Radical Christian takes the stage in Texas

Holy Smoke! And I do mean holy!

I thought dingbat Jasmine Crockett was the Wizard of Woke in last week’s senatorial primary in Texas, the land of wide open spaces and politicians with wide open space between their ears.

I thought James Talarico was the normal Democrat. I thought he was moderate.

I was wrong, and when I am wrong, I admit it.

Having learned more of his views in recent days, I see him as a radical Christian, with the emphasis on radical.

He is the grandson of a Baptist minister and when not busy with his duties in the state house, he was a seminary student, from which he recently graduated with a master’s in divinity. 

Which seminary? The Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Given some of his views, I thought Talarico might be affiliated with  Flip Wilson’s Church of What’s Happening Now. (I am dating myself by mentioning the delicious Flip Wilson. For the kids, look here ) 

What I also just learned is that he has a master’s of education from Harvard, plus a BA from the University of Texas at Austin, with Austin being the San Francisco of the Southwest Conference. His full bio is here. 

He also has a master’s in throwing out delicious progressive morsels that fall apart upon close inspection.

Some of what was happening  at Talarico’s seminary? 

The Bible course offerings include “Immigration and the Old Testament,” “Activism and Old Testament Scriptures,” and “Womanist and Feminist Readings of the New Testament.”

So maybe it wasn’t just at Harvard where he picked up some of the weird and wooly ideas he has floated in the past, before he put on the mask of candidacy normalcy.

Such as?

That “God is nonbinary,” which he uttered during a legislative floor speech. 

In the Christian religion he professes, I do believe Jesus gets the pronoun “he,” and he wore a robe, not a dress.

On a video, Talarico described Jesus as a “radical feminist.”

Let’s break that down. 

Jesus loved everyone — even his enemies — and certainly did not want women to be chattel or to be oppressed by the patriarchy.

But he was male, and, you know, when he selected  his apostles — sorry, all male, with all that testosterone and toxicity. 

Jesus seemed to favor men for leadership. A patriarchy. Not unusual for his time.

But not for Talarico, who is 36. “Radicalized white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country,” the radical white man wrote in a post five years ago. Talarico looks young, like a Boy Scout, but would bristle at the male pronoun.

As you may know, Democrats have trouble appealing to males, and this kind of talk is not going to endear them to voters with testes. Especially not in a traditionally red state like Texas.

Talarico will face a Republican to be determined by a runoff between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Ken Paxton.

And then there was Talarico’ defense of abortion, which is illegal in Texas, relating it on Joe Rogan’s podcast to the story of incarnation.

“Because God comes over Mary, and we have the incarnation, God asks Mary’s consent. . . So to me that is an affirmation . . . that creation has to be done with consent,” Talarico said.

 As you know, I am not a theologian, but to me that passage sounds more like seeking consent before sex, even if immaculate. 

So, it’s not a green light to abortion, but a red light to rape.

He has passionately supported the right of trans women to have an abortion. If I understand this correctly, a trans woman is someone born male. 

Which would make it impossible for her to be pregnant.

And if it is a trans man who is pregnant — sorry, only women have uteruses.

He also supports trans women competing against biological women in sports, a hugely unpopular position.

At a Texas House Committee on Public Education hearing, he stated, incorrectly, “Modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes; in fact, there are six.”

A remark that stupid I would expect from Crockett. I wonder what audience he thinks he’s playing to? How many cows are in that herd?

The science of biology recognizes two sexes, male and female, which may contain certain variations, which are not additional sexes.

In wonderland, other spheres, such as Facebook, recognize dozens and dozens of gender “identifications,” which are social constructs, not biological sexes. Penises may come and go, but the XY sex chromosome marks a man forever. Ditto females’ XX.

To believe otherwise is woke smoke, and not at all holy.