Paxton points to Talarico's own claims about God, Jesus in new attack ad: 'God is not a Christian'
A new ad paid for by the Ken Paxton for Senate campaign accuses his opponent in a bid for the U.S. Senate of “weaponizing” the Christian faith for political purposes.
In the 30-second ad shared by Paxton’s campaign Tuesday, the AI-generated lookalike of James Talarico is shown writing with a crayon in "The King James Talarico Bible," reciting his own spin on Scripture.
With a caption that reads, “James Talarico is weaponizing faith to sell a radical agenda, and he even brags about hating Christianity,” the ad highlights some of Talarico’s most controversial statements, including, "God is non-binary," "there are six genders," "Jesus was a radical feminist," and "I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity," to portray him as an outsider to orthodox Christianity.
Talarico made the “non-binary” comment during an Oct. 14, 2021, speech on the Texas House floor in opposition to House Bill 25, which requires public school students to compete in interscholastic athletic events based on their biological sex as stated on their official birth certificate.
A lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who is working toward a Master of Divinity degree at the denomination's liberal Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Talarico also claimed in an April 2021 Texas House Public Education Committee hearing that “modern science acknowledges six biological variations based on chromosomes to argue that sex is a nuanced spectrum, not a strict binary."
In an interview with CBS News in May, Talarico rejected his previous statement, adding, “I know there are two sexes, men and women. I also know there's a very small percentage of people who have these chromosomal abnormalities, and I believe they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”
As part of a sermon he delivered at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin in November 2022, the Democratic nominee called Jesus a “radical 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,'" said Talarico.
In July, President Donald Trump, who will join Paxton at the RNC Midterm Convention in Dallas this week, attacked Talarico for comments he made in 2021 when he described himself as a “Christian who hates Christianity.”
Trump made the remarks on July 24 to reporters assembled in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria hotel for the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C.
While Trump used the speech to poke fun at a range of figures, the president then addressed the Texas state lawmaker as “James Talafreako,” a name the Talarico campaign has since adopted as its own, even selling T-shirts and other merch reading “I’m a Talafreako.”
“In Texas, the Democrats are running a candidate named James ‘Talafreako,’ who hates guns, hates oil, hates sex, hates women, and says he is a ‘Christian who hates Christianity,’” said Trump. “Other than that, I think his platform is quite good. And that means he’s not going to do very well against Ken Paxton, who hopefully in Texas is going to win.”
Paxton’s latest ad comes as polls show Talarico with a slight edge heading into the two-month run-up to Election Day.
As Republicans gather this week in Dallas for the midterm convention, Talarico has announced plans to hold a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive in an effort to underscore rising grocery prices under the Trump administration.
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ian.giatti@christianpost.com.
