Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Josh Howerton welcomed one of the most controversial Republicans on the ballot to church today while two days earlier condemning another Texas pastor as a “heretic” for supporting James Talarico.
Howerton, senior pastor of Lakepointe Church in suburban Dallas, went after Zach Lambert, senior pastor of Restore Church in Austin, in a social media post Friday, Oct. 23. He joined another suburban Dallas megachurch pastor, Jack Graham, who called Lambert “apostate.”
Both Howerton and Graham, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and a current spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, condemned Lambert, who posted a photo of himself with Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Texas. Lambert said in the post: “I am a husband, father, and lifelong Texan. I’ve been a Christian since I was 5 and a pastor since I was 19. And I just proudly voted for James Talarico, Gina Hinojosa, Jon Rosenthal, and Vikki Goodwin.”
In addition to Talarico, the other three names mentioned are Democratic candidates for statewide office in Texas.
Howerton replied on X: “That is not a pastor, that is a Biblically defined false teacher and historically defined heretic that (it saddens me to say) we had to excommunicate and remove from our church planting network. He currently walks as an enemy of the faith, and I pray he comes back to Jesus Christ.”
Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, posted on X: “We saw this coming with Zach Lambert and removed him as a seminary intern at Prestonwood. A sad case of apostasy on display now.”
By Lambert’s own testimony, he came from conservative Christianity and did, indeed, work at Prestonwood with Graham at one point. However, he left behind that evangelical conservativism and launched Restore Austin as a more progressive church. He is author of the 2025 book Better Ways to Read the Bible.
Lambert has become one of the most recognized voices for progressive Christianity in the state and beyond. His nondenominational church is held up as a model for inclusion and progressive theology still rooted in the Bible.
Since Lambert’s Friday post about voting for Democrats, social media — particularly X — has exploded with evangelicals calling the pastor everything from an antichrist to not a Christian.
Meanwhile, evangelicals in Texas appear to still be supporting Bo French, Republican candidate for Railroad Commissioner (a position that has everything to do with oil and nothing to do with railroads). French has a history of making blatantly racist comments, including a recent social media post about non-white students at the University of Texas.
French was present at Lakepointe Sunday, Oct. 25, and thanked Howerton publicly via X:
“An honor to have you and meet you.”
“Super excited to check out Lakepointe Church this weekend with @howertonjosh. We need more pastors like Josh who are willing to engage in the public square.”
To which Howerton replied: “An honor to have you and meet you.”
This odd exchange caught the attention of Robert Downen, political reporter for Texas Monthly, who posted a link to his own coverage of French.
In a July 2026 piece titled “This Texas Nominee Keeps Peddling Fascist Conspiracy Theories. State GOP Leaders Are Silent,” Downen wrote: “He helped make anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant bigotry mainstream in the broader state GOP. He’s called for 100 million people — nearly a third of the American population — to be deported, and for two nonwhite Texas House members to be stripped of their citizenship and removed from the country. He wants some Native Americans — ‘third world savages’ — to be kicked out of America too. French says Texas needs to ‘ban Islam’ and ‘round up every Muslim’ for deportation. Last week he told his followers it was ‘time to go round up all the Chinese and send them packing!’ McCarthyism and the Christian Crusades, he argues, didn’t go far enough. And this week he referred to America’s ‘not in labor force’ population — an economic term for nonworkers that includes retirees, students, and those with serious handicaps—as ‘low IQ parasites.’”
Howerton has supported French through earlier criticisms that he’s blatantly racist such as the UT Austin photograph. Howerton sought to parse a difference between “actual racism” and critiquing mass migration.
Related:
In conversation with Zach Lambert | Opinion by Greg Garrett
There’s a Texas GOP candidate worse than Ken Paxton | Opinion by Mark Wingfield