Let's be honest, most men drift. We wake up, we scroll, we work, and then we just rinse and repeat. And we know we're softer than we should be. That's why I built the 31-day resilience reset. This is not a devotional, it is a field manual for men ready to stop drifting and start fighting back. So, for 31 days, you'll train your spirit, mind, and body with scripture, prayer, and daily challenges that forge real resilience. Go to www.undaunted.life/31days to download this resource for free. That's undaunted.life/31days. Start your reset today. This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. That is Matthew 7:15. Guys, I'm so happy to be here with you today. Haven't done a solo episode in a while. I've had a lot of great guests, but just want to express as always that we are so, so thankful to our donors. Now, as you'll remember, we had to move our software about a year ago, 2 years ago, because we got canceled by one of our credit card processors. So, if you've noticed your monthly donation has stopped, if you wouldn't mind checking that in your bank account, go back to undaunted.life/donate. Now, you can stay on monthly for, you know, ad infinitum until rapture or whatever you believe in. And so, check that out. undaunted.life/donate. Or, if you need a tax-deductible donation, you can donate to the Daily Blade. That is in the show notes as well. Also, leave a five-star review for this show and share this with a friend. Do not keep this show a secret. Now, today on today's episode, I'm going to be working on a very, very important subject for you. So, we're not going to do any quick hitters. We'll probably do like a quick hitters bonanza next month or something like that. But before we get into the main subject for today, I would like to talk about a very legendary Okie that all of you will know and that is Carlos Ray, better known as Chuck Norris. He was born on March 10th, 1940 in Ryan, Oklahoma. Grew up here in Oklahoma. And supposedly, he died on March the 19th of 2026 just after his 86th birthday. So, he is best known for his roles in the Way of the Dragon opposite Bruce Lee, Walker, Texas Ranger. I mean, my dad and I watched that every Saturday growing up. We loved that. Delta Force movie, Invasion USA. The guy's just been all over the place. He's a best-selling author. But here's the thing about Chuck Norris. Dude is actually a legitimate fighter. Cuz a lot of these guys that were in like these action movies, especially like '80s action movies and all that, they weren't real tough guys. They may have done some different like modalities of martial arts, but they weren't actually tough guys. So, Chuck Norris was a legitimate fighter. He fought professionally. So, he was a black belt in a lot of different things. And so, karate, taekwondo, again, those have their uses here and there, but he was and he had something called tang soo do, whatever that was. But he had black belts in two legitimate martial arts, judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And he got his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under the Machados, okay? And so, like that's like a serious, serious black belt. And the most important thing about him that isn't really talked about as much since he's passed, again, supposedly, is that he was a Christian. He was very open about his faith. He was very open about the things that he believed. And so, we can rest easy knowing that he is now walking with his Lord and with his savior. And so, I thought before we got into the main subject today that we needed to honor the memory of Chuck Norris. And I guess the best way to honor him would be to give you some facts about his life. And so, these are all legitimately true. These are things that were on his vita or resume. So, Chuck Norris counted to infinity twice. Chuck Norris can divide by zero. When Chuck Norris does push-ups, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down. Chuck Norris hear sign language. After Chuck Norris's mom gave birth to him, he drove her home from the hospital. Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door. Chuck Norris doesn't wear a watch, he decides what time it is. Chuck Norris can unscramble an egg. Chuck Norris doesn't flush the toilet, he scares the crap out of it. Chuck Norris once threw a grenade and killed 50 people, then the grenade exploded. Chuck Norris's tears cure cancer. Too bad he's never cried. And Chuck Norris was once bitten by a king cobra. And after five excruciating days of torture and pain, the cobra finally died. And finally, Chuck Norris actually died 20 years ago, but death had just been working up the courage to tell him. RIP Chuck. Hey guys, real quick. You've probably heard me say it a bunch of times on this show, but I think potentially the biggest societal issue that we face in this country is fatherless homes. And beyond that, I know that there are a lot of fathers with sons that do not know how to lead them into manhood. But one of the problems is that men in our society and churches are able to recognize that there is a problem, but they currently lack the tools to begin solving it. I don't want boys falling through the cracks while men in churches struggle figuring out next steps. That's why I want to introduce you to Kids Outdoor Zone. Kids Outdoor Zone or KOZ is an outdoor adventure ministry that provides boys with men as mentors to help direct and train them in outdoor skills and guide them to becoming a godly man. The KOZ vision is for every boy, whether they have a father in the home or not, to have a man or group of men to help him navigate the masculine journey into manhood and a relationship with Jesus. KOZ groups help boys learn biblical masculinity, outdoor skills training, how to discern God's call on their lives, and much more. KOZ groups usually meet one Saturday a month. The mentors lead the boys in prayer and the expectations for the day and then they get to learn some sort of a life skill that will help the boy as he grows into a man. This could be everything from learning how to build a fire or a shelter, working on an engine, fishing for food, shooting a firearm or a bow, traversing different terrains, cleaning an animal, and and on and on from there. Afterwards, the mentors take the boys through heart training that introduces a scriptural basis for the life skill that they just learned. Then the boys get some time to individually reflect on what they've learned and there's certainly a lot more, but man, if it just has such a big impact on these boys. It's time to invest in the next generation of young men. Guys, this is your call to action. Start a Kids Outdoor Zone group at your church by signing up at kidsoutdoorzone.com. That's www.kids with an outdoor zone.com. There's a big red bar going through the middle of the home screen that says, "Want to start an outdoor group?" Click there to start. Let's not just lament what's been happening. Let's make a difference now. Again, that's www.kidsoutdoorzone.com. Sign your church up to lead a KOZ group today. All right, guys. So, very, very important episode today because I'm going to be talking about one of the most nefarious figures that we've ever seen in the political sphere in America. And I I promise you, I'm not being hyperbolic for effect, okay? Today's episode is about a 36-year-old Democratic US Senate candidate from Texas named named James Talrico, okay? So, he currently serves in the Texas House of Representatives and he's currently a Presbyterian seminarian. We'll talk a whole lot more about that. Now, I've talked about James Talrico before, okay? So, if you go back to episode 802, which by the way, if you haven't listened to episode 802 of this podcast, 802, it's called the heresy of pro-abortion Christianity, you really should listen to that before listening to today's episode cuz I'm going to I'm not really going going or or really go into some of the stuff I did in that episode. I'm going to let that one stand for itself. So, if you've not listened to 802, please listen to 802. But, here's how Yahoo News describes James Talarico. Former middle school teacher who built a national profile by fusing progressive politics with unapologetic Christian faith. Hmm. That's a very interesting description, right? Unapologetic Christian faith. We'll see about that. So, yes, James Talarico has been a rising star in the Democratic Party, but a lot of people have kind of been dismissing him. I've seen people just kind of like waving their hands over him. Oh, you know, Talarico's just, you know, not openly gay Pete Buttigieg. Talarico, he's just too crazy for Texas, right? Talarico won't even win the Democratic primary to try and win the Senate seat in Texas. And really, that's been the narrative for the last several months as he's been gaining prominence and been, you know, appearing on all these different talk shows and podcasts and things like that. But, now we have to face reality. And I hope to help you with that today. So, even if you had dismissed Talarico up to this point, I know for some of you, you're only hearing his name for the first time, and by the end of this, you should be an expert on him. But, you just can't ignore him or dismiss him anymore because earlier this month, Talarico won the primary to represent the Democratic Party in the upcoming US Senate election for the state of Texas, which happens later this year. So, Talarico won 52.8% of the vote, and Jasmine Crockett, who's currently in the US House of Representatives, somehow had 45.9% of the vote. Now, leading up to the Democratic primary in Texas, all of the betting markets, cuz I remember going and looking and seeing all the different things, had Jasmine Crockett as the frontrunner with a comfortable lead. Now, Jasmine Crockett, and I'm not saying this to be mean or derisive, I mean it, she might be one of the dumbest politicians ever. Like, she's legitimately not a smart person. She's a very dumb person. She's The only thing she's an expert at seemingly is code switching. So, when she's in front of more formal audience, she kind of code switches into one voice, and when she's when maybe around some of her constituents or people she's more comfortable with, she turns into another person entirely. So, that's pretty interesting. But, the thing about it leading up to this, I was looking at all the polls and all the betting markets, and I know the pollsters don't want to be wrong, and the betting markets certainly don't want to be wrong cuz it means they lose money. I never once believed that Jasmine Crockett was actually going to win the Democratic primary. Never once. I knew Tallarico was going to win. Now, I didn't realize he was going to win by like, you know, six or seven points, but he won nonetheless, right? So, now Tallarico will go up against either incumbent senator from Texas, John Cornyn, or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who are set to go into a runoff because neither one of them got more than 50% of the vote there in Texas in their primary. So, I'm going to actually begin with the end in mind here. And I mean this honest-to-goodness. I think that James Tallarico has a very very good chance to win the US Senate election in November. An incredibly good chance. And I'm going to give you four main reasons for that. The first one is that the Republican candidates just aren't that great. Okay? So, Senator Cornyn is essentially, you know, generic Republican. He's nothing special. Ken Paxton is what a lot of people They really like him on a policy level, but he's an incredibly polarizing guy, and he's wrapped up in a bunch of legal and personal controversies. He seems like kind of a train wreck as a human being. Now, I think the RNC is going to put as much oomph behind Cornyn as possible because they see him as a candidate with the best chance of winning, but neither candidate are very strong. The second reason is the Democratic Party is going to invest probably tens of millions of dollars into this race because they honestly think they can flip the seat. So, Texas has not had a blue senator in a very long time. It's been decades, but I think they can smell blood in the water here. The third reason is Trump's and the Republican Party's support and popularity is waning big time. Okay, so there are major cost of living issues here in the United States and those have persisted. The The economy for the average observer, the average American doesn't seem to be roaring, right? Even though there's some very, very good things going on in the economy. There's things that are affecting, you know, again, it's really cost of living, you know, cost of housing, groceries, certainly gas, which is tied to the war that's currently going on in Iran. And we're not going to get into the war in Iran today. Hopefully we can get into that next month after we get a little bit more down the road on it. But if the war in Iran drags on, if we actually do put significant boots on the ground, and if the mainstream media keeps winning the PR battle, which I mean, I just saw this recently that Apple Podcast and or Apple News and Google News, they were looking at their liberal versus conservative divide. And one of them, I think it was Apple, had zero articles that came out or sorry, I think it was Google. Google News had zero articles posted on their sheet or on their on their feed rather, that were coming from a conservative uh news organization and Apple News had two. So one had zero and one had two, right? And they got called out and they kind of shifted it a little bit. But the mainstream media is winning the narrative war against Trump and the Republican Party, right? So that's the third reason why I see this as very winnable for James Tallarico. But the fourth reason is probably the one that I think is the most important. There are a lot of nominal Christians in the state of Texas. And we'll get back to that one. But the main point of today's episode is to display to you the words, the worldview, and the philosophy of James Tallarico, okay? So we're going to let him speak for himself and then we're going to evaluate him as a political candidate and supposed Christian. Because here's the thing I've heard James Tallarico say before, someone will bring up like an old quote or an old tweet and he'll be like, "Ah, you know, people are are great. MAGA people are really good at taking me out of context, not giving the full context." But, he's kind of slimy cuz he points that out, but then he doesn't correct the context. He doesn't provide more context. He doesn't correct the quote. He just kind of says, "Ah, you know, it's not really that big of a deal. MAGA MAGA, they're evil anyway, right?" So, here are some of James Talarico's greatest hits. Again, we're going to let him speak for himself, and you'll have the video there if you're watching on YouTube or Rumble. Let's hear James Talarico's thoughts on God and trans children. >> The first two lines of the Bible, the first two lines in Genesis, use two different Hebrew words to describe God. One is the masculine Hebrew noun for divinity. The second is the feminine Hebrew noun for spirit. God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is non-binary. In Genesis 1:26, God speaks of God's self in the plural, saying, "Let us make human beings in our image to be like us." That's the infinite multitude of God, the masculine, the feminine, and everything in between. Trans children are God's children, made in God's own image. >> Now, let's hear James Talarico's thoughts on how someone will be able to enter the kingdom of God. >> The second way we can tell that Jesus was a feminist was through his teachings. Jesus famously summed up all of his teachings with just two commandments: love God and love neighbor. And for that second one, he didn't give any preconditions. He didn't give any qualifications. He didn't give any exemptions. Love thy neighbor regardless of race, regardless of class, and regardless of gender. In the Gospel of Thomas, which was later omitted from the Bible by church officials. The Gospel of Thomas quotes Jesus as saying, "When you make the male and female one in the same, when the male is not male, when the female is not female, then you will enter the kingdom of God." >> Now here are James Talarico's thoughts on the number of biological sexes that there are. >> I want us all to be aware of is that that modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six, which honestly represents rather Heffner surprised me, too. Surprised me, too, cuz I I you know, am not well versed in this this issue area. I'm not a scientist. I'm a politician, lot worse than a scientist. >> And here are James Talarico's thoughts on so-called trans people and so-called abortion care. >> This summer more than half our population became second-class citizens. Every one of our neighbors with a uterus became the property of the state. And nothing nothing is more un-Christian than that. Before we go further, I want to acknowledge that our trans community needs abortion care, too. Extending trans Texans is something we have to do every day at the state capital. And you better believe I'll be giving sermons on that, too. So when I use the word woman, it should not be understood as an exhaustive term, but rather as a as a lens through which to understand, examine, and interrogate patriarchy. >> And here are his thoughts on someone he loves that's not family or friends. >> Something that you love that's not family or friends. >> Um I love I'm just saying this cuz it's on my mind, the trans children who showed up yesterday at the state capital to advocate for their humanity. They shouldn't have to, but it was an inspiration to watch. >> And here's James Talarico's thoughts on so-called Christian nationalism. >> My faith means more to me than anything. But 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 exercise it from our churches, our religion can do a lot more damage than a six-pack of Lone Star. There is nothing Christian about Christian nationalism. It is the worship of power, social power, economic power, political power in the name of Christ. And it is a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth. He told us we would know them by their fruits. Jesus includes, Christian nationalism excludes. Jesus liberates, Christian nationalism controls. Jesus saves, Christian nationalism kills. Jesus started a universal movement based on mutual love. Christian nationalism is a sectarian movement based on mutual hate. Jesus came to transform the world. Christian nationalism is here to maintain the status quo. They have co-opted the son of God. They've turned this humble rabbi into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying money-loving fear-mongering fascist. And it is incumbent upon all Christians to confront it and denounce it. >> Amen. >> Eight men own as much wealth as 3.6 billion people, and Christian nationalists are boycotting Barbie. The Bible doesn't mention abortion or gay marriage, but it goes on and on about forgiving debt, liberating the poor, and healing the sick. Christian nationalists like to say this is a Christian nation. Not only is that historically inaccurate, not only is that theologically blasphemous, but it's also just not true. Look around us. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would forgive student debt. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would guarantee health care to every single person. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would love all of our LGBTQ neighbors. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would make sure every child in this state and in this country was housed, fed, clothed, educated, and insured. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would never make it a Christian nation, because we know the table of fellowship is open to everybody, including our Buddhist Hindu Jewish Muslim Sikh and atheist neighbors. >> So, that last clip there was actually three different clips from a sermon that he did back in 2023. It's like 18 minutes long. I put the whole thing in the show notes. But, here's James Talrico's thoughts on other religions other than Christianity. >> If Christianity points to the truth, I also think other religions of love point to the same truth. I think of different religious traditions as different languages. So, you and I could sit here and debate what to call this cup, and you could call it a cup in English, you'd call it something else in Spanish and and French, but we are all talking about the same reality. I believe Jesus Christ reveals that reality to us, but I also think that other traditions reveal that reality in their own ways with their own simple structures. And I've learned more about my tradition by learning more about Buddhism and Hinduism and Islam and Judaism. And so I see these beautiful faith traditions as circling the same truth about the universe, about the cosmos. And that truth is inherently a mystery. >> And finally, let's get his thoughts on immigration. >> How do you balance your feelings toward ICE versus the people you would represent who support deporting undocumented immigrants? You have 30 seconds. >> So, my family is from the border. My mom grew up in Laredo, Texas. I feel like Texans understand this issue of immigration more so than people in other states because we live with it, both the benefits and the challenges. So, what I've said is that our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front and a lock on the door. We can welcome immigrants who want to live the American dream. We can build a pathway to citizenship for those neighbors who have been here making making us richer and stronger, and we can keep out people who mean to do us harm. >> All right, so there's plenty more clips out there of him and some crazy things that he said, but again, those are the greatest hits. And we've heard what James Talarico has had to say on a bunch of different subjects. But I wonder what God has to say about those subjects. So, we'll actually look at all those claims one by one. And that might catch some of you off guard because for some of you you're like, you know, isn't Talarico a Christian? Like isn't Talarico just using the Bible to support his claims? Like surely he wouldn't possibly twist scripture to serve the dictates of the Democratic Party, would he? I mean, surely he wouldn't be misleading gullible Christians that don't read their Bibles by misquoting or applying scripture kind of like how Satan did in the desert during Christ's temptation, would he? He wouldn't do that. Like isn't he currently in seminary to become a Christian minister? Like hasn't he preached in front of churches before? And so we're going to get into his comments here in just a second and we're going to kind of look at them and really dig in and investigate them. But on those last couple of points, let's actually dig into his church and his seminary because the church that he attends is Saint Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas. So it is self-described as a progressive Christian congregation. And it's part of the PCUSA, you know, one of the most theologically liberal major denominations in the United States and we'll get more into that here in a second. Now, this church, they have a pride progress flag draped over the cross in their sanctuary. Okay? And this is actually from their about us page on their website. We are Presbyterian, yet our first allegiance is to Christ's gospel of universal love. Hmm. We are Christ-centered, yet we respect and learn from all religions of love. What is the religion of love? They don't exactly answer that. We affirm the ancient symbols of our faith, yet we strive to speak a new language that includes all people and affirms the scientific discoveries of our day. We hope to teach children the stories of the Bible without sectarian dogma. That we strive to be a close nurturing community, yet we welcome all people into our midst. We wish to live in inner peace, yet hear God's call to work for peace and for universal human rights. We take faith seriously, yet believe the journey should be fun. We celebrate life in many artistic forms. And then under that on their website, they list the core values of progressive Christianity, okay? And there's five of them, okay? By calling ourselves progressive Christians, we mean that we are Christians who one, believe that following the way and teachings of Jesus can lead to experiencing sacredness, wholeness, and unity of all life, even as we recognize that the spirit moves in beneficial ways in many faith traditions. Two, seek community that is inclusive of all people, honoring differences in theological perspective, age, race, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, class, or ability. Number three, strive for peace and justice among all people, knowing that behaving with compassion and selfless love towards one another is the fullest expression of what we believe. Four, embrace the insights of contemporary science and strive to protect the earth and ensure its integrity and sustainability. And five, commit to a path of lifelong learning, believing there is more value in questioning than in absolutes. So, if your red blinking alarm bells weren't going off during the reading of that, you're just not quite paying attention. You need to go back and listen again. And then next to that on the website website, they have a note on inclusive language. This is the note. Inclusive language, when used to refer to God, is non-gendered. Therefore, God is not referred to as he or father, nor as she or mother. When talking about people, we say things like humanity instead of mankind. And when non-specific references are made, we use gender-neutral pronouns. For example, we would not say, "First Church is looking for a new minister. I hope he is a good fit." Rather, we might say something like, "First Church is looking for a new minister. I hope they find one that is a good fit." Given that we strive for equality in roles and jobs, we will not assume that a particular unknown person is a specific gender simply because of their position. So, that's his church, right? By any measure, it's a synagogue of Satan and not an actual church. But now we need to look into his seminary that he's currently attending. It is Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. So, it's a PCUSA seminary where Tallarico is pursuing a Master of Divinity. And in their about us section, they have a question that's, "What is unique about Austin Seminary?" Here's a quote from that. Our unwavering commitment is to the preparation of women and men for pastoral ministry. So, obviously, they're not really holding to a biblical description of ministry by including women. There's also a question in that section called is diversity honored at Austin Seminary? Here's the quote. While we continue to strive for even greater racial ethnic diversity, the faculty and students we attract are a rich source of inspiration and challenge to the dominant culture. So, there's a lot of standpoint epistemology and critical race theory in that. And really overall, the seminary that he's attending is heavy on social justice, inclusion, cultural engagement, just not a whole lot of Bible, which would be concerning because it's supposed to be a seminary. But now we need to take a quick look at the PCUSA, which is, you know, basically undergirding his seminary and the church that he attends. So, that's Presbyterian Church USA. This began in 1983. It has a really convoluted past and a lot of splits and combinations. We're not really going to get into that. They're mainline and they're progressive. Okay? Very left-leaning. They reject the inerrancy of scripture. They allow the ordination of women and openly LGBTQ people. It has permitted same-sex marriage in their churches since 2015. They are pro-choice, meaning they're pro-abortion. And they have a strong emphasis on social justice, so-called equity, political engagement, cultural adaptation. So, again, really the entire denomination is a synagogue of Satan would be an easy way to think about it. Now, let's get back to Talarico and the quotes that we had him go through earlier. So, again, we had his thoughts on God's gender and trans children. So, here's the key quote. The first two lines of the Bible, the first two lines in Genesis use two different Hebrew words to describe God. One is the masculine Hebrew noun for divinity. The second is the feminine Hebrew noun for spirit. God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is non-binary. Well, what does the Bible say? So, he's referring to Genesis 1:1 and 2. In the In the created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without uh form and void, and darkness was over the faces of the deep. And the spirit, capital S spirit of God, capital G God, was hovering over the face of the waters. So, Tal Eric says the word for God is a masculine noun, and the word for spirit is a feminine noun. Thus, God is non-binary. Which is incredibly, incredibly foolish. Okay? So, and actually, I want to take a quick aside here. You know how I talk about for a lot of these nefarious, like, anti-God, anti-Bible like atheistic satanic worldviews to take hold, you need two groups of people. You need conscious nefarious actors and useful idiots. James Tal Eric is not an idiot. Every time you hear him talk, and a lot of time he talks really off the cuff, doesn't use notes. He's a very, very smart person. He's a conscious nefarious actor. He knows better, but he is putting out something so that he can gain control, so that he can manipulate people. And it's going to be a bunch of useful idiots that potentially get him elected into office. So, there's my little diatribe, I'll swing back. So, very, very foolish to say what he said there. So, the Hebrew word for spirit is ruach, right? R U A C H, ruach. Which grammatically, that is feminine. But that does not mean that spirit, capital S spirit, is female. Because ruach can mean wind, it can mean breath, or it can mean capital S spirit, okay? So, in Hebrew and in almost all languages, actually, there are different objects and concepts, and they have grammatical gender, okay? But it does not separate these things into masculine and feminine. So, for instance, the word wisdom in Hebrew is in the feminine. It is a feminine word, but wisdom is not a female being or an exclusively female thing, obviously. So, ruach is a feminine word grammatically, but scripture treats the spirit personally. And the pronouns that are used to describe the Godhead are always masculine. So, here's the words of Jesus in John 16:13. When the spirit, same word ruach, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. So, there this and many other passages throughout the Bible describe God in the masculine, using masculine pronouns, not as a mix of genders, not as some sort of a spectrum, and certainly not as non-binary. So, next he we looked at his thoughts on how someone will be able to enter the kingdom of God. He actually refers to the Gospel of Thomas in that clip, and he kind of has a throwaway line in there he just snuck in, which was later omitted from the Bible by church officials. He tries to make it like this whole conspiracy theory thing. I can like hear Tucker Carlson now, but the Gospel of Thomas was never considered to be canon. Okay? If you want to really get a deep dive on Gospel Thomas, just go to YouTube, type in Wes Huff Gospel of Thomas. You'll find a lot of stuff there. But this was an obvious forgery using Thomas's name, okay? This was written way after the time of Jesus, way after the time of Thomas, and it's Gnostic in the sense that it's supposed to be like some special revelation that Jesus like privately gave to the Apostle Thomas, right? So, here's all the stuff that Jesus said publicly, which was recorded by his followers and things like that, and taught all over ancient Galilee. But here's just the stuff that he told Thomas. He's like, "Hey Thomas, come here. I I got some real revelation for you." So, the key quote that Talarico had is, "When the male is not male, when the female is not female, then you will enter the kingdom of God." So, what this actually is is a paraphrase of the Gospel of Thomas saying 22. So, there are 114 different sayings in this, you know, Gnostic, you know, non-canon, complete forgery gospel. That's saying 22. But, as a lot of people have pointed out, including my buddy Josh Howerton, interestingly enough, James Talarico doesn't quote Gospel Thomas saying 114. So, I'll read from one of the translations here. Simon Peter said to them, "Let Mary leave us, for females are not worthy of life." Jesus said, "See, I shall guide her so that I will make her male in order that she also may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven." That's interesting. So, you have Talarico trying to make this equality of the sexes point, this very feminist point, Jesus is a feminist, but he kind of leaves out the same Gospel Thomas quote, quoting Jesus basically saying, "Yeah, women have no worth unless they become men." So, simply becoming non-binary, losing your gendered status, that has nothing to do with how anyone will get into heaven, right? We we were never called in scripture to transcend gender at all, okay? But, on the contrary, let's look at what Jesus has to say. John 3:3, Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." And a couple verses later in verse 5, "Unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Which really throws out there again, we we are not called to lose our gender, right? We are called to a spiritual rebirth. And how do we get that rebirth? So, let's look at the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith." This is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no man may boast, okay? That's the imputation of righteousness. So, James Talarico's thoughts on, uh, you know, on this matter are incredibly confused, and again, I think he's consciously doing that. Then he gives us his thoughts on the number of biological sexes there are. So, the key quote from that was modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six. Does he elucidate that? Does he explain why? Does he refer to a specific scientist? No, he just talked about it as if it was settled science that there are six. Which actually doesn't jive with what a lot of modern gender theorists and gender queer advocates are saying, it's much more than six, much, much more, but he just narrows it down to six. But, if we go back to the actual Bible, which again, the PCUSA, his church, and his seminary don't really like doing, Genesis 1:27, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them." So, two genders, not six, not a spectrum two. Male, female. Okay? And Jesus actually affirms this, for any of you red-letter Christians out there, he affirms this in Matthew 19:4, he answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?" So, there's that one. Now, let's get into James Teleco, he gave us thoughts on so-called trans people and so-called abortion care. So, here's the key quote, "Every one of our neighbors with a uterus became the property of the state, and nothing, nothing is more un-Christian than that." So, first, before we get into the rest of it, he talks about neighbors with a uterus, he means women. He obviously means women, but he's using kind of the the modern, you know, nonsense language. Oh, these are people with uteruses as opposed to just calling them what they are, which is women, which can clearly be defined as an a biological adult female, right? That's that's basically it. And what is he referring to here in that that quote? He was referring to the new abortion laws in Texas that went into effect after the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, thank God, which made it much, much harder for people to murder their unborn born children in the state of Texas. Not impossible, but much, much harder to get an abortion. And Tallarico's claim is that this meant that women, or neighbors with uteruses, lost all of their bodily autonomy, and how nothing is more un-Christian than that. Nothing is more un-Christian than that. Which translates into this, nothing is more un-Christian than preventing women from murdering their children. That's his claim. Simply incredible. And then another key quote, he says, "Before we go further, I want to acknowledge that our trans community needs abortion care, too." So, he is just like a predictive text mechanism of just all this nonsense leftist crazies and craziness, and he just tries to sprinkle a little Bible in, right? And he does it through this very unassuming happy face. So, the quick recap on this is there's no such thing as a trans person, obviously. Now, there are people with mental illness, and people who are gullible and who think they were born in the wrong body, and us as Christians, and for y'all as pastors or people in the ministry, you should love those people and come alongside them to try to help them. Right? You know, castigating them and and putting them out of your flock is not really going to help. You are there to assist those people in ministry, and you don't assist them by saying, "Yes, you are actually in the wrong body." You assist them, Andy Stanley, if you're listening to this, you assist them by telling them the truth and upholding the truth and guiding them to everywhere that truth leads. Okay? You weren't born in the wrong body. God made them male and female, and there's no way to change that. Also, the euphemism abortion care, it's a euphemism for the murder of children via abortion. And we know for a fact that life begins at conception. People, you know, debating the opposite side have absolutely no grounds to stand on scientifically nor theological, and look at Psalm 113 verses 13 through 60 or 139 rather verses 16. Here we go. Psalm 139 13 through 16, bam, nailed it. For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. A little bit later, your eyes saw my unformed substance and in your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me. And you know, are we allowed to murder these humans in the womb or any humans for that matter? It's it's very explicitly laid out in Exodus 20 verse 13, you shall not murder. Again, the word is not kill, the word is murder, right? Because we can kill people, especially in self-defense. We'll talk more about that later, but we are not to murder people cuz when you murder someone, it implies or actually it directly means the person whose life is being taken is innocent. And God hates that. Proverbs 6:16-17, there are six things that the Lord hates and it lists this, hands that shed innocent blood. Okay? So, very very clear, there's no such thing as a trans person and abortion is never morally acceptable in the eyes of God. Then James Shaw Al-Rico, we showed you his thoughts on something that he loves that's not family or friends. This was his reaction, his answer. I love, I'm just saying this because it's on my mind, the trans children who showed up yesterday at the state capital to advocate for their humanity. Which isn't creepy at all. Not creepy at all. This very insane person in this very nice facade who used to be a middle school teacher, which should be concerning, loves trans children. Just loves them. And why does he love them? Oh, because they were coming up to the capital because their parents, right? Their parents who have mental illness as well or their parents who are wanting to wear their child around like an accessory, like a handbag, like, "Oh, I have a trans kid. Oh, I have an LGBTQ kid or I have this." Their parents drove them up to the capital and here they are. They they gave them signs, which were probably paid for by someone else, gave them signs, gave them quotes to say out loud, and James Tall Rico just loves those children. Again, not creepy at all. Didn't we hear his thoughts on so-called Christian nationalism? Okay, so this is that entire sermon that I referred to earlier. Again, you can check out the whole thing in the the show notes. There's a lot of key quotes here. So, let's go through some of them. One key quote, "My faith means more to me than anything. But 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 exercise it from our churches, our religion can do a lot more damage than a six-pack Lone Star." So, here's the thing about the sermon. If you hate yourself, you can listen to the entire thing. Don't worry, I did it, so you didn't have to. He's claiming Christian nationalism without ever defining it. Again, he's defining his enemy, right? He's putting an enemy in the crosshairs, right? In the center of the target. Yet he doesn't define it. He just talks about it as if, well, we all know what this means. We all know what this looks like. And so again, it's it's a very just basically it's a very hard way to to debate because you can never actually prove your point cuz you never establish the terms of the debate. He also has this quote, "There is nothing Christian about Christian nationalism. It is the worship of power, social power, economic power, political power in the name of Christ, and it is a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth. He told us that we he we would know them by their fruits. Jesus includes, Christian nationalism excludes. Jesus liberates, Christian nationalism controls. Jesus saves, Christian nationalism kills. Jesus started a universal movement based on mutual love. Christian nationalism is a sectarian movement based on mutual hate. Jesus came to transform the world. Christian nationalism is here to maintain the status quo. They have co-opted the son of God. They've turned this humble rabbi into a gun-toting gay-bashing science-denying money-loving fear-mongering fascist, and it is in upon all Christians to confront it and denounce it. Then you hear some low discernment old man in the front row say "Amen." So again Talerico never defines so-called Christian nationalism. But let's go into all of the supposed things that we have turned our humble rabbi Jesus into when he talks about gun-toting. So, first of all, God throughout the Bible recognizes self-defense as justified. It's pretty clear. Exodus 22:2, "If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no blood guilt for him." No blood guilt for him. And Jesus actually affirms physical restraint, but not passivity to violence. In Luke 22:36, Jesus says this, "Let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one." So, here's the thing. Yes, people like to talk about how he told Peter to put away his sword, but it wasn't because Peter was doing violence with a sword necessarily per se, it was because Peter was getting in the way of what Jesus was sent to this planet to do, which was the rescue mission for you and me. That's why he rebuked Peter, okay? And you have to ask yourself, why would Jesus use a sword as an example in one of his sayings if inherently owning a sword was morally problematic or just straight up immoral? Cuz again, in the 1st century Galilee, a sword wasn't a tool that was used for a plethora of things. It was a defensive or offensive weapon meant to maim and kill people, right? That's what a sword was built to do. So, if Jesus was anti owning a weapon of some kind, you would think he would have said something at some point. Also, they say, you know, his claim is that we turned Jesus into a gay basher. Gay bashing. Well, Jesus in Matthew 22, he was asked, you know, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And this is what Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two Commandments depend the law and the prophets. So if you're supposed to love your neighbor as yourself, even if your neighbor has same-sex attraction, even if they're acting out on that, Jesus would not be okay with bashing that person because duh, because words. Also, he said we've turned Jesus our Rabbi into a science denier. So here's the thing. God created everything. Okay? Right? I believe in the Big Bang. I believe there was a big banger. That God created time, space, and matter in a timeless, spaceless, immaterial way. Incredible right? Science you know, there's a lot of definitions for it, I like this one, is the systematic study of the natural world through observation, measurement, testing, and reasoning in order to discover how things work. So God created everything. Science tells us, gives us a way to measure how everything works. How everything is in balance. How life is even impossible, okay? So this idea that part of the Godhead would be turned into a science denier is foolish. Also, he says we've turned Jesus into a money lover. Now, Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit, which is part of the Godhead that Jesus is included in, said this to his people, Timothy, "But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money, not just money, Joe Rogan, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs." That's 1 Timothy 6:9-10. He also said that we've turned Jesus, Christian nationalists supposedly have turned Jesus into a fearmonger, okay? The entire mission of Jesus on this planet was rooted in love. Not fear. God is love. That is the entire mission and the entire point. Not this universal love that he never really defined earlier and nor would his church or his seminary or his denomination. But let's look at John 3:16 but also verse 17. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. So, he wasn't trying to operate through fear. He's trying to operate through love. Operating through fear is Islam. Because you convert or you die. That is not the Christian message. And also he does all these descriptors, oh gun-toting, fear-mongering, money-loving whatever fascist. Right? That's the emphatic exclamation point. We've turned him into a fascist. Okay? So, even the people screaming about fascism don't know what fascism is. So, fascism is an authoritarian rule. So, that's essentially what it is but it's centered on a powerful leader, typically, strong nationalism, typically, the suppression of your opposition, which always happens, and control over the entirety of society. Okay? That's what fascism is. And look where all of these societies are located. Okay? Every society that would make this argument, they're all located on Earth. That's where fascism takes places on Earth. So, Talarico is claiming that supposed Christian nationalists have turned Jesus into a fascist? But what might Jesus have to say about that? Let's go to John 18:33-37. So, Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me?" Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." Then Pilate said to him, "So are you a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." So, Jesus is clearly stating there, basically, "Look, if I wanted to run the Roman Empire, I would." And he said in other places like, "Hey, do you do you not think that I couldn't just call down a legion of angels? That'd be a whole lot more effective than us grabbing, you know, swords and pitchforks." And Jesus consistently taught about servant leadership. Not authoritarian rule. He never talks about it that way. In Mark 10:42-45, then Jesus called to them and said to them, "You know that those are those who are considered rulers and gent- of Gentiles of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." So, servant leadership not authoritarian rule. And a little bit later in that same sermon, James Talarico says this, "Eight men own as much wealth as 3.6 billion people and Christian nationalists are boycotting Barbie." Right? So, it kind of got a little bit of a laugh line, but that's just straight wealth redistributionist garbage because it doesn't matter if eight men have this conglomeration and this majority or even a plurality of the the net worth of the planet. It matters about you and your ability to be able to provide for your family, right? Then he has this quote, "The Bible doesn't mention the number of people who have committed abortion or gay marriage." Okay. The number quote is one of the dumber things that he said cuz again, I don't think he's dumb. That's a really, really dumb thing to say. The Bible doesn't mention the number of people who have committed abortions. Well well yeah. It doesn't tell me how many people currently live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It doesn't tell us how many President of the United States there have been by the year 1985. It It doesn't tell us how many hairs are on my head. It doesn't tell us the exact number of basically anything specific as what he's saying, right? We can't go to the Bible to see how many people died in the French and Indian War versus World War II. Like what are you What are you saying? Of course it doesn't mention the number of abortions committed, but it does tell us that we shouldn't do that. It does tell us that we shouldn't harm our neighbor and an unborn child is our neighbor right? And he also mentions gay marriage there. And do you know why the Bible doesn't mention gay marriage? Because gay marriage isn't a thing. It's not a thing. Because, you know, I've heard people describe it this way. Like you could just look at all the different things. So, I think Josh Hawley had pointed out. Let's say he's in a room with 100 people. I've talked about this on the show before and he and his wife are in there. And someone would ask him, "Hey, who's your wife?" He could go through and point at people one by one and be like, "That's not my wife. That's not my wife. That's not my wife. That's not my wife. That's not my wife. That's not my wife." Or he could say, "That's my wife right there." Okay? So, Jesus and a lot of the communication that we see through God in the Bible is like, "Here's how it's supposed to be done." So, everything that is outside of this structure that I am giving you is immoral and wrong and you can't do it. It's sinful. And he gives us marriage and God gets to define it and marriage is between one man and one woman before God in covenant for life. The two will become one flesh, and then they are to be fruitful and multiply. And you know who can't multiply without the help of macabre technology like IVF and surrogacy? Gay couples. Two guys can't make a baby. Two gals can't make a baby. Throuples? Well, I guess they could, depending upon how how they're all gendered, which would mean that there is such a thing as gendered. But they're basically not something that you can do. Okay? Doesn't make sense biologically, and it certainly doesn't make sense theologically. Here's another quote from Tal Eric, from the same sermon. But it goes on and on about forgiving debt, liberating the poor, and healing the sick. Christian nationalists like to say this is a Christian nation. Not only is that historically inaccurate, not only is that theologically blasphemous, but it's also just not true. But again, he doesn't show his receipts. Cuz if you go back to the founders, in a lot of their correspondence between people as they were, you know, working on the Declaration of Independence, working on the Constitution, working on the Bill of Rights, they were quoting from the Bible. They were quoting from the Old Testament. They were quoting from the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses, right? And we don't have a Declaration of Independence, a Constitution, nor a Bill of Rights without the Bible. And almost every single one of the founders was a Christian. Not a deist. Certainly there were deists, the most famous of which were Thomas Jefferson, who tried to destroy the Bible by making his own version of it, right? But almost all of them were Christ followers and church goers. And a lot of them seminarians, legitimate seminarians, right? So, this idea that we weren't founded on Christian principles is just foolish. But then he tries to elucidate and make his point further. He says this in that sermon, "Look around us. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would forgive student debt. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would guarantee health care to every single person. If this is truly a Christian nation, we would love all of our LGBTQ neighbors. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would make sure every child in this state and in this country was housed, fed, clothed, educated, and insured. Okay. So, his argument, again, he goes by saying we are not a Christian nation, we weren't founded as a Christian nation. Now, I think there is a debate. We are clearly founded as a Christian nation, but were are we operating as a Christian nation now? Yeah, I would probably say probably not. But again, even people that hate Christianity would rather live here than any other place on the planet. Isn't that interesting? None of them want to live in a Muslim country right? Isn't that interest Isn't that so interesting, right? So, his argument, Tall Rigo's argument, is that if we were a Christian nation, we would steal money from rich people in order to pay for every program that the Democratic Party feels is right. Right? Cuz Democratic Party is like, here are all the rights, right? Which allow us to confiscate more of your hard-earned dollars, which allows them to commit even more fraud. You know, Nick Searcy already pointed that out in Minnesota and California, just to start. But it's basically whatever the Democratic Party says we need, that's what Christians would fight for. That's Tall Rigo's argument. And then he says this a little bit later in the sermon. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would never make it a Christian nation. Because we know the table of fellowship is open to everybody, including our Buddhist Hindu Jewish Muslim Sikh and atheist neighbors. Okay? So, I want to flow right into the next quote that he had. So, this was his thoughts on other religions. I think this was a quote from an interview he did with Ezra Klein. Here's the key quote. I believe Christianity points to the truth. I also think other religions of love point to the same truth. I believe Jesus Christ reveals that reality to us, but I also think that other traditions reveal that reality in their own way. So, this is pluralism. And pluralism, which basically means all roads lead to God, that basically leads right to universalism, which is that everyone will be saved. Cuz again, he talks about all these groups of religious people, but then he includes atheists. And so, you know, atheists, pagans, like these are people that are still getting God's love and God's truth just in a different way. Okay? But here's the reality. Every other religion in the world, so Judaism, Islam, Buddhism Hinduism Sikhism whatever the central message is live a good moral life, whatever that means, do more good stuff than bad stuff, and then cross your fingers and hope that you have a good afterlife. Or if you're Hindu, like, you know, if you were, you know, 5'5" and pudgy, then you're like maybe you're going to come by, you know, come back in the next life, you know, 6'10" and jacked or whatever the thing is. Like or maybe you were a butterfly in a past life and then you get to upgrade to be a jaguar or something like that. But it's all basically like, you know, just cross fingers and hope. Hope you make it to paradise, hope you make it to heaven. Christianity is the only world religion that is completely different. Okay? A lot of people like to say that all the world's religions are fundamentally the same and superficially different. It's the exact opposite. They're fundamentally different and superficially the same. Because the claim of Christianity is that it's not possible to live a good enough life or do enough moral things to make yourself righteous before a holy and just God. Like, we require imputed righteousness. That's a one-way street. It is given to us, right? That comes from God and we receive it by grace through faith. Okay? That's the whole point. And is Jesus a pluralist? Right? Does he give us that lane? Like, are there really multiple ways to God? Well, Jesus actually speaks on this. It's recorded in John 14:5-7. Thomas, you know, of the uh you know, Gospel of Thomas fame, right? Said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And if you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." So, that's another thing right there, another scripture that shows that Jesus did claim to be God. So, tell your atheist and Muslim neighbors that he did, in fact, do that. And then, he gives his thoughts on immigration. So, the key quote that Tallarico had here is, "Our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out in front and a lock on the door. We can welcome immigrants who want to live the American dream. We can build a pathway to citizenship for those neighbors who have been here making us richer and stronger. And we can keep out people who mean to do us harm." So, does the Bible say that we are to take care of the immigrant or the sojourner? Of course, it does. We see that in Leviticus 19, Deuteronomy 10. But the Bible also recognizes order, law, and borders. Again, look at the book of Nehemiah. And look, Tallarico talks about keeping people out who mean to do us harm. But do you know what makes that almost impossible? Open borders. No border enforcement. No wall. Which is exactly what the DNC wants. And exactly how Democrat presidents and and congress people, it's exactly how they legislate when they're in power. As evidenced by the fact that untold millions of illegal immigrants flooded into this country during the four years of the Biden administration. And the spigot basically turned off immediately when Trump took over. Trump's in the White House, Republicans in control Congress, and all of a sudden, illegal immigration isn't happening anymore. Right? And then, if we look at Romans 13:3 and 4, "For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority, then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is a servant of God and avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer." Okay? So, this idea that we can simultaneously have open borders and be a terror to bad people is nonsense. It doesn't exist. And then guys, as I said, you have to go back to episode 802 of this podcast cuz I do a deep dive on his thoughts and his public comments on abortion. And so, I spend a lot of time debunking that. So again, even if you have to pause this episode now, go back to episode 802. But earlier, I gave four reasons why I think James Talarico has a really, really good shot of winning the Senate race. And the fourth reason was there are a lot of nominal Christians in the state of Texas. And to be honest with you, I think of the four arguments that I laid out, and there are more, but those are the main four, I think this argument is the strongest reason why Talarico has a real shot to win this thing. And this is what I mean. It goes back to country music theology. Okay? So, if you never heard me talk about that, I lay out the entire thing in episode 496 of this podcast. Again, 496. I think it's called the dangers of country music theology or something like that. But essentially, if you haven't heard me talk about it before, cuz we get new viewers and new listeners every week. Very, very thankful for y'all. This is country music theology. You believe in God. You were born in the South. As a kid, you probably went to church a little bit, maybe even got baptized. Your mom and dad, or maybe your grandma and grandpa, were good Christian folk. And you listen to '90s country music, and when you vote, you vote Republican. And God is pro all that stuff. Check, check check check check check check. So, you get to go to heaven when you die. That's country music theology. And if you believe that kind of stuff, and you're also a blue-collar person, maybe worked in the field, worked in the factory, something like that, you think, "Oh, well, I worked hard my whole life, and God's, you know, cool with that, and I ain't never killed nobody. So, I ain't never broke none of the 10 Commandments on purpose. So, yeah, God's going to let me go to heaven." Okay? So, so that's the idea. And a lot of people that think that way think that they are Christians. They're sitting in churches all over the South and specifically in Texas. I was just talking with Matt Chandler this morning. Like it was shocking to him doing ministry in Dallas how he was going to have to do evangelism because you're thinking, "Oh, you're in Dallas. You just assume everyone's a Christian." The problem with doing evangelism in Texas or in the South is everyone thinks they're a Christian. Everyone just categorically, "Well, well, I'm not an atheist. I believe there's something out there and I'm you know, I'm not one of them crazy Muslims. So, I guess I'm a Christian, right?" But there are standards of what it means to be a Christian. You actually have to follow Christ. He has to be your savior and your lord, right? There's a lot of people that know things about Jesus. They can give you some stuff on the back of Jesus' baseball card, but they don't know Jesus. They don't know Jesus, right? And here's the reality. I'd bet a buffalo nickel that there are more nominal Christians, so Christians in name only, in Texas than there are actual disciples of Christ. I don't think there's any way I can be wrong about that. And if you're a nominal Christian, it's essentially a guarantee that you don't read your Bible and do what it says. Cuz there's no reason to. You're already in the club, right? You listen to Garth Brooks, George Strait, you vote Republican, right? You go to church every now and then, Easter and Christmas, you're baptized as a kid, you're good to go, right? You work hard, you work to you know, you you work this hard job. Yeah, you're fine right? You never killed anybody, you're fine, right? And here's maybe the worst part, guys. And we know this because it's been studied by a lot of different reputable groups. The majority of actual disciples of Jesus, they don't read their Bibles and do what it says, either. The biblical knowledge that we have collectively as followers of Christ is paltry. It's absurdly low. And again, I I just have these two categories. People that are nominal Christians or Christians in name only, they're not actual followers of Christ. They're not actually written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And then you have people who are fervently, you know, they're actually Christians. They're just lazy. They see no value in reading Bible for themselves. They want their favorite pastor or podcaster to do it for them, right? They don't spend any time in prayer. They don't spend any time helping other people other than themselves, right? Both of these groups exist in large numbers in the state of Texas. So, what does this mean? This means there are a lot of so-called and self-identified Christians in Texas that will hear some of the things that James Tal Lerico says and will just blindly believe it. They'll just blindly believe it. Why? Cuz he doesn't look harmless. He's a nice guy, right? He's always got a nice suit on, nice haircut, seems like he wouldn't hurt a fly. You can just imagine him wearing a sweater vest sitting at home by himself reading a book, not the Bible, but reading some sort of a book, right? And whenever he talks, he's he's very smart. Again, he can talk off teleprompter. He He's very winsome, seemingly. What did I just describe? I just described a wolf in sheep's clothing. That's what I described. Cuz if you bring the wolf in, everybody's terrified. But if you bring in what looks to be a sheep, then no one is. And there are so many low-discernment so-called or actual Christians in Texas because they go to a bunch of mega churches. Right? And you can define mega church however you want, but there are a lot of churches where the gospel is not preached, discipleship is not taken seriously, and sanctification essentially doesn't matter. It's all about Twitter numbers and YouTube numbers and and getting, you know, downloads and shares with reels. Like it That That's the entire focus, right? The focus is launching a bunch more campuses. Paying for them with cash, getting people to download your app. Right? That that's essentially the entire game. The main pastor, he's going to get paid a whole lot of money because he gets a percentage of the giving, right? But he's also going to use his church time to write his next book. Right? A book that's going to have no gospel and no help with discipleship or sanctification in there, but that doesn't matter. It's going to be some sort of self-helpy garbage, right? That has a little bit of Christianese spread throughout there. How many churches like that exist in Texas? A bunch of churches like that exist in Texas. Right? I mean, if you go to the Village Church with Matt Chandler, that's not how that church goes. It's a big church that takes the gospel, evangelism, doctrine, discipleship, sanctification seriously. Josh Howerton's church, yeah, that's a multi-site church. That's big. He's got a lot of YouTube numbers and a lot of real hits on on Instagram and things like that. Certainly takes gospel seriously. Try to disciple his flock. Try to lead them away from things that are shiny and nice-looking, but are actually terrible and awful. Right? Just recently he had a bunch of people that were cohabiting in his church. They all basically raised their hands and they did like a mass like marriage service on stage cuz like you're cohabiting, you got to stop it. You got to you got to change something else. What was he doing if not helping people with evangelism, discipleship, and sanctification? Right? Joby Church, that's in the South. Right? It's in the deep South, depending upon where you define the deep South. Gospel serious, discipleship serious, sanctification serious, evangelism serious. It's all serious business. Those are all mega churches, right? But the number of mega churches that multi-sites with, you know, very famous pastors that write a lot of books and sell a lot of books and all that that are basically synagogues of Satan is substantial. And here's the thing, as I've said many times, I think Tyler Rake has a great shot of winning the US Senate I'm not guaranteeing that he will, but I think he has an incredibly good shot, especially if people stay silent. And if he does win the Senate seat in Texas, I will go ahead and make a bold prediction for you. Okay? If he wins the Senate seat in Texas, he will turn around and immediately run for president in 2028. And I'm telling you right now, he will represent the Democratic Party in the general election in 2028. I'm I I'm telling you, if he wins the Senate seat, he's going to win the Democratic primary and represent the Democratic Party in the general election. Okay? It's going to be very much like what Obama did. Obama got elected into a Senate seat in Illinois, and in less than 2 years, he was running for president, and he won, beating Hillary Clinton. And the reason why he won is cuz he was safe for the whole family. He had the posture of a a a good politician and a good statesman, right? He spoke well, and he got everybody on his side, and Hillary Clinton was awful, right? She was the heir apparent, but no one really liked her, right? No one really liked her when she ran for uh ran against Trump, either. Again, that's why she lost. She seems to be an awful person, right? And here's the thing. The reason why I think James Talarico, who, if you go look at the betting markets, he's nowhere. He's nowhere on the betting markets for who's going to represent the Democratic Party in the general election in 2028. Again, it's way too early. We're going to have people surge into that, but no one likes the current crop of Democratic candidates. You have California Governor Gavin Newsom, he's a he's a flip-flopper, he's kind of skeezy. California is a trash heap. You have Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she's one of the dumber individuals in Congress, which is saying something. It's like a running gun battle between her and Jasmine Crockett. You have former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Like, he's his most electable quality, according to Democrats, is that he chooses have sex with men, right? You have Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, he's a Jew, so that's a major problem for that party which is incredibly anti-Semitic. You have former Democratic presidential candidate candidate Kamala Harris which big time LOL if she runs again, that would be just spectacular. So, there really aren't a lot of great options here on the Democratic bench. So, a guy like Talarico, especially if you win Texas, could surge big time. And that's the thing in politics, especially in modern America, is there's always big swings. So, it's not a foregone conclusion in the Republican Party that J.D. Vance will take the ball and run with it after Trump is out of office. You know, and unfortunately Marco Rubio who I was supporting in the 2016 election, he has publicly stated that he will not run for president if J.D. runs, and barring some kind of catastrophe, J.D. Vance is going to run for president. So, if the pendulum is swinging hard to the left during the 2028 political season, James Talarico, a dyed-in-the-wool wolf in sheep's clothing, could be the next president of the United States. Which leads to some of my final thoughts here. I have a message for a couple of different groups. To the legitimately Christian pastors in the state of Texas, it is incumbent on you to rebuke James Talarico from the pulpit. From the pulpit, by name. Yes, you will get political. Why? Because politics and theology are not in separate lanes. And the political world is elbowing their way into the world of theology. Again, do I need to go back and describe the seminary that James Talarico is currently going to? Which is more about political worldview from the left than it is about anything even vaguely biblical. Right? And so, if you just assume, cuz maybe you yourself, you're going to either vote for for Paxton or Cornyn, and you would just assume that most of the people in your congregation are going to do the same. You have to rebuke Talarico from the stage. You have to present his comments there because again, you know, as Talérico has pointed out, he does a great job with it. He has a great apologetic for this. Basically, when you're making a vote, you're not making a covenant with a candidate. You're saying, "This candidate will slow decay down better than the other candidate." Again, as my buddy John Cooper has said, "The Republican Party is going to take us to hell, too. The train is just moving a lot more slowly." Right? So, for all of you pastors in Texas, and again, Texas are our biggest audience out out of, you know, every state, all you know, my cities, you know, a lot of people in Dallas listen to this, San Antonio, Houston. A lot of people in Austin listen to this. You have to rebuke him from stage. You have to. Okay? Do not assume that your flock knows better. Do not assume that your flock is all listening to conservative news media. Do not assume that your flock has seen the same ex-post that you have. Don't assume that your flock has even heard of James Talérico. Because again, most of the people in your flock are dumb. Again, what is it a flock of? It's a flock of sheep. What are sheep? Really, really dumb animals. Okay? So, and some people are dumb on accident. They just don't have the time to spend researching the stuff as much as maybe I have cuz this is my entire job, giving comment- commentary and creating content. You have to make it explicit. You have to tell them, "You cannot be a follower of Christ and vote for somebody that is going to enact these types of things if given the opportunity to vote on them." That's how you treat it. You're not saying that God is a Republican. You're not saying that Jesus is MAGA, right? You're not saying the Holy Spirit is the RNC. That's not what you're saying. But, what you are saying is currently the platform of the RNC, of the Republican Party, whom Cornyn or Paxton will be representing, is way less on the road to decay and way more for the propagation and the protection of the human species than is the current DNC who James Talarico will be representing. You have to do it. You have to do it from the pulpit. My last message is to the legitimate Christ followers in the state of Texas. Okay? It is incumbent upon you to vote against James Talarico and to equip those around you to do the same. So, let's say it's Ken Paxton, right? Seemingly a dumpster fire of a human being right? But, the way he will vote and the way that he will legislate if given the opportunity is different than even his bad morals and bad decision-making. Cuz he will be voting with the RNC platform. He will be voting in support of the Republicans in the Senate. He will be supporting the Republican who is president if they are in office or he will be opposing the Democrat that is president that is in office. That will be how he is. Again, a lot of people on the Christian right or conservatives, they get wrapped up into pretzels. They're like, "Well, this person's clearly not actually pro-life in their heart. They're not actually anti-immigration in their heart." I don't give a rat's patootie about what they think in their heart. I care how they legislate. I pointed this out before. The most pro-life president in history is Donald Trump and I don't think that Donald Trump is pro-life in his heart. In his heart of hearts, I don't think he's pro-life. I think he's pro-abortion. I think he is. But, he doesn't legislate that way. So, who gives a crap about what he thinks? Who gives a crap about what he feels inside? We care about how they legislate because we are trying to slow down decay and we're trying to provide for human flourishing. And here's the thing. If Christians if Christian conservatives if evangelical Christians all voted they would win by a landslide, even specifically in this race in Texas. Would win by a landslide. But, a lot of Christians have been convinced of the Benedict option like, "Oh, I'm just going to sit on my hands. I'm going to be about the gospel. I'm not going to, you know, get into the world of politics. But we are called to be salt and light. Salt is a preservative, but if salt is not salty, it preserves nothing. It's just cast out and trampled over. We can't be light if our light is hidden under a bushel. You can't push back darkness if you're not salt and light. Okay? So that means, yes, you need to get your voter ID card. I know, crazy, super racist, right? You got to get your voter ID card. You need to know where you can vote, where your polling station is. You need to get your absentee ballot if you're going to be gone. You needed to make sure the people in your home group, in your life group, in your Sunday school class, in your church, at your kids, you know, the conglomeration of all the moms and dads on your kids soccer team group me, you got to make sure everybody is registered to vote and does vote. That is how you will help push back this darkness, and that is how you will fight against this clear wolf in sheep's clothing. Hi guys, thank you for your attention today. Again, no quick hitters today, but we are going to do a quick resilience boost. Undaunted Life Remissions equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges mental, spiritual I have messed it up. Spiritual, mental, and physical resilience. You would think I would get my own outro correct. But again, we got a link to where you can donate to the Daily Blade. We got a link to where you can donate to Undaunted Life, and I've got some different things from all the things that I referred to in the Tavarico stuff. So, thanks again for listening. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and leave us a positive five-star review. If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, just shoot me an email to info@undaunted.life. That's i n f o @undaunted.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook, and check out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way. Just go to www.undaunted.life. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing us to use their music for our content. The music on this podcast is their song Perpetua, which is off their self-titled debut album on Facedown Records. The links are in the description. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical resilience, keep seeking the lion of Judah.