John Cornyn blasts Talarico's Texas pastor over 'mixed feelings' quip after Trump assassination attempt
Rev. Jim Rigby claims Bible Belt, MAGA movement is 'the Confederacy'
A Texas pastor and longtime spiritual mentor to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico has drawn criticism from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, after telling his congregation that there are “mixed feelings” about the recent assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, while stressing that violence is never the answer.
The Rev. Jim Rigby, pastor of the PCUSA-affiliated St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, made the comment during his April 26 message in which he encouraged his congregants to be “healing agents of the world,” yet likened the Bible Belt of the southern U.S. to a fascist movement.
“You may know, if you check the news at all, there was an assassination attempt,” Rigby told the congregation. “And I know a lot of people have mixed feelings. But it’s really, really important if you’re going to be the healing agents of the world to realize that violence is not going to get rid of the problem that we have,” Rigby said.
His sermon was delivered just hours after gunfire cut short the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the historic Washington Hilton hotel on April 25, where Secret Service agents escorted President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and several members of the cabinet to safety.
Rigby continued his Sunday sermon by pointing to comments he made the previous week in which he said, “If violence could have gotten rid of racism, the Civil War would have worked.” He then described the “Bible Belt and the heart of the MAGA movement” as tied to the Confederacy.
“The America they want to get back to is the Confederate States of America, not the United States of America,” Rigby asserted. He urged the congregation not to respond to what he called a “fascistic movement” with the same tactics.
Read 4 things to know about Senate candidate James Talarico's PCUSA pastor
“It's very important that even as we fight for justice, even as we protect each other from this fascistic movement, that we not do to them what they're doing to the rest of the world because we cannot stop the storm unless we step out of it,” he said.
Rigby urged his congregation to “give love the last word,” adding, “You don’t need to hate people for being confused and lost. They’re still your human family. … You can’t help it that hate has had the first word in our time, but you can make darn sure that it doesn’t have the last word.”
Sen. Cornyn, who is set for a runoff vote against Attorney General Ken Paxton on May 26 for the GOP Senate race, criticized Rigby’s remarks and linked them directly to Talarico’s campaign.
“James Talarico claims to be campaigning on love and kindness, but his Pastor made light of an assassination attempt on the President of the United States in Washington, DC this weekend where a Secret Service officer was seriously injured. All Texans should be outraged and Talarico must condemn it,” Cornyn wrote in an April 27 post on X.
Rigby did not respond to a request for comment from The Christian Post on Monday, but he gave a statement to Fox News in which he pushed back against any suggestion that his sermon was a call for violence and distanced himself from the Talarico campaign.
“In my sermon yesterday, I made it perfectly clear that violence is not the answer. Senator Cornyn is editing my words to deceive voters in Texas. In no way do I speak for James Talarico nor his campaign,” Rigby told Fox News.
A spokesperson for the Talarico campaign would not clarify whether Talarico will continue attending St. Andrew’s following Rigby’s comments.
In a 2023 guest sermon, Talarico said he has been a member of the church since he was 2 years old. At the time, he preached against Christian nationalism, blasting it as a "pro-war, pro-wealth, pro-white supremacy" type of "domesticated" Christianity.
In March, Rigby announced St. Andrew’s would temporarily beef up security after the official launch of Talarico’s Senate campaign.
In a recent podcast, Talarico said Rigby baptized him, “married his parents,” and has served as a mentor since childhood. He lauded Rigby for his decision in the 1990s to “ordain gay and lesbian clergy, to bless same-sex marriages.”
“Our pastor, Dr. Jim Rigby, who I’ve known since I was 2 years old, he married my parents, he baptized me, he is still my pastor today. And he showed me what it means to act with courage from the pulpit,” Talarico said.
Talarico has also repeatedly condemned political violence, including in the wake of the shooting at the WHCA dinner and after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. At the time, Talarico issued a statement calling Kirk “a child of God” and declaring, “Political violence has no place in America. … I am tired of being pitted against my neighbor. I am tired of being told to hate my neighbor.”
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ian.giatti@christianpost.com.
