Far-left Senate James Talarico once again kicked off a major controversy with his heretical take on Christianity, this time after a video of him with a pride flag hanging behind the altar while reading a poem from a Muslim mystic. Talarico defeated Jasmine Crockett in the Texas Senate primary and is running against Trump-backed Ken Paxton in the November general election.
For context, Talarico is a self-described ‘Christian who hates Christianity’ and has repeatedly been found to be bashing Christians while simultaneously praising other faith traditions. He once called Texas Republicans less Christian than his Muslim, Hindu, and atheist colleagues for not voting in favor of the latest woke agenda. More recently, he called it ‘insidious’ to teach the Bible as historical fact to kids, despite the fact that not interpreting the Bible as factual essentially nullifies the faith.
In other times, Talarico has suggested all faiths are equal, bestowing no special place for Christianity despite, again, identifying as a Christian and being seen, as in the video below, delivering sermon-like speeches from within a church. Talarico has also defended abortion on biblical grounds, though that defense seems at odds with the Bible not being historical, and has even gone so far as to suggest God is a ‘non-binary’ character in the religious realm.
Not done with these and other controversial remarks, the latest video to hit the internet was a short clip of the Texas Democrat quoting a 14th-century Sufi Muslim poet and mystic. As if that weren’t bad enough, the drab altar behind him did not feature a visible cross of any kind, although there was a prominently-displayed pride flag replete with the transgender stripes and rainbow-pride banner.
“One of my favorite poems, the Islamic mystic Hafiz says that we are all invited to join that dance. He says every child has known God, not the God of names, not the God of don’ts, but the God who only knows four words and keeps repeating them, saying, ‘Come dance with me,’” he said in the clip. Watch that moment below:
Given the aforementioned opinion held by Talarico himself on the apparent sameness of all the world’s major and minor religions, the poem fits perfectly to undermine the unique truths offered by Christianity. It again reinforces the concept of all faith traditions and beliefs being equal. As The Christian Tribune wrote at the time, those comments came after being invited to a Hindu festival in Texas.
“I’m always so thrilled when I get invited, you know, to the Diwali festival. I think I’ve gone two years in a row now, and you know, also have gotten a chance to speak at some of our local mosques,” he began in the video.
“And I find such wisdom and comfort and inspiration from faith traditions all over the world, and I find that they’re all kind of an equal pathways to truth, you know. That’s how I think, you know, I always think of all of the world’s faith traditions as like a circle with, you know, that divine mystery of the universe in the middle, and we all have different names for that mystery, right?” he went on.
“Whether it’s God or Yahweh or Allah or Nirvana, the great spirit, whatever you call it, this is all you know, different pathways to the same kind of fundamental truth of reality. So, yeah, it’s something I’m, it’s how I try to stay grounded and stay rooted,” he finished.
Featured image: Screen shot from embedded video