Talarico claims 'Christian nationalism kills' after Hegseth pastor desires he be 'crucified with Christ'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico said Tuesday that Christian nationalism is a lethal threat after the pastor of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s home church in Tennessee said he wanted to see the U.S. Senate candidate "crucified with Christ."

"Jesus loves. Christian Nationalism kills. You may pray for my death, Pastor, but I still love you. I love you more than you could ever hate me," Talarico posted to X.

Talarico was responding to remarks from Brooks Potteiger, pastor of Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, who suggested on the "Reformation Red Pill" podcast last week that Talarico’s liberal theological views are demonic and deceitful.

Joshua Haymes & Brooks Potteiger (Pete Hegseth's pastor) pray imprecatory psalms against James Talarico: "I pray that God kills him. Ultimately, that means killing his heart and raising him up to new life in Christ ... If it would not be within God's will to do so, stop him by… pic.twitter.com/KTKUR8o5et

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 17, 2026

During their 20-minute conversation, Potteiger agreed when podcast host Joshua Haymes, a former pastoral intern at Potteiger’s church, said of Talarico, "I pray that God kills him. Ultimately, that means killing his heart and raising him up to new life in Christ."

"Right, right. We want him crucified with Christ," Potteiger replied, in an apparent reference to Galatians 2:20, which speaks of the spiritual death of a Christian’s sinful desires. Potteiger added that he hopes Talarico will have an experience like Saul of Tarsus, who lived wickedly until an encounter with the risen Jesus led to his conversion and repentance.

"I want him to be, I think, Saul of Tarsus; Talarico of Tarsus. That’s what I want," Potteiger said, to which Haymes replied, "We want death and new life, right? And if it would not be within God’s will to do so, stop him by any means necessary, O God."

The two also agreed at another point in the podcast that Talarico would be an appropriate subject of the imprecatory psalms, which invoke God’s judgment against evildoers.

"I love James Talarico, I want him to repent and believe the Gospel," Haymes said, as Potteiger nodded in agreement. "He is also an enemy of God who is wearing Christianity as a skin suit, and bringing dishonor and shame to the name of my Savior. And I hate that."

Talarico tweeted his comments in response to a Huffington Post story published Tuesday that framed Potteiger’s crucifixion remarks as literal, alleging Haymes and Potteiger were calling for his death.

Potteiger dismissed the Huffington Post’s headline as "excellent clickbait" and "false" in a lengthy response on X, clarifying what he meant. He condemned Talarico’s use of the Bible to justify his pro-abortion views as "quite egregious" and said, "ministers have a moral obligation to rebuke magistrates who pervert justice and promote wickedness in the name of God."

This headline is excellent clickbait. Yet, it suffers from the fact that it’s false. I should know as I happen to be pretty close to that fella you slandered. And, strange you used a picture of someone who has literally nothing to do with the conversation at hand.

I get it,…

— Brooks Potteiger (@BrooksPotteiger) March 24, 2026

The pastor went on to explain that the imprecatory psalms are prayers asking for God’s help against evil, but that the ultimate desire of a Christian should be the conversion and repentance of the wicked, as seen in the Apostle Paul.

"Now, as it turns out, God in His wisdom has given us imprecatory psalms where He calls for His people to ask that He’d bring low and frustrate the plans of evildoers," he wrote. "Yes, He even says so in capital terms. Yet, I understand the imprecatory psalms, like I do all of Scripture, first and foremost in light of Christ."

"And so, as a Christian, when I pray imprecatory psalms about those who celebrate baby murder, I am not, from my heart, praying for their death. I’m praying for their conversion. That the 'old man' would die. That he would be 'crucified with Christ' (Pauline language for conversion) and raised to new life, and given a new heart with new desires."

Potteiger also pushed back against the Huffington Post’s framing of his position as a pastor to Hegseth, noting that Hegseth was not involved in the conversation.

Replying to an X user who characterized the remarks as an inflammatory rhetorical failure that could be misunderstood as a threat, Potteiger said the Huffington Post "intentionally presented [them] in a way to be misunderstood."

In a response Wednesday morning to Talarico’s X post, Potteiger reiterated that he harbors no hatred toward Talarico but wants him to repent of twisting Scripture to justify sin.

"James, you promote the killing of babies in the womb in the name of Christ. I don’t hate you. I love you enough to pray for your genuine repentance. And I love those you are leading astray enough to warn them about your Scripture twisting, even if it means enduring slander (like what you displayed above)," he wrote.

Pastor Douglas Wilson, a friend of Potteiger who helped found his church’s denomination, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, wrote an article on his blog Wednesday about the dispute.

Claiming his own church in Moscow, Idaho, has been inundated with furious calls and death threats since Potteiger’s comments, Wilson wrote that "if the phone calls to our church office here in Moscow are any indication (as I believe they are), the sympathizers of the Talarician way have a long way to go before they can appear quite as sanctimonious as their leader Talarico does."

Wilson argued that Talarico and his supporters are mischaracterizing clear New Testament language regarding spiritual death and resurrection, and suggested Talarico is effectively calling for the same thing Potteiger was, but from a liberal position.

"Suppose this love of Jesus that Talarico embodies finally penetrated the wall of hate that has imprisoned Brooks. What would that love do to that hate? Ah, yes. That love would put that hate to death," he wrote. "And if we switch it around, what would the actual love of Christ that Brooks has do with the wall of hypocrisy that has imprisoned James? Right again. The love of Christ is the death of sin."