Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico (D) declared “God is not a Christian” during an Oct. 22, 2023 sermon at his home church, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, according to reporting by Joshua Arnold at The Washington Stand.
What the report says Talarico preached
Arnold’s piece quotes Talarico as arguing against Christian nationalism and rigid religious categories. In the sermon excerpted by Arnold, Talarico said:
“Do we really think God would make all these beautiful people with all their beautiful traditions for no reason at all? There are so many pathways to the sacred. The Islamic mystic Rumi said, ‘Every religion has love, but love has no religion.’ God is so much bigger than our human categories. God is not a Presbyterian. God is not a Christian. God is not a noun at all. God is a verb. God is not a being. God is being itself. God is love, and that’s why Jesus is against anything that gets in the way of that love between neighbors, including religion.”
Arnold also reported that Talarico said elsewhere, “I have learned as much about my faith from Salman’s [Bhojani] tradition, from the Islamic mystics, from poets like Rumi … as I have from Christian authors and Christian writers.”
According to the same report, Talarico told the congregation, “Religious Supremacy is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t come to establish a Christian Nation. He came to reveal ultimate reality.”
“Beer is better than religion,” read from the pulpit
Arnold wrote that during the sermon, Talarico read a text message he said he’d received from the church’s senior pastor listing “top reasons beer is better than religion,” including:
“When you have beer, you don’t knock on people’s doors trying to give it away.”
“There are laws against forcing beer on minors who can’t think for themselves.”
“You don’t have to wait more than 2,000 years for a second beer.”
How the report frames the theology
Arnold characterized Talarico’s remarks as elevating pluralism over Christian claims and argued they conflict with passages of Scripture. His analysis cites, among others, Acts 17:26–30 and Matthew 22:37 regarding worship of God, as well as Matthew 28:19 on evangelism and Matthew 24:42 on Christ’s return.
Arnold further noted a past remark he attributed to Talarico from a March 2021 podcast: “I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity.”
