Christian right calls James Talarico "demonic" -- for quoting Jesus

[marmar]

Christian right calls James Talarico “demonic” — for quoting Jesus
Attacks on Texas Senate candidate aren't just about him. They're an attempt to crush progressive Christianity

By Andrew Daugherty
Pastor and Writer
Published June 14, 2026 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) James Talarico has been found guilty of quoting Jesus. The sentence he uttered, according to right-wing media, was “demonic” and “blasphemous,” exposing him as a “fake Christian.” Talarico is running for the U.S. Senate in Texas on a platform The New Yorker recently described as basically the New Testament. One Newsmax host accused him of using fake Bible passages.

The passages in question are familiar ones, found in Matthew 22 and Matthew 25. Love God and love your neighbor. Feed the hungry, heal the sick, welcome the stranger. They are, in fact, in the Bible.

The right’s attacks on Talarico aren’t about him, or at least not entirely. They’re about a much older argument — one progressive Christianity has been losing in public for 50 years — about whose version of the faith gets to count as real. The answer to that question has consequences far beyond any Senate race. When Christianity becomes a tool of power rather than a challenge to it, it doesn’t just damage the church. It destabilizes democracy. We are watching that happen in real time.

Talarico calls his approach a “politics of love.” What does he mean by that, exactly? Well, it’s among the most demanding and disruptive political frameworks ever articulated. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the peacemakers. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. That is drawn, of course, from the Sermon on the Mount. It is not ambiguous, and every empire that has ever heard that message has tried to kill the person saying it. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/06/14/christian-right-calls-james-talarico-demonic-for-quoting-jesus/

[Passages]

1. That's it in a nutshell. Get rid of the voice who speaks for those without one, for those without power.

Let's help Talarico in every way we can to win.

[aeromanKC]

2. The Onion?

Never know anymore. But hey, at least Talerico has made it to the Jesus parts of the Bible. Not so much for GOP MAGAt's.

[LeftInTX]

43. It's not. They've been saying this all the time.

Talarico is a progressive Christian, not one of those bigotted fundies.
You can't reason with the bigotted fundies and bigotted fundies rule Texas.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. They are going to lose their minds because

They can’t beat him on this issue. So they are going to try to silence him.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

4. "Maybe the Christian right needs to lift Jesus' skirt and take a peep!"--The Queen of Sheba

[mwmisses4289]

5. That's rich coming from those who by their own definition

are currently under the sway of the of their antichrist and his false prophets!

[surfered]

6. When they accuse him of being a fake Christian, they are projecting.

[Biophilic]

7. Christianity has proven over and over again it can't be trusted with the powers of government.

On the other hand the gop etc must be terrified of Talarico. Good.

[rickford66]

8. My MAGA churchgoing neighbor told me he didn't go along with what Jesus said.

Even though we had an agreement to not talk politics or religion, he always seems to bring up one or the other. According to him, Jesus had it all wrong about immigrants. That was a twofer. A bit of history for context. In early 2015 he asked me what I thought of Trump. I said he is a con man and a crook. He replied that Trump is a successful businessman. Since then, he's fallen for every conspiracy. He won't turn the dial away from FOX etc. Back when Trump Tower was newly built, my late wife and I decided to check it out while on a day trip to NYC. Up the escalator we went. We couldn't wait get back down and out. I can see how weak minded are attracted to shiny objects.

[Buckeyeblue]

41. Your neighbor is the quintessential Christian

They make up their own beliefs. The idea of a Jesus in their own image is better than the kind one in the Bible.

There are many reasons why I'm an atheist. Zero faith in a god is the main reason. But the other is the way so many people just make up what they want to believe and call it a religious belief. I think people should have to support their religious beliefs but that's too sciency.

[whathehell]

46. His neighbor may be the "quintessential" RW Fundy

He's certainly NOT "The quintessential Christian"..There are many denominations of Christianity, so until you educate yourself on their significant differences, stop broadbashing the entire religion.

[Buckeyeblue]

47. Whatever. I classify them all together because in many ways they are all the same

Yes, some are seemingly more "tolerant" than others. Some have higher standards of education for the people that can lead the churches. And some of those allow massive amounts of abuse. So I lump them together for reasons.

James Talarico is just playing a textual game with other christians. It is all bullshit.

And unless you, Whatthehell, can prove the existence of a god, don't tell me to educate myself. I'd tell you to pull you head out of your...we'll you know. I'm trying not to get this post blocked.

[mwmisses4289]

9. I was hesitant to vote for Talarico, voted for Jasmine Crockett in the primary.

My main hesitancy was his making no bones about being christian. I still have some reservations, but more and more I am beginning to think he is the right person to turn our senate delegation purple, if more than enough texas Dems get out and vote in November.

[RockCreek]

15. Their hatred of him would help endorse him for me (if I lived in Texas).

[Sympthsical]

61. Crockett's busy wrecking her career

She decided saying a lot of crazy shit about the Karmelo Anthony situation was a good idea.

In Texas.

Any designs she may have ever had in that state are over. Her opponents need only replay her comments over the past week.

She has a nice career of podcasts and lobbying ahead of her.

[mwmisses4289]

63. That's the case where one young person stabbed another at a track meet?

And the stabber was found guilty?

[Sympthsical]

65. Yeah

Kid was completely guilty.

But it's turned into a total racial shitshow on purpose by his parents for grifting purposes. Had they gone about it just about any other way, their child could have gotten a much lighter sentence. But there was no money in that.

I've been keeping idle tabs on it, because the fallout of the verdict has morphed into a moving car crash that's difficult to look away from. Anthony's initial supporters are having massive falling outs amongst themselves, because the family was in the background looking for money, and people involved with them started spilling the tea when Karmelo's father started asking about how to grift the appeals funds.

And somehow Crockett managed to get on the wrong side of this, because she was trying to chase clout.

It's messssssy. I haven't been this fascinated since that Lego reseller tried to rip off a dying man who enlisted a YouTuber.

It's turned into a banner month for social media rubbernecking.

[intheflow]

10. Mostly on the nose but "every empire that has ever heard that message

has tried to kill the person saying it“ is not true at all. The reason we have so many Christians now is because the Holy Roman Empire was led by Constantine, who converted himself and required everyone under his rule to convert, also. Constantine didn’t embrace Jesus’ message, per se, but it’s intellectually lazy to claim that all empires seek to kill Christianity when Christianity itself was embraced and spread by empire.

[paleotn]

14. Exactly. It's been the cornerstone of Western Civ. SINCE Constantine I.

And we're all much worse for it. That whole premise is incredibly stupid. Did Phillip II's Spanish Empire, the sole super power of its time, try to kill Christianity? Oh, hell no. They tried to kill every Christian who wasn't the "right" kind of Christian. Sounds just like the US Christian reich if they could get away with it.

[YodaMom2]

22. Perhaps it's because he's differentiating here between Christianity the religion, and Christianity as taught by Jesus.

The two, especially in the modern white Evangelical church, bear little resemblance to each other.

And as I recall from reading the works of religious historians, Constantine’s “conversion” was more about political expedience than faith. And while he “legalized” christian belief, he was politically predisposed to disfavor those who insisted on the “as taught by Jesus” version of Christianity versus the adherents of the nascent organized (i.e. Catholic) religion of Christianity.

[lastlib]

26. Bill Moyers called it.....

"...the religion about Jesus versus the religion of Jesus." Hit the nail on the head. MAGAts/RWers preach the former, Talarico preaches the latter. And it interferes with their power.

[Wednesdays]

31. "I like your Christ..."

"I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

-- Mahatma Gandhi, who may have been the most Christ-like person of the last 100 years.

[Sympthsical]

54. Don't remember Jesus being an ultra racist sleeping with young girls

But I admit, it's been a minute since I've read the Bible.

I agree with the quote whole-heartedly, but Gandhi was . . . an entire thing.

Like Mother Theresa, the more you learn the worse it gets.

[summer_in_TX]

57. I differentiate even among the conservative Christians.

Many actually try to feed, help, serve, and so forth.

But Christian MAGA and Christian Nationalists are in the process of writing their own Bible because they don't like what Jesus says. They're rewriting it to cast their political enemies as demonic.

Their version of religion fits the very definition of Christopretensism – using the language and symbols of Christianity for power and wealth.

[Haggard Celine]

59. Constantine saw how Christianity could be used to control people.

That was his main interest in Christianity. I think the worst thing to happen to Christianity was being officially declared the one true religion. Orthodoxy has almost killed Christianity. The religion was a lot more diverse in the early days, but then you had bishops like Irenaeus constantly raising hell about what other Christians were doing. Those assholes were the spiritual fathers of all the evils in Christian churches. A lot of Christians talk about martyrdom and persecution of Christians. I wonder what is the bigger number, the total of Christians killed by Romans, or the total of people killed in the Inquisition and witch hunts?

[GenThePerservering]

23. Which version?

[JT45242]

35. Constantine took the message of Jesus and twisted it

Instead of standing up to the empire and enforcing jubilee etc., he twisted it to be part of the empire.

It happened so long ago it is almost impossible to imagine that Christianity was not part of the status quo of power.

It was one of the great lies of the Ronan Catholic church...that and that the bishop of rome was some special dude. But that is a different rant

[summer_in_TX]

56. Constantine was the beginning of power co-opting Christianity for its own purposes.

His version was significantly distorted, bastardized even. But unfortunately it tempted many.

Jesus renounced power when Satan offered him the chance to rule over all the kingdoms of the earth. He challenged power and lifted up the powerless. Mary's Magnificat was all about God doing a new thing through this child, lifting up the lowly and casting down the high and mighty.

[orleans]

11. your headline made me chuckle. oh the irony. then: i'm so sick of those fucking crazy ass freaks! nt

[paleotn]

12. "Christianity becomes a tool of power"?

Since when has it not been?! Maybe before Constantine I went all Akhenaten. That being the Egyptian Pharaoh who imposed a type of monotheism on Egyptians who'd never known such. Of course Akhenaten was trashed after his death, his monuments and statues torn down, and he was nearly written out of history by later Pharaohs. Not so much for Constantine unfortunately. The thinking being that monotheistic Christianity was a great way to ingratiate some much needed supporters (Roman Christians), and to rally and control the masses. It stuck and it's been little more than a religious shit show ever since in the West.

The US Christian reich is but the latest installment in that shit show. While the rest of the industrialized world has moved on from myth and fiction, or at least embraced it's softer side, we're arguing about someone being "demonic?" Really? That's just barbarous. No wonder the rest of the advanced world looks at us and snickers.

[ananda]

13. As if there weren't enough insanity on the right already...

projection much?

[Martin68]

16. Conservatives Christians are out of their minds. Oh, and they are all fake Christians who use Christianity as a weapon.

[patphil]

17. The "christian" right prefers the Old Testament. The Old Testament God is more in line with what they want God to be.

But Jesus said he was preaching a New Testament; a testament of love, caring, and respect for all people.
And yet the right wing christians see that as demonic?
The answer is: yes, they do.
All this Jesus "stuff" interferes with their hate.
How can you be a white supremacist and follow the teachings of Jesus?
The answer is: you can't.
When Talarico talks about the "politics of love", it freaks them out, and they call him exactly what they are...demonic.

They're also afraid of him, since he speaks truth to power.
I think he's a winner, and they fear that the most.

[haele]

20. Hell, they don't even really follow the Old Testament God...

If you actually read the older Torah texts, and older versions of the Vulgate, the God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, who "destroyed the world by flood", who tore down the Tower of Babel, would not hold most modern Prosperity Gospel followers or "Christian Conservatives" as godly or favored people.

They're tribal bullies who worship earthy riches and positions instead of a God.
The Religion they follow is based off a mortal heirarchy taking the place of a God.

[thomski64]

27. A better name for them is Dominionists

Their whole rapture-crapture is the same
old, same old. GOD HAS A PLAN

for your money...

[multigraincracker]

18. Now those words in red are anti-Christian

according to White Christian Nationalists

[Wednesdays]

32. "That doesn't work anymore. That's weak."

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/05/1192374014/russell-moore-on-altar-call-for-evangelical-america

More likely, that person said, "That's woke."

[aggiesal]

19. RW Media needs to take their Irony Deficient tablets. n/t

[relogic]

21. Twenty years ago

I emphatically told my crazed, apocalyptic fan, fundamentalist BIL that his ilk have made irrelevant and useless what he preached. The stunned look from him was tinged more from contempt than realization of what I stated.

[dlk]

24. Hysterical zealots, living in their fantasy world, can't take the truth

So they have a meltdown and blame someone else, name-calling to avoid their psychological discomfort. This is clearly a pathology.

[Soul_of_Wit]

25. Family values? Whose family? (n/m)

[Bristlecone]

28. He scares them

His messaging is resonating and they don’t like it, so they turn to outlandish claims, like questioning his manhood, now calling him satanic/demonic.

[Wednesdays]

29. The Progressive Era was spearheaded by progressive Christians

130 years ago. They were usually the authors of progressive legislation, and founded the YMCA, for example.

[LeftInTX]

44. Yeah, but the Texas GOP ain't a bunch of progressive Christians.

They're Christian in the same sense that Trump is Christian.
It's prosperity, PT Barnum gospel with them.

It's like the abortion issue. OK for me, but not for thee. Christianity is a wedge issue.

[Matthew28]

30. I'd just

explain that your belief system isn't supported by anything and demons and talking snakes are unsupported. Stop listening to it.

[spanone]

33. The christian right would crucify Jesus again if he came back

FUCK THEM

[Quanto Magnus]

34. Those on the right adhere to

Republican Jesus, not the Jesus of the Bible

Republican Jesus;

is White
is Rich AF
Hates Immigrants/the poor/LGBTQ+ people/anyone not white
is Pro-predatory capitalism
Created the United States for Christian Nationalists
wants his followers to treat their neighbor as their enemy (if not followers of Republican Jesus)

[B.See]

37. In other words, they worship the/an antiChrist

Who's the exact opposite of everything Christ preached. As are THEY.

So what the fk would THEY know?

[Jack Valentino]

45. Republican Gun-Toting Nascar-driving Jesus ?? LOL

[JT45242]

36. Bashear and tallarico terrify the xian nationalists...but not Warnock

They are terrified of white progressive Christian leaders because they can point out the hypocrisy.

With Warnock, they know that their followers (dupes) will never listen to him because he is a black man. Never, ever forget that Christian nationalism is a political movement built on racism and sexism that masquerading in white society as a religion. When articulate white Christian males speak out against the hypocrisy it. They fear that the dupes who have been trained to only to listen to white males might realize that they have been lied to.

[LeftInTX]

55. That's one reason I voted for Jasmine in the primary. Not because she's a Christian.

But since she was black, I knew the shit they would pull would be obvious racism. Also, I liked her messaging and fighting spirit. But with regards to RW shit, I pretty much knew there wouldn't be any surprises. It would have been the same old tired trope.

With Talarico, I knew they would come up with stuff like this. It won't end.

[Uncle Joe]

38. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread marmar

[LT Barclay]

39. They sold their soul to Satan a long time ago in exchange for access to political power. They need to STFU.

[DemocracyForever]

40. Christian right is unchristian!

The hate of the Christian right is nowhere to be found. The great book "The Separation of Church and Hate" by Jon Fuglsang documents this fact using the King James bible itself to make the case.

[Buddyzbuddy]

42. I see what the problem is.

He wasn't holding the Bible upside down while misquoting from it.

[Marcuse]

48. Republican Jesus

[niyad]

49. This is The Onion, yes??? PLEASE tell me this is The Onion.

[niyad]

50. "There is no hate quite like "christian" love. "

[JoseBalow]

51. "Fake christian" is what christians call other christians they don't agree with

It's an open membership, anyone can join for free... They're all "christians" if they consider themselves to be.

[multigraincracker]

52. Just remember this when they speak, every accusation is a confession.

[mvd]

53. I grew up Catholic and am now spiritual

The demonic, if there are such things, are those accusing Talarico. They worship wealth, power, greed and break multiple commandments.

[SupportSanity]

58. Christians have been warning us about the antichrist for 2000 years.

And when he finally shows up, they vote for him.

[no_hypocrisy]

60. Religious stochastic terrorism out in front.

The goal is to take out Talarico, because that's what your religion tells you to do.

[Joinfortmill]

62. Projection much?

[MarcoZandrini]

64. Religion.....

…..poisons everything.

Christopher Hitchens