In a recent article in The New York Times titled “In Senate Race, Talarico Challenges ‘Heretical’ Right-Wing Christianity,” the authors, Lisa Lerer and Elizabeth Dias, paint the Texas Democrat as a “better Christian” than those vile conservative MAGA Republicans. As the article’s subheader states, “James Talarico, the Democratic nominee from Texas, hopes to counter what he sees as a conservative takeover of the American church.”

Talarico, as our Emmy Griffin observed, is “the latest radical to try out the 'I’m a moderate Democrat’ scam.” As she noted, his campaign platform is replete with radical leftist polices and ideology — everything from DEI to abortion to LGBTQ+ indoctrination to transing the kids. Griffin pointed out that Talarico is “even further left and more radical” than the Democrat primary candidate he defeated, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett.

Despite Talarico’s radical leftist ideological and policy package, he and Democrats hope to win in red Texas by cloaking his political agenda with his liberal Christianity. Hence, the recent articles by The New York Times. And that’s “articles” plural because the paper’s token Christian conservative, David French, wrote an op-ed touting Talarico’s Christianity.

“Talarico is one of the few openly Christian politicians in the United States who acts like a Christian,” French gushes, “and by acting like a Christian, he reveals a profound contrast with so many members of the MAGA Christian movement that’s dominated American political life for 10 years.”

Seriously? French not only needs to read his Bible again, but he also needs to drop his broad-brushing of conservative Christians as lacking genuine spiritual fruit because they are sometimes not very “nice” when standing against social and political evils like abortion and the LGBTQ+ agenda.

To that point, what impresses French about Talarico is his gentle manner. Overlooking the Texas Democrat’s left-wing nonsense and outright heresy, French sees Talarico as a good Christian because he’s nice. He writes, “The significance of the Talarico moment: not the old news that a Christian can be progressive but, rather, that Christian politicians can actually act like Christians. Kindness still has a place in the public square, even if it doesn’t always seem that way.”

Is lying about the fundamental reality of humanity as communicated to us in Scripture “kindness”? Talarico charges that “Christian nationalism,” a vaguely defined popular bogeyman of the Left by which they smear biblically faithful conservative Christians, is “fundamentally un-Christian,” a “perversion” of Christianity, and “unbiblical” and “heretical.” Yet that comes from a man who calls God “nonbinary,” says Mary’s pregnancy is evidence for abortion, and quotes the heretical Gospel of Thomas to make left-wing policy points with a veneer of Christianity.

To every Christian, truth matters. And when it comes to Scripture, Christians are called to do our best to present ourselves to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). Furthermore, Christians are also called to “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Jesus warned His disciples, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Christians are called to be wary and careful thinkers, faithfully applying what Scripture teaches.

The glaring problem with the Gospel of Talarico is that it does not conform to the sound teaching of Scripture that Christians have held for millennia. His views are not doctrinally sound; they are heterodox and heretical.

Indeed, liberal Christianity has long been identified as not in keeping with genuine biblically faithful Christianity. As the theologian and apologist J. Gresham Machen recognized back in the early 20th century, “liberal Christianity” is another religion entirely, based on naturalism rather than Scripture. Therefore, when Talarico makes appeals to Scripture, he does so not as one who has submitted himself to its sovereign authority as the word of God but as one who seeks to subject Scripture to his own worldly sensibilities.

The New York Times reporters and, worse, the ostensibly Christian conservative columnist David French are attempting to venerate Talarico as a genuine Christian despite the glaring reality that much of what he supports and espouses stands in fundamental opposition to the clear teachings of the Bible.

Of course, the Times’s interest is not religious but political. For biblically faithful Christians, being scorned by the world and popular culture for refusing to adhere to and embrace its worldly and immoral values as “virtuous” is nothing new. Still, it can be quite disheartening to be brow-beaten, especially by other Christians, for supposedly being too concerned about standing for the truth when simply being nice would make everyone so much happier and is supposedly more “loving.”

Keep in mind Jesus’s encouragement to His followers in John 16:33: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”