NEW: James Talarico Caught Saying He ‘Hates Christianity’ Despite Touting Faith

Texas Democrat James Talarico has leaned hard into faith on the campaign trail, casting himself as a Christian voice with moral clarity as he seeks higher office in the U.S. Senate.

But newly unearthed audio from a 2021 podcast is putting that carefully crafted image under a harsh spotlight.

The Austin Democrat, who is facing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in November’s pivotal Senate race, admitted during an appearance on Roberto Che Henderson-Espinoza’s “Activist Theology” podcast that he has a complicated relationship with the religion he frequently invokes in politics.

“I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity, right?” the Austin Democrat said in exclusively unearthed audio.

The remark is likely to raise eyebrows in deep-red Texas, where millions of voters identify as Christian and where faith remains central to public life.

Talarico has built part of his political brand around a progressive interpretation of Christianity, arguing that his faith informs his left-wing views on social issues and government power.

Critics, however, say his version of Christianity sounds less like traditional faith and more like leftist activism with Bible verses attached.

The 2021 podcast appearance included Talarico discussing theology, politics and the language of morality with Henderson-Espinoza and co-host Rev. Anna Golladay.

Henderson-Espinoza, formerly known as Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, identifies as a “nonbinary, transgender, Latinx theologian on the autistic spectrum.”

The ordained Baptist previously taught courses including “Queer Theory and Theology,” “Introduction to Christian Social Ethics,” “The Ethics of Liberation” and “Queer Theory and Religious Ethics” at Duke Divinity School, according to her bio.

Henderson-Espinoza has also written on what she called “transing religion,” arguing for dismantling traditional binaries and theologies of complementarity.

In a sermon delivered while wearing a “Black Lives Matter” vest, Henderson-Espinoza described the Bible as “trans-positive.”

“How might we embrace the language of the writer of Genesis in that the earth being a formless void and mobilize darkness in the face of the deep as part of the creative process that is trans-inclusive and trans-positive,” Espinoza asked.

Henderson-Espinoza also opposed a Texas bill requiring schools to notify parents if their child tells a school official that he or she is transgender.

🚨Just in: New audio reveals James Talarico hates Christianity:

“I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity.” pic.twitter.com/YhQBt1fVIo

— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) June 23, 2026

Espinoza warned that young trans queers living in Texas like she was “can be outed to their parents at will…”

Talarico praised Henderson-Espinoza during the episode, saying he “couldn’t contain” his “inner fan boy” when Espinoza followed him on Twitter.

He also said Espinoza’s book had inspired him and added that “y’all’s work continues to inspire me.”

The episode offered a window into the kind of progressive theological circles Talarico has embraced while trying to present himself as a faith-driven Democrat in one of the most Christian states in the country.

Despite saying he “hates Christianity,” Talarico told the hosts he remained drawn back to the faith.

“And I always get drawn back into it because nowhere else, in no other political philosophy, in no other economic theory, do I find anything as truly radical or revolutionary as the teachings of that barefoot Rabbi,” Talarico told Espinoza and co-host Rev. Anna Golladay, who in 2018 lost her associate pastoral position at Chattanooga, Tennessee, United Methodist churches for officiating a gay wedding.

Golladay is running a long-shot campaign to unseat Rep. Chuck Fleischmann in Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District, a ruby-red seat President Donald Trump carried by more than 35 points in 2024.

Talarico also praised his longtime minister, Jim Rigby, who led St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin for more than 35 years.

According to the church website, Rigby has a “love of world religions and a passion for social justice.”

Talarico said on the podcast that Rigby was “proudly part of a Christian anarchist tradition.”

The Democrat said he later came to understand the professional risks Rigby took with his liberal interpretation of the Bible.

“Now I look back and understand what kind of risks he was taking with his own career,” the Democrat said, describing Rigby as a “true white traitor.”

In far-left academic circles, the phrase is not treated as an insult but as a reference to rejecting so-called “white privilege” and “whiteness.”

Talarico also spoke about his own race and gender in terms that echoed progressive identity politics.

“My whiteness and my masculinity, all of those things limit my imagination about what’s possible,” the man who wants to be Texas’ next senator said.

The remarks are likely to fuel Republican arguments that Talarico’s faith message is really a political vehicle for pushing radical left-wing policy in religious language.

During the podcast, Talarico said Christianity could be a powerful tool because many political opponents also come from that tradition.

“The reason I think Christianity can be powerful in our context in this country is because so many of our political opponents share that kind of, that tradition,” Talarico said, calling Jesus Christ a socialist.

He also described Jesus in terms that many traditional Christian voters may find jarring.

“It’s very strange every time I think about it, that the most popular figure in our country, particularly on the conservative right, is this socialist anarchist from Palestine,” he said.

Talarico said controlling the moral language of politics can help shift the country’s culture.

He predicted that such a shift would move society “toward something that’s more life-affirming, life-enhancing, life-furthering.”

He also said the “people with functioning hearts” have a “moral obligation” to drive that change.

For James Talarico’s defenders, the podcast may reflect a progressive Christian trying to wrestle with institutions, politics and faith.

For his critics, it sounds like something else entirely: a Senate candidate using Christianity as a campaign tool while privately admitting he “hates Christianity.”

In a state where faith still matters, that clip could become a serious problem.

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