At the 2026 Midterm Republican National Convention in Dallas last week, platform speakers attacked Democratic senatorial candidate James Talarico mercilessly.
His Republican opponent and the impeached attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, claimed: “I will fight to preserve the American Dream. James Talarico is running to destroy it. … He is the most radical Democrat in Texas history. You’ve heard this before: He calls himself a Christian who hates Christianity. Says God is nonbinary, must have missed that verse in the Bible.”
Robert Sellers
Yes, Paxton missed two biblical passages that support Talarico’s statement — one in the very first chapter of the first book of the Old Testament and the other in the most quoted of the four Gospels in the New Testament. Perhaps Paxton is puzzled because he has not actually studied the Bible.
But U.S. Sen. Tim Scott from South Carolina raised the mockery to a new level, in a segment that will likely be spoofed on Saturday Night Live. Critics have called his over-the-top performance “theatrical” while supporters have praised it as “red meat” to stir up the MAGA base.
With voice inflection and mannerisms reminiscent of a fiery Southern preacher, Scott intoned: “This midterm, we face the most dangerous, radical and frankly weird Democrat candidates in American history. … Here in Texas, we’ve got James Talarico (crowd laughter and booing, with Scott shaking his head in a tsk-tsk moment). James is terrible! … He believes God is nonbinary. He thinks God needs special woke pronouns. But, Texas, we know who God is. We’re talking about JEEZUSSSS! I say the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. That’s our Gaawwwdddd! We’re America! We luuvvv OUR Gaawwwdddd.”
Scott substituted personal attacks for policy analysis. Speaking like a clever traveling revival preacher, he knew exactly how to rouse the emotions of his audience with shouting, broad facial expressions and carefully selected drawn-out words.
“Scott substituted personal attacks for policy analysis.”
Talarico’s opponents are hoping to turn Texans against him by repeating that he has said “God is nonbinary.” For that RNC audience of largely conservative Christian Texans, the statement is shocking. But by offering this explanation of the nature of God, Talarico was being both correct and compassionate. Allow me to explain why I affirm his statement.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, nonbinary is “relating to or being a person who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that is neither entirely male nor entirely female.” The first recorded use of this term, referring to people’s gender identity, was in 1863.
Two biblical passages, familiar to Jews and Christians, talk about God in nonbinary terms. The first is found in the opening creation story of the Hebrew Bible, where Genesis 1:26 and 27 identify God as both male and female but neither gender exclusively: “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, to be like us. … Humankind was created as God’s reflection: in the divine image, God created them; female and male, God made them.”
God is nonbinary because God’s image is both male and female, yet God’s likeness is not entirely one or the other gender.
While this text makes it clear that both males and females are created in the image of God, historical patriarchal societies have stressed the maleness of God — and especially Jesus — and some Christians and denominations, by implication, have used their understanding of divine gender to limit church leadership to males.
“God is nonbinary because God’s image is both male and female.”
In response, others have stressed the feminine images of the divine in Scripture. But theologians Rebecca Chopp and Mark Taylor write: “Many feminists feel that simply including female — as well as male-gendered language — cannot resolve the problem; God must be degendered. Womanist theologian Delores Williams argues for shifting the dominance of God-language to Spirit-language, thus avoiding the use of gender altogether.”
God is nonbinary because while God has characteristics typically associated with both females and males, God is not bound by either maleness or femaleness. God is not human, and gender is a human concept.
The second passage is in the New Testament, where Jesus is talking with the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar in John 4. Concerning when “real worshipers will worship Abba God in Spirit and truth,” Jesus says to her, “God is Spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth.”
God is nonbinary because God is Spirit — not having a physical body nor being defined by any human gender — so God is neither masculine or feminine, which are human categories.
God’s image is not confined to either male or female categories. The divine is nonmaterial because God is Spirit — wind, breath and life-giving force.
God is nonbinary, and James Talarico is correct in declaring this truth.
Rob Sellers is professor of theology and missions emeritus at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary in Abilene, Texas. He is a past chair of the board of the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. He and his wife, Janie, served a quarter century as missionary teachers in Indonesia. They have two children and five grandchildren.
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