by William Trollinger

James Talarico and Ken Paxton, image via msn.

As Rod Kennedy has made abundantly clear, James Talarico – the Texas Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate – drives fundamentalists like Ken Ham absolutely nuts. 

And it is easy to understand why. The Democratic nominee for the Texas Senate is a Christian (and former seminarian) who is very open about his faith, and who is very clear that it drives his social and political commitments. But Ham – who has created a video about Talarico entitled “Perhaps the WORST ‘Christian’ Politician in American History” – finds Talarico’s commitment to a social Gospel and progressive politics to be fundamentally anti-biblical. For Ham, to be a “Bible-believing” Christian includes support for unfettered capitalism (and thus opposition to regulatory efforts that seek to address global warming, which Ham and his colleagues at Answers in Genesis see as a “leftist hoax”). It also involves strenuously opposing efforts to expand the role of government in providing for the welfare of its citizens; to give one example, Ham claims in the aforementioned video that efforts to ensure affordable childcare are simply ploys by secularists to “indoctrinate and brainwash children as young as possible.”  

As he makes clear in another video, “They All Say They’re Christians, but Here’s What They Won’t Tell You” (which also includes attacks on KY Gov. Andy Beshear and children’s educator/YouTuber Ms. Rachel), what really infuriates Ham about Talarico is that he “frequently uses Christian language to explain his political positions.” As Ham sees it, Talarico cherry-picks Bible verses that highlight the necessity to love your neighbor as yourself, while conveniently setting aside verses on sin, repentance, marriage and salvation.  In doing so, Talarico presents a truncated Christianity that fails to make clear that we are saved by faith in and obedience to God.

Ham concludes this video with a challenge to his viewers: 

My final question for you is a personal one. Are you relying on your good deeds to save you? Have you made a Christianity of your own by picking and choosing from the Bible’s teaching?

Fascinating that Ham would ask this question. 

In his speeches Talarico makes frequent reference to Matthew 25, which, as it happens, is the one place in the Bible where Jesus explicitly presents himself as King and Judge on the throne at the Last Judgment:

Then He will also say to those on the left hand, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25: 41-46)

Seems pretty straightforward. It’s hard to imagine how Jesus could have been any clearer. It certainly makes sense that James Talarico frequently cites this passage. And it also makes sense that Ken Ham – the vehement anti-Social Gospeler -- does not want to bring attention to these verses. In fact, in the Jesus Room at the Creation Museum there is a “Teachings of Jesus” placard that includes Matthew 25:41 (“Depart from Me, you curse, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels”), but that elides the verses that come after, thus allowing Museum visitors to insert their own list of those who will be condemned (e.g., LGBTQ-affirming progressives).

Talk about picking and choosing from the Bible’s teaching.

Oh. One other thing. James Talarico’s opponent in the Senate race is Ken Paxton. Paxton is a self-proclaimed Christian who happens to have an unbelievably long trail of scandal, including felony securities fraud indictments, bribery, extramarital affairs, failure to disclose sources of income, Texas House of Representatives impeachment, and more. 

All of this, and yet Ham is silent about Paxton and his “Christian faith.” Instead, it is Talarico whom Ham attacks as not being a real Christian.   

It seems that Ham would benefit from answering his own question: Have you made a Christianity of your own by picking and choosing from the Bible’s teachings? More to the point, have you substituted radical right-wing politics for the message of the Gospels?