Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who recently won the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary, has faced relentless attacks from Republicans over his religious and political views. But one expert in public humanities and religion believes there’s an underlying reason for them.

Talarico, a former public school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian, has often centered his arguments in favor of liberal policies on his Christian faith. He’s argued that there’s “no historical, theological, biblical basis” that supports the idea that being Christian “means you have to be anti-gay and anti-abortion.” He told The New York Times Opinion section last month that the separation of church and state is “sacred” and for the “benefit of the church.”

He has argued that a Republican bill in Texas that would require every classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments is both “unconstitutional” and “deeply un-Christian.”

“I say that because I believe this bill is idolatrous, I believe it is exclusionary and I believe it is arrogant,” he said about the bill at a hearing in 2023. “And those three things, in my reading of the Gospel, are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus.”

The Texas Democrat has emphasized on many occasions that his faith has guided him to “love my neighbor as myself.” He’s also spoken out against Christian nationalism, telling host Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” last month that “there is nothing Christian about Christian nationalism.”

Republicans have been ramping up their attacks against Talarico — especially after his triumph over Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) in the Senate primary last week. Right-wing accounts on X have been posting old clips of Talarico talking about the ways his Christian faith guides his politics.

Last week, the Senate Republicans X account resurfaced a clip of Talarico saying, “God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary.”

“Meet James Talarico, Texas’ Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate. He thinks ‘God is nonbinary,’” the post read.

On Tuesday, the GOP group posted a clip of Talarico delivering a sermon at his home church on Easter last year, in which he said: “Christ says what we do for the least of these, we do for him. So where is Christ today?”

“Christ is the immigrant deported without due process,” he continued. “Christ is the senior deprived of their Social Security benefits. Christ is the protester kidnapped in an unmarked vehicle by plainclothes officers. Christ is the student sitting in an overcrowded classroom in a defunded school.”

Talarico hit back by responding to the post on X, writing: “I approve this message.”

Deepak Sarma, inaugural distinguished scholar in the public humanities at Case Western Reserve University, said that they believe the right-wing attacks against Talarico are motivated by one reason: “They hope to gaslight Christians across the United States to believe that their views that Christ defended the oppressed is not correct, and that having such beliefs is neither American nor Christian.”

Sarma, who received a Ph.D. in the philosophy of religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where they also specialized in Indian philosophy, told HuffPost that those in the MAGAverse attacking Talarico over his Christian faith are doing so because they want their version of Christianity to prevail.

“They hope that their version, which resembles those put forth by Nazis and the KKK, become mainstream,” Sarma said. “They intend to deploy Christianity as a political and racist strategy. And this is diametrically opposed to Christian tenets. They fear [Talarico] because he is, in so many ways, more Christian than they will ever be.”

“By denouncing, castigating, censuring, and mocking him, they believe that their ilk will not hear the truth that Talarico so genuinely shares,” they continued. “Their attacks are getting the core tenets of Christianity wrong, just as they have gotten the core tenets of the American experiment wrong.”

Sarma believes that the attacks on Talarico by MAGA Christians are “proof of their total lack of understanding of Christianity.”

“As Talarico, and others have noted, the MAGA Christian right is only nominal Christian,” they said. “Their priority is their partisan political affiliation, their cult worship of [President Donald] Trump, their racism and their xenophobia.”

Sarma said that the mandate of the Christian ministry is “indisputable.”

“While the essence of Christianity has been debated ... for 2000 years, it is accepted that Christ’s ministry is directed towards the downtrodden, the marginalized, and those who have been rejected by the establishment,” they said. “It is indisputable that Christianity ministry originates in the biblical mandate to “defend the cause of the poor and needy (Proverbs 31:8-9).”

As for criticism that Talarico has said that “God is nonbinary,” Sarma said that the Christian God is indeed believed to transcend gender.

“Living or emergent Christian communities [replace] the gendered language with more inclusive language,” they said.

Sarma said that while there has historically been a debate between “inclusive/progressive Christians and Traditional/Conservative ones,” nowadays, the debate is between inclusive and progressive Christians and “CINOS (Christians in Name Only) — who have, like their Nazi and Ku Klux Klan predecessors, co-opted Christianity to buttress their twisted ideologies.”

“Christians throughout the world have expressed that MAGA Christian Nationalism is a theological distortion and a misrepresentation of Christianity,” they later added.

By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.