James Talarico & the rise of liberal Christianity

James Talarico was not even born the last time Texas elected a Democrat as senator, in 1988. Yet on 3 November 2026, he won 55% of the vote. Sixty-seven per cent of Texans identify as Christian, while 27% are classed as Evangelical Protestants.

Politics is a complicated business, and it would be foolish to reduce an election involving millions of voters to a single cause. But for Christians, there is something about Talarico’s appeal worth noticing.

Talarico has made Christianity central to his public persona. He quotes the Bible, speaks frequently about Jesus, and has even studied theology. He consistently presents his progressive politics as an expression of his Christian faith.

In an interview with Ezra Klein for The New York Times earlier this year, Talarico was asked directly whether he believed Christianity to be more true than other religions. Christianity "points to the truth", he said, but "other religions of love point to the same truth". He compared religions to different languages using different words for the same object – "I believe Jesus Christ reveals that reality to us," he explained, "but I also think that other traditions reveal that reality in their own ways."

Appealing to the sheep and goats in Matthew 25, he has said that Scripture tells us "how we will be judged and how we will be saved" – but this is not by faith, or in Christ, but by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger and visiting the prisoner. All of which are wonderful things, but not the ground of our salvation.

James Talarico and the rise of liberal Christianity

What Talarico presents is a recognisably liberal form of Christianity. His is a tolerant religion where love is defined largely in terms of whatever suits the current culture, and those parts of the Bible which it finds awkward are consequently erased.

It is a religion in which Christ makes no exclusive claims as Lord, despite such claims pouring forth from the pages of Scripture.

We might comfort ourselves that this is an American problem – Texas is, after all, rather far from Tewkesbury. But the evangelical church here in the UK is not immune to the pull of Talarico’s Christianity. Many of the same cultural instincts are present among those now coming through the doors of our churches.

Why Christian conversion must be followed by discipleship

Ligonier Ministries' 2026 State of Theology survey found that 28% of UK evangelicals had begun attending Sunday church services for the first time as adults within the previous two years. Praise God.

And these "new evangelicals" really do hold remarkably substantial Christian convictions. Ninety-nine per cent affirm the Trinity whilst 97% hold to the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Yet alongside these convictions sit some remarkable inconsistencies, which (quite understandably) tend to pull in the direction of the wider culture. Seventy-one per cent believe God accepts the worship of all religions, but perhaps more shockingly, 57% believe that the Bible contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true.

If more people are coming to Christ, praise God. But unless conversion is followed by discipleship, the danger is that some of the assumptions these newcomers bring with them will begin to reshape the Christianity they have embraced. Just as with Talarico, this would tend towards a weakened confidence in the authority of Scripture and even in the exclusivity of the gospel itself.

What do new Christians need from the local church?

People do not arrive at church as blank slates. They have already been catechised.

Culture is not the enemy, to be clear – human beings naturally create and imbibe culture. But every culture carries assumptions which need to be brought under the Word of God; from Hollywood to Hollyoaks, our culture has its own pulpits. Netflix, social norms at the school gate, and the realities of multicultural Britain preach their own kind of sermons. Our culture brings with it an effusion of assumptions about truth, authority, goodness, and identity which people do not politely leave in the umbrella stand at the church door as they arrive.

The wider culture affects us all; Talarico’s victory demonstrates the emotional hold that a more liberal, more cultural Christianity could potentially have, even within the evangelical fold.

As more people seek Jesus again, our task is not simply to celebrate their arrival. We must also ask: what are their greatest needs when they get here?

Jesus once looked upon a crowd of people and had compassion upon them because they were "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd". This was hardly an irreligious society. There were plenty of religious teachers, and these people were even seeking Jesus – but what they needed was shepherding.

What these people need now is the church. They need pastors. They need a week-by-week teaching and preaching ministry, and they need the sacraments, because they need what we all need: Christ.

At Bridlington on 10 October, around 550 people were baptised in the North Sea. Many who braved the cold had been encouraged to come through social media. Praise God for that – praise Him for these 550 and for evangelists, and every means by which people encounter the gospel.

Those baptised were encouraged to join a local church if not already part of one, but the mere fact that we think that Christians might be able to express faith in this way and yet not become a member of a church is discouraging. Church is where God’s people worship Him. The local body is where believers are encouraged, shepherded and indeed made disciples – baptised and taught to obey the commandments of Christ, under His authority (Matt. 28v18-20).

The wonderfully ordinary, week-by-week life of the local church is what we need. Churches in turn must teach and preach to the questions people are actually asking, confronting the assumptions of our age, rather than those of a bygone one. Surveys such as Ligonier’s State of Theology give us a little picture of the cultural concerns people are grappling with, but those questions must not set the church’s message or authority. The task of the church remains to preach the Word faithfully in every season, to proclaim the exclusivity and glory of Christ, and indeed to teach the whole counsel of God.

The role of pastors in discipling and shepherding Christians

That may sound like a daunting task for pastors already carrying heavy loads, but remember the crowd upon whom Jesus had compassion. They were sheep without a shepherd, but the good news is that Christ has not left His church that way.

Pastors do not invent the blessings that Christ's people need, but simply pass on what they themselves have received. They preach His Word, administer His sacraments and patiently teach His sheep, and not their own. The government of Christ's church does not finally rest upon their shoulders. It rests upon His.

I hope you pray for more people to read the Bible because of something they saw on Instagram.

I hope you pray for baptisms and conversions, and that the Lord would do a great work in this land.

But pray too, that our churches would be ready to receive, teach, and love those who come to Christ, walking alongside them and being shepherded together until finally they stand before their Great Shepherd.

Talarico offers us a Christianity that is right at home with the assumptions of our age, but Christians are being shepherded towards another country and another throne.