatural physical affliction and potentially render her infertile if she was lying. Pregnancy is not mentioned in the passage, and Jewish tradition restricted the ritual for pregnant women in some cases.
NEW: Texas House Democrat and pastor James Talarico suggests the Bible supports abortion, says there is no Biblical basis for Christians to be anti-abortion.
"So this idea that to be a Christian means you have to be anti gay and anti abortion... There really is no historical,… pic.twitter.com/GPo5udFzIF— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 18, 2025
In 2022, Talarico clarified during a sermon that he believes abortion rights are relevant to the trans community, and that "every one of our neighbors with a uterus became the property of the state" when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that year. He said, "nothing is more un-Christian than that."
"Before we go further, I want to acknowledge that our trans community needs abortion care, too," he continued.
"Defending trans Texans is something we have to do every day at the state Capitol, and you better believe I'll be giving sermons on that, too. When I use the word 'woman,' it should not be understood as an exhaustive term, but rather as a lens through which to understand, examine and interrogate patriarchy."
"Every one of our neighbors with a uterus became the property of the state," said Talarico in "sermon" before adding disclaimer that his definition of "woman" is "a lens through which to understand... patriarchy." Oh also trans need abortions too or something. h/t @greg_price11pic.twitter.com/Uy1tjhXOkh— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) March 4, 2026
In the wake of the Dobbs decision in June 2022, Talarico sent a letter to then-President Joe Biden, urging him to consider bypassing state abortion restrictions by leasing federal property to abortion clinics. He also suggested using the Food and Drug Administration to prohibit restrictions on abortifacient drugs and making abortionists federal employees "to provide immunity from state lawsuits."
James Talarico wanted an abortion clinic in every federal courthouse and national park.
He wanted the federal government to hire abortionists so they'd be federal employees.
pic.twitter.com/3fo6ED5EP9— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) March 5, 2026
Talarico has also claimed the Bible rejects the idea of "embryonic personhood," and likened embryos to the trillions of other cells and bacteria in the human body.
Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico explains how he views and understands the unique value and life of babies in the womb:
"No one disagrees that an embryo is biologically alive. We each have trillions of living organisms inside of us right now." pic.twitter.com/OM9dBqoFGk— Protestia (@Protestia) March 5, 2026
Jim Rigby, Talarico's pastor, echoed his beliefs about embryonic personhood when he likened babies aborted in the first trimester to "extracted teeth" in a 2016 op-ed arguing against a Texas bill mandating cremation or burial for fetal remains. The pastor has also claimed supporting abortion "really is about the personhood of women."
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), Talarico's home church in Austin that Rigby has pastored for more than 35 years, is one of only 33 churches to be designated a "Reproductive Freedom Congregation" by the Texas Freedom Network's Just Texas Project, which defines such congregations as ones that "proudly proclaim abortion is a moral and social good."
During a speech he delivered in 2021 on the floor of the Texas House in opposition to a bill requiring students to play on sports teams that align with their biology, Talarico warned the law would drive trans-identifying children to suicide and claimed God Himself is non-binary, which is a Gnostic idea.
"God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between; God is non-binary," Talarico said, noting the Hebrew word "ruach," used to describe God's "spirit" in Genesis 1:2, is feminine in its grammatical gender. Every Hebrew noun has a masculine or feminine grammatical gender, though such is not always reflective of sex. The same Hebrew word Talarico cited is also used to describe the spirit of Pharaoh in Genesis 41:8 and the spirit of Jacob in Genesis 45:27.
Talarico further claimed the plural self-reference of God in Genesis 1:26, generally considered by Hebrew scholars to be an example of the grammatical "royal we" majestic plural, suggests that "trans children are God's children, made in God's own image."
???? FLASHBACK: Texas Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico justifies the gender mutilation of children by claiming "God is non-binary." pic.twitter.com/nOj0xlCCx5— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 23, 2026
Talarico, who boasted of placing pronouns on his office's business cards, has also maintained that modern science has determined there are as many as six biological sexes, though he later clarified he was referring to various chromosomal disorders that deviate from the typical XX-XY.
Here's James Talarico, the new Democrat nominee for US Senate for Texas, bragging about how his office was the first in the state to add pronouns to their official business cards.
He wears an evangelical, golly gee shucks skinsuit, but he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. Radical and diabolical.
pic.twitter.com/dJRnPgkYJH— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) March 4, 2026
Talarico has repeatedly defended homosexuality and abortion by noting there is no record of Jesus addressing such topics in the Bible, which Robert Gagnon, who serves as Visiting Scholar at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Ridgeland, Mississippi, dismissed as "juvenile hermeneutics" in a lengthy X post this week.
Noting the similar "paucity of condemnations of bestiality" from Jesus, Gagnon wrote, "Some sexual offenses are so extreme that the very mention of them is viewed as scandalizing. How many times have you heard a sermon about why you shouldn't have sex with your parent, sibling, or child? I'm guessing never, but not because your pastor regards such behavior as acceptable or only marginally bad."
Gagnon, who wrote The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics, also described as "laughable" the idea that Mary aborting the unborn Son of God was even an option, despite Talarico's application of the Annunciation to abortion rights.
"Yes, from leftist seminaries like Austin Presbyterian Seminary you too can get this dumb and blasphemous," Gagnon said.
Talarico's pastor, Jim Rigby, was at the forefront of pushing the PCUSA into accepting LGBT ordination and marriage, going so far as to refuse the Lord's Supper at presbytery meetings in protest of their prohibition during the 1990s.
Despite failing to incite the formal ecclesiastical trial he wanted on such issues, Rigby's views ultimately prevailed in the denomination, which has since been hemorrhaging members after allowing LGBT ordination in 2011 and marriage in 2015.
Talarico has drawn particular scorn for some of his X posts during the COVID-19 era, including one that used the virus as an analogy for alleged systemic racism rooted in white supremacy.
In a post on May 8, 2020, months after the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery and weeks before the death of George Floyd, Talarico claimed Arbery was "killed by the virus of racism."
"The virus kills our black neighbors if they're jogging, playing music, sitting in church, selling CDs, or carrying a bag of Skittles..." he continued.
"White skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus. But we spread it wherever we go — through our words, our actions, and our systems. We don't have to be showing symptoms — like a white hood or a Confederate flag — to be contagious."
White skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus. But we spread it wherever we go—through our words, our actions, and our systems. We don’t have to be showing symptoms—like a white hood or a Confederate flag—to be contagious.— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) May 8, 2020
"The only cure is diagnosing the virus within ourselves and taking dramatic actions to contain the spread. The first small step is proclaiming loudly and unequivocally that #BlackLivesMatter," he added.
In another clip shared by Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, since his primary victory, Talarico said, "Prophetic voices like Jesus have helped me reckon with my own whiteness, my own masculinity, my own certainty, my own ego. It's a never-ending process, and it's a painful process."
"What kind of man talks like this?" Gill asked.
TALARICO: "Prophetic voices like Jesus have helped me reckon with my own whiteness, my own masculinity, my own certainty, my own ego. It's a never-ending process, and it's a painful process."
What kind of man talks like this?pic.twitter.com/w1Ccwjbo2N— Brandon Gill (@realBrandonGill) March 5, 2026
Many X users also mocked Talarico for a resurfaced 2021 post in which he displayed the Anthony Fauci doll he got for Christmas that year, complete with a removable mask.
"I got the coolest action figure for Christmas! Thank you to all the health care superheroes working today. Let’s help by getting vaxxed and boosted!" he wrote, along with emojis depicting a Christmas tree and a syringe.
I got the coolest action figure for Christmas!
Thank you to all the health care superheroes working today. Let’s help by getting vaxxed and boosted! ????????
pic.twitter.com/tVWUrE5lyV— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) December 25, 2021
In February, Talarico claimed on a podcast with journalist Al Hunt and Democratic strategist James Carville that some of his atheist and other non-Christian colleagues in the Texas Legislature are more "Christ-like" than some of his fellow legislators who claim to be Christian.
"Instead of putting the 10 Commandments in every classroom, instead of forcing school children to read the Bible against their wills, why don't we, all of us, look inward and figure out how we can be more Christ-like, even when it's uncomfortable?" asked Talarico, who spearheaded an abortive legislative effort in 2023 against a bill to display the Ten Commandments in Texas public schools, which he called "idolatrous" at the time.
When Hunt noted that Muslims and Hindus can also "learn a lot from Jesus," Talarico said, "I have met so many Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics who are more Christ-like than some of the Christians I serve with in the Texas Legislature. It is about how you treat other people."
James Talarico: “These Christians in Congress, these Christian Nationalists, they want a Christian nation unless it means providing healthcare to the sick. Unless it means funding food assistance for the hungry. Or raising the minimum wage for the poor. None of their policies… pic.twitter.com/IDRCygr47k— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) January 30, 2026
Talarico has repeatedly expressed universalist theology, telling New York Times columnist Ezra Klein in January that all religions contain "the same truth" as Christianity, and that while he believes "Christianity points to the truth," he also believes "other religions of love point to the same truth."
Talarico's universalist views align with that of his pastor in Austin, who prompted an uproar 20 years ago that led to a formal presbytery investigation when he allowed an avowed atheist to join the membership roll of his church.
In response to backlash, Jim Rigby was dismissive of placing inordinate emphasis on creeds and confessions of faith, writing, "If God had wanted us to simply recite creeds, Jesus would have come as a parrot."
Al Mohler, longtime president of The Southern Baptist Seminary, warned at the time that Rigby's church was evidently "proud of its own spiritual rebellion" and likely beyond hope.
In a Feb. 24 Facebook post, Rigby dismissed an online critic who accused him of preaching a false gospel as "a Christian Nationalist," and said the Sermon on the Mount tells him "that our true 'church' is with all those who live in love regardless of their nation, gender, race, or religious affiliation."
"Two thousand years ago, when the powerful few at the top hurt those at the bottom, that barefoot rabbi didn't stay in His room and pray. He walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice," Talarico said, repeating a speech he has delivered almost verbatim before.
Talarico's audience erupted in cheers when he said, "It's time to start flipping tables!"
Liberals have justified their increasingly aggressive political tactics in recent months by citing the episode of Jesus cleansing the temple, a version of which appears in all four Gospels.
After prompting national outrage for storming Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a group of activists in January, former CNN anchor Don Lemon used the story to defend the actions that led to his arrest. Left-leaning Evangelical author Shane Claiborne echoed Lemon's assertion.
Many Christian commentators affirm that Jesus clearing the outer Court of the Gentiles in the temple complex was a task uniquely suited to Him that affirmed His messianic role and symbolized His preparation for grafting the Gentiles into the covenant of God.
Matthew Henry, a prominent 18th-century Reformed English theologian whose biblical commentary was influential for centuries, wrote that the cleansing of the temple continues to serve as a special divine warning against those within the church who promote godlessness.
"When dissembled piety is made the cloak and cover of iniquity, it may be said that the house of prayer is become a den of thieves," he said.
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His career arc reminds me of Obama….
He is a religious/theological hobbyist, nothing more.
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
Galatians 6:7 📖
Don’t laugh. He could win. They’re good at being something that they’re not.
I’m definitely not laughing.
That AG Jones won with the “moderate” Commie hag Spanberger after he used social media to muse about putting bullets into the heads of Republicans.
And the “it can’t happen here” outsider is now Mayor of the biggest city in the US.
The news stories “but we wonder how such socialist statements will fare in the general election. Sounds far from the ideas that appeal to moderate independents.” They won in VA, NJ and others.
Headline: In 2025, Democrats Flipped 21 Percent of GOP-Held Legislative Seats.
The party secured strong gains reminiscent of 2017, our annual review of state legislative results shows. They won multiple new seats in New Jersey, Virginia, Iowa, and Mississippi.
Exhibit A: Andy Beshear
This strange dude has obvious demonic and satanic possession. He is an agent of darkness.
Vaxxed and boosted pervert stealing from taxpayers to pay only fans. They in turn, donate to his campaign.
Democrat Leftist James Talarico apparently has no
fear of Almighty God; twisting His Word for evil
Democratic Party Sodom and Gomorrah Agendas and
for the wholesale slaughter of innocent infants
He must not fear the Eternal Lake of Fire 🔥🔥🔥
to act so foolishly and lead others astray like
the false prophet that he clearly is
Did the Godless Reprobates at the Democratic Party
give him 30 pieces of silver too?
Yep
After we got Biden for president anything goes.
Even a casual perusal of the Gospels will show that the people castigated the most by Jesus were the “Reigious Hypocrites”.
Come to think of it, John The Baptist had choice words for them as well.
“Brood of Vipers” comes to mind.
James Talarico has mental issues.
PC USA. Figures.
This guy Talarico is a DANGEROUS LIAR
Tells his LIES in a “friendly” voice
Absolutely Shameless about it too
Indeed.
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