“God is not a Christian,” declared Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico (D), in a recently unearthed sermon from October 22, 2023 at his home church, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian. Talarico’s self-assigned task was to condemn Christian nationalism, but he went about it by attacking Christianity in general.

Especially when giving a critique, it’s always best to take a speaker’s comments in the fullest possible context. Talarico said:

“Do we really think God would make all these beautiful people with all their beautiful traditions for no reason at all? There are so many pathways to the sacred. The Islamic mystic Rumi said, ‘Every religion has love, but love has no religion.’ God is so much bigger than our human categories. God is not a Presbyterian. God is not a Christian. God is not a noun at all. God is a verb. God is not a being. God is being itself. God is love, and that’s why Jesus is against anything that gets in the way of that love between neighbors, including religion.”

Talarico has said elsewhere that he has “learned as much about my faith from Salman’s [Bhojani] tradition, from the Islamic mystics, from poets like Rumi … as I have from Christian authors and Christian writers.”

In these remarks, Talarico’s basic argument seems to be: other religions exist; therefore, Christianity cannot be the only right one.

The logical objection to this argument is that various world religions disagree on many important doctrines at a fundamental level. For instance, Christianity affirms that God is a trinity, Judaism affirms that God is a unity. Both affirm that God is a personal being. Hinduism recognizes a whole pantheon of gods, and Buddhism recognizes none at all. Talarico extols love as the highest goal, whereas Buddhism values peace from suffering above all.

The biblical objection to this argument comes from Paul’s address to the Areopagus. God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him,” he began (Acts 17:26-27). “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Paul acknowledged the stunning diversity of world religions, but he dismissed them as ignorance, compared to the Christian gospel.

Nor does Scripture support Talarico’s conclusion, “Jesus is against anything that gets in the way of that love between neighbors, including religion.” This places the second greatest commandment ahead of the first. According to Jesus, the greatest commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). If someone will not grant that this is religion, then their definition of religion is too man-centered and overlooks the weighty glory of God.

Talarico’s headline comment, “God is not a Christian,” is interesting because there is a right way to argue it — one that comes from a fellow Presbyterian. In his 1923 manifesto against liberal Christianity, “Christianity and Liberalism,” J. Gresham Machen argued that “Jesus was not a Christian:”

“But if Christianity is a way of getting rid of sin, then Jesus was not a Christian; for Jesus, so far as we can see, had no sin to get rid of. Why then did the early Christians call themselves disciples of Jesus? … They connected themselves with His name not because He was their example in their ridding themselves of sin, but because their method of ridding themselves of sin was by means of Him. It was what Jesus did for them, and not primarily the example of His own life, which made them Christians.”

Likewise, Talarico could argue that God is not a Christian because he is the object of proper Christian worship, not a participant in that worship. Instead, he seems to argue that God is not a Christian because he (it?) is not the Christian God.

“Religious Supremacy is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Talarico continued. “Jesus didn’t come to establish a Christian Nation. He came to reveal ultimate reality.”

That’s an interesting phrase to use because, at least once during Jesus’s earthly ministry, “ultimate reality” broke through. The incarnate Son of God took his three closest followers up onto a mountain in private, “and he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light” (Matthew 17:2). A heavenly voice declared, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5).

Here is ultimate reality! God’s eternal Son robed in glory, commended by the Father, and revealed to mankind. Yet Jesus warned his followers, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead” (Matthew 17:9). Why such secrecy, unless this glimpse of glory is full of significance? Jesus was the Son of God, but he had to die to take away the sins of the world. If Jesus did this — if Jesus is the Son of God — then Christianity is the only correct religion, and all the other religions are wrong.

Talarico is right that Jesus did not come to establish a Christian nation. Jesus established a worldwide church, which will one day give way to his absolute reign.

Yet Talarico seems uncomfortable with the splendid and absolute claims Christianity makes. In a March 2021 podcast, Talarico confessed, “I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity.” He confessed to the same self-loathing in the 2023 sermon, “If I’m being very honest, sometimes I hesitate before telling someone I’m a Christian. There is a cancer on our religion. Until we confess the sin that is Christian nationalism and exorcize it from our churches, our religion can do a lot more damage than a six-pack of Lone Star.”

By “six-pack of Lone Star,” Talarico was referring to a text message he received from the senior pastor, away on sabbatical, on “The top reasons beer is better than religion.”

“Number one, when you have beer, you don’t knock on people’s doors trying to give it away,” Talarico read to the congregation. “Number two, there are laws against forcing beer on minors who can’t think for themselves. Number three, nobody’s ever been burned at the stake because of their favorite brand of beer. Number four, you don’t have to wait more than 2,000 years for a second beer. And last, if you’ve devoted your life to beer, there are groups to help you.”

In a few short words, Talarico disparaged evangelism, discipling children, perseverance unto death, Jesus’s second coming, and total devotion to God.

Jesus did indeed come to show us “ultimate reality,” but Jesus taught many of these same practices that Talarico criticized. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14). “Brother will deliver brother over to death … and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:21-22). “Stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42). “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38).

Christianity endures plenty of mockery from the enemies of Christ. It needs no mockery from its self-identified teachers.

Jesus’s relative James warned would-be preachers, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1). As a seminary student serving as a substitute preacher, perhaps less could be expected of Talarico than a full-time pastor called to a church. But preaching God’s word to God’s people is always a sobering responsibility, and every preacher must give an account to God for his words.

Talarico taught that “God is so much bigger than our human categories.” That is true, but that does not mean humans have the freedom to dismiss God’s own self-revelation through Scripture and the Divine word. As Paul warned, “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:9).