James Talarico’s beliefs “disqualify him from being a Christian,” according to Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas.
Jeffress, a frequent Fox News contributor, was interviewed Friday, Sept. 18, by Carly Shimkus on Fox and Friends First.
The segment ostensibly was about the influence Mainline Christians could have in swaying the midterm elections toward Democrats but Jeffress quickly dismissed Mainline Christians as irrelevant dinosaurs.
“If Democrats win in November — and they could win in November — it’s not going to be because of the influence of Mainline Protestants,” he said. “I mean, simply put, Mainline Protestants are just about extinct in America today.”
Attendance at Mainline churches has been “dropping like a rock” and Mainline Protestants are “running for the exits” because “they’re tired of the woke theology instead of biblical content coming from their pulpits.”
Jeffress then correctly stated that about 10% of Americans today are Mainline Protestants but he then overstated the share of Americans who are evangelicals — claiming that’s 30% of the population when, in fact, Pew Research Center says it is about 23% of the population.
Mainline Protestants are “not concerned about what the Bible says,” Jeffress asserted, while saying evangelicals vote their biblical values. Jeffress is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump.
“James Talarico’s beliefs … disqualify him from being a Christian.”
That led him to repeat his attack on Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, echoing what he said the previous week at the GOP Midterm Convention in Dallas. Jeffress contends Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, “appears to be such a wonderful follower of Jesus Christ” but is not.
“His policies, his beliefs, religious beliefs, contradict those of Jesus Christ completely and you can certainly say James Talarico’s beliefs don’t disqualify him from being senator here in Texas but they do disqualify him from being a Christian.”
The only examples he gave of Talarico’s “un-Christian” beliefs are his support for LGBTQ people, his failure to condemn all forms of abortion and his belief that there’s more than one way to faith in God.
“The Bible has a lot to say about gender,” Jeffress said. “Jesus said there’s not a spectrum of genders like Talarico believes. There are two genders, male and female. Jesus taught that all life starting with children in the womb is sacred and ought to be protected. And unlike James Talarico and Mainline Protestants, Jesus didn’t believe all roads all faiths lead to heaven. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by me.”
According to the Gospels, the only place Jesus mentions gender in this way is found in Matthew 19:4–6, where Jesus was asked a trick question about marriage and quotes Genesis to say humans were created male and female.
And for those Christians who might feel like they have no good candidate to vote for, Jeffress repeated another of his frequent tropes: “Let’s remember there are no perfect politicians or perfect pastors, but the fact is when a Christian goes to vote they ought to ask what does the Bible say about these key issues. I would ask Christians when they’re trying to decide for whom to vote, don’t look at the Republican or the Democrat platform. Start with what does the Bible say.”
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The arrogance of Jeffress’ claims about James Talarico | Opinion by Rodney Kennedy
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