U.S. Senate candidate and Texas state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, claimed during a Monday interview that the Bible has nothing to say about abortion or gay marriage, and that Jesus Christ taught salvation is obtained by treating people well and "welcoming the stranger."
"Jesus in Matthew 25 tells us exactly how you and I and every one of our fellow believers, how we're going to be judged and how we're going to be saved: by feeding the hungry, by healing the sick, by welcoming the stranger," Talarico said to applause in a segment of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
"Nothing about going to church, nothing about voting Republican. It was all about how you treat other people," he added.
Talarico's theological assertion came in response to a question from Colbert that characterized "the religious right" as "largely a political movement that references spirituality" while attempting "to use religion as a tool of political power."
Echoing Colbert's description, Talarico suggested "the religious right" has made an idol of political power and spent the last half-century convincing "a lot of our fellow Christians that the most important issues were abortion and gay marriage; two issues that aren't mentioned in the Bible, two issues that Jesus never talked about."
Talarico, who attends classes at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), went on to claim that "Jesus gave us two commandments: love God and love neighbor."
"And there was no exception to that second commandment," Talarico continued, before adding to what Jesus said in Matthew 22:36-40. "Love thy neighbor, regardless of race or gender or sexual orientation or immigration status or religious affiliation."
Talarico also removed the context of what Jesus said in the passage he cited, which recounts Him answering a question regarding which of the commandments was most important, not which were the only ones. Neither was Jesus issuing new commandments, but rather quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.
"On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets," Jesus said, according to the text.
Talarico, who faces a state primary against Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, on March 3, also denounced "Christian nationalism," which he defined as "the worship of power in the name of Christ" and "a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth."
Talarico, whose pastor at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, faced denominational trial in the PCUSA for ordaining LGBT clergy since the 1990s, has previously made controversial theological claims, including that God is non-binary, that Jesus was a "radical feminist" and that there are six biological sexes.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., recently addressed what he characterized as the common misapplication of Matthew 25:35 to immigration law and the civil authorities generally.
Responding to a question on Feb. 3 about Pope Leo XIV's citation of the verse to opine on U.S. immigration last fall, Johnson claimed "borders and walls are biblical" and that the Bible's moral imperatives for personal conduct do not necessarily apply to the civil magistrate in the same way.
"You're supposed to take care of the sojourner and the neighbor, treat them as yourself, welcome them in, yes," said Johnson, a Southern Baptist. "But that is an admonition to individuals, not to the civil authorities."
Citing Romans 13, Johnson said civil authorities "are given authority under Scripture to maintain order," and that they are "God's agents of wrath to bring punishment upon the wrongdoer."
"It's a calling to maintain order in society, and we have not had that," he added, offering the chaos that has resulted from the millions of unvetted immigrants pouring across the U.S. border under the Biden administration as an example of what happens when the civil authority fails to fulfill its God-given role.
