Breakpoint
Author: John Stonestreet and Timothy D. Padgett
Included in the “blue tsunami” of the 2026 Midterm elections is a budding movement that does not hesitate to explain how “Christian” this nation should be. Most famous of this group is James Talarico, the newly minted Senator-elect from the newly minted blue Texas. Talarico will take a seat held for over 20 years by Republican John Cornyn, who lost a primary bid to a candidate plagued by moral scandals. Taking advantage of the unpopular candidate, Talarico cast himself as the truly Christian option.
While pursuing his political career, Talarico took classes at seminary in Austin committed to theological liberalism and progressive social justice. His stump speeches were peppered with scriptural allusions and policy positions based on his understanding of Christian ethics.
In one speech, he defended universal health care and food programs for children by pointing to Christ who, as Talarico put it, didn’t charge a deductible or try to price gouge. He made bizarre claims about the birth of Christ to support abortion on demand. And he defended extreme views on gender and sexuality, even saying that God has six genders, a statement he later downplayed. In every case, Talarico claimed his policies had “biblical grounds.”
On the Ezra Klein show, he cited examples of heroes from history, who...
...infused their politics with a moral foundation, oftentimes explicitly rooted in faith. And I feel like what we’re suffering from now, people start with their politics and then try to figure out the morality on top of that when it should be reversed. Who are we as human beings? Where do we come from? Why are we here? How should we live? The politics should grow out of that. I really do feel like this is a way I can love my neighbor at scale, through good public policy. … All the things I’ve worked for in the state legislature, it was to love my neighbor.
While Talarico embodies theological progressivism, newly elected Kansas pastor Adam Hamilton resembles more of a traditional theological liberal. He describes himself as “pro-choice with a heavy heart.” In his campaign, he rejected the idea of males competing against females in sports and so-called “gender affirming surgery” for minors. He did not, however, reject the social transitioning of minors or other forms of harmful experimentation on children.
In one of his books, Hamilton described his theological method as rejecting those passages of Scripture that “never ever reflect the heart and character of God.” This is a common way that biblical authority is undermined within theological liberalism, evaluating the biblical texts based on one’s moral views. In the end, this amounts to separating the teaching and way of Jesus from the source material about His life and teaching.
Neither Hamilton nor Talarico have received much criticism for bringing faith into the public square, especially from those who, for years have breathlessly warned of the looming theocratic takeover of America. As Katelyn Walls Shelton posted in response to a particularly loaded New York Times article,
If you’re a Christian Democrat, according to the @nytimes, you’re a Matthew 25 Christian. If you’re a Christian Republican, you’re a Christian nationalist. Make it make sense.
Of course, actual Christian Nationalists must also be criticized, not only for misusing Scripture but especially, when appropriate, for ethnonationalism and antisemitism. I say “actual” because some are Christian Nationalists and others are accused of it unjustly. And that’s the point here. As our former Colson Center colleague Joseph Backhom recently put it:
Secularists don't care if you call yourself a Christian, talk publicly about Jesus, and regularly attend church as long as you worship their rainbow gods of autonomy too. If you do, they'll hold you up as an example of one of the "good Christians." Jesus will be horrified, but they'll love it.
Jesus is the Lord of heaven and earth, not someone to be appropriated for our political causes. Faith belongs in the public square, especially the Christian faith oriented around Christ and the biblical description of reality. We must serve that vision rather than claim it in the name of ours.