Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico’s religious views are receiving renewed attention after an undercover video showed his longtime Austin church promoting a Bible translation designed to reduce gendered language for God.
Talarico is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, according to federal campaign records. He is also a Presbyterian seminarian who has frequently incorporated his Christian faith into his political speeches and campaigns.
The latest controversy involves St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin and its longtime pastor, Rev. Jim Rigby.
According to undercover footage obtained by the Daily Caller, Rigby said St. Andrew’s typically gives new members a copy of “The Inclusive Bible.” The translation’s creators describe their work as going beyond replacing masculine pronouns, instead seeking “new and non-sexist ways” of expressing biblical language.
The translation makes several departures from terminology familiar to Christians who use traditional English translations. According to reporting on the edition, it generally avoids “Son of God” as a title for Jesus, using alternatives such as “Only Begotten,” “God’s Own” and “Eternally Begotten.” Its translators also object to traditional uses of “Lord,” describing the term as carrying sexist and classist implications.
Rigby offered a mixed assessment of the translation in the undercover recording.
“It’s good on the gender stuff,” Rigby said, while adding that on some “metaphysical stuff, it’s not a very good translation.”
The revelation has attracted particular attention because of Talarico’s own comments about Christianity and gender.
During an October 2021 Texas House debate over legislation concerning transgender student athletes, Talarico argued that the Hebrew terminology in Genesis reflected masculine and feminine grammatical forms.
“God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary,” Talarico said. He continued by arguing that transgender children are also made in God’s image.
Talarico has subsequently explained that the statement was deliberately provocative and was intended to express his theological belief that God transcends human categories of gender. His critics, particularly traditionalist Christians, dispute that interpretation of Scripture.
That distinction is important because describing Talarico’s theology as simply “false” or “heretical” would itself require taking a position in a religious dispute. Traditional Christian denominations generally use masculine titles such as Father, Lord and Son in Scripture and worship, while some progressive Christian communities favor gender-inclusive language when discussing God.
The political significance is harder to miss.
Talarico has made Christianity an unusually visible component of his political identity, including discussing Scripture in legislative debates and campaigning in churches. Recent reporting describes him actively courting Texas churchgoing voters during his Senate campaign.
That makes scrutiny of his theology inevitable, especially when his church uses a translation deliberately created to reconsider traditional gendered language.
Voters are therefore getting a very public theological debate alongside their Senate campaign, complete with Hebrew grammar, Bible translations and arguments over what Christians should call God.
Texas politics was never exactly known for keeping religion and politics in separate rooms.
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