Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico, a rising star in the Democratic Party who often cites Scripture when pushing liberal positions, trained at a seminary that teaches prospective pastors to preach about social justice.
The relatively little-known seminarian turned Senate candidate pulled off a decisive victory in last week’s Democratic primary against Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX).
Since then, the press has dug up old footage and social media posts of Talarico asserting some rather sensational statements about God being “nonbinary,” the Bible explicitly endorsing abortion, and that there are actually six biological sexes existing on a gender spectrum.
In one podcast appearance, for example, Talarico said that the angel Gabriel asked Mary for her permission to carry Jesus through a virgin conception and thus Scripture teaches that “creation has to be done with consent,” therefore, “You cannot force someone to create.”
While opposing a 2021 state bill to ban biological males from competing in female sports, Talarico said on the Texas House floor that “trans children are God’s children, made in God’s own image. There’s nothing wrong with them. Nothing at all. They are perfect. They are beautiful and they are sacred.”
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Talarico, who is running to flip the deeply religious and reliably red state’s Senate seat, is a longtime vocal champion of social justice causes that many critics, mainly conservative Christians, see as ideologically at odds with Christian doctrine.
That a self-described devout Christian would be fully in favor of abortion and transgender affirmation is an anomaly of sorts to some on the religious Right and in evangelical circles. They consider Talarico’s political stances spiritually dissonant, undercutting scriptural imperatives to protect the unborn and live by God’s intended design.
Where Talarico went to school offers insight into what has helped form — or at least fortify — his worldview as a progressive Presbyterian espousing all things equity.
Talarico attends seminary keyed into social justice
While a member of the Texas House, Talarico enrolled at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, a liberal graduate-level school that offers courses teaching a form of theology with a strong social justice component.
The school’s community newsletter, Faces of Austin Seminary, has featured Talarico, spotlighting how he balanced classes on campus between his legislative duties at the Texas state Capitol, in a promotional blog post titled “Presbyterian Church inspires action in the public arena.”
Faculty at Austin Seminary specialize in public theology, the practice of engaging in discourse beyond the church walls about broader societal issues. Austin Seminary says its staff teaches public theology to “shape and challenge” society’s treatment of perceived inequalities in “our broken world.”
“Issues of ecological sustainability, racial justice, immigration, human rights, gender and sexuality, and political life more broadly help frame many of the faculty’s exploration of the ongoing vitality and voice of Christian faith,” Austin Seminary’s enrollment site says.
Curricula for a concentration in public theology at Austin Seminary include “CM.189: Communication for Ministries of Social Justice” and “CM.229: Theatre of the Oppressed.”
According to Austin Seminary’s Academic Catalogue, the social justice communication course prepares pastors-in-training to “preach about social justice in congregations comprised of diverse socio-political standpoints.”
The school’s public theology focus area also offers several biblical interpretation classes that analyze gospel text through a liberal lens, such as “Bi.315: Womanist and Feminist Readings of the New Testament,” “Bi.240: Activism and Old Testament Scriptures,” and “Bi.195: Immigration and the Old Testament.”
Other course options within the public theology discipline include “TH.206: Environmental Ethics,” which covers climate change and “environmental racism,” and “TH.310: Social Justice,” an introductory class to social justice theory.
The seminary mandates that students in the Master of Divinity program wishing to concentrate in public theology take three elective courses of their choosing from a list largely consisting of similarly styled classes structured around social justice discussions.
Most major Christian denominations require a Master of Divinity degree for ordination or official licensing in professional ministry.
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Austin Seminary confirmed that Talarico is still working toward a Master of Divinity “at his convenience.”
“Mr. Talarico earned the Master of Arts (Theological Studies) degree in May of 2025 and remains in good standing to complete the required coursework for the Master of Divinity degree at his convenience,” a spokesman for Austin Seminary told the Washington Examiner.
When asked about the seminary’s theological teachings and how social justice fits into its messaging, the school spokesman pointed to the Presbyterian Church‘s website.
Austin Seminary is affiliated by covenant agreement with the Presbyterian Church, the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States.
“PC(USA) is a mainline Protestant denomination that has increasingly adopted a social justice-oriented theology,” Dr. Daniel K. Williams, a professor at Ashland University researching historical crossovers between U.S. politics and religion, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
Austin Seminary, as an affiliate, is entrusted to educate church disciples pursuing the pastoral profession.
Williams, author of Politics of the Cross, a book examining political partisanship in American churches, said that the nation’s branch has fairly deep roots in the social justice tradition, a faith-based concept of creating an equitable society by speaking out against what public theologians see as systemic oppression.
Progressive Christians grounded in the social justice tradition consider such advocacy work an act of justice, fulfilling a moral duty to confront injustice in their shared struggle for forging a more just society.
“And that social justice [tradition] is important for this school’s mission,” Williams said of Austin Seminary.
Williams added that the school’s socially engaged approach to theological education is not exclusive to Austin Seminary, per se, but rather emblematic of the U.S. Presbyterian’s belief system.
“So they’re not just trying to train social justice advocates,” Williams said. “Their view of Christianity certainly seems to encompass social justice, and that’s reflected in their curricular offerings.”
The embodiment of progressive Protestant theology
Austin Seminary’s pedagogy, and that of many mainline Protestant seminaries, accordingly, is in line with PC(USA)’s mandate to go forth and make a social impact.
Followers of PCUSA, in accordance with the church’s social witness policy, strive to stand for social justice issues, believing they possess an ethical responsibility to serve as agents of change.
Williams said that liberal Protestant theology today tends to see uplifting the marginalized as a central tenet of Christianity.
For instance, liberal Protestants who endorse LGBT rights recognize transgender and gay people as marginalized groups facing discrimination and oppression. Restrictive abortion laws, to left-leaning Protestants, are an attack on women’s dignity and freedom of choice.
In contrast, more theologically conservative Presbyterian denominations, such as the Presbyterian Church in America, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, generally oppose same-sex unions, affirm a divinely created gender difference, and view abortion as an affront to the sanctity of life.
By polling measures, mainline Protestantism — that is, the progressive wing of contemporary Protestant denominations — is a minority division within modern Protestantism.
Once constituting a significant portion of American Christianity, mainline Protestantism has declined in popularity over the past few decades, now accounting for about 9% of the U.S. population.
Williams said that mainline Protestantism, which was shaped by the Civil Rights movement and other rights-conscious activism of the 1960s, continues to evolve in ways that reflect particular concern for social justice, even though it is not the majority Protestant tradition.
“Austin Seminary is not an outlier in this,” Williams said. “It’s an expression of a larger movement within mainline Protestantism.”
Some outside observers see Talarico’s abortion-rights, transgender-embracing brand of Christianity as a radical offshoot. However, while Talarico is indeed a rarity among avowed Christians, he embodies what progressive Protestant theology has become.
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PC(USA) started shifting rapidly to the left in the last few decades, accelerated by the departure of conservatives who split off due to leftward changes in denominational policy. By the time Talarico began studying theology at Austin Seminary, the mainline Protestant denomination, no longer moderated by a conservative contingent, unabashedly affirmed liberal positions on a wide range of cultural issues.
Thus, much of what Talarico has preached is squarely within the mainstream of the denominational orientation of mainline Protestantism, Williams said.
“His views are fairly representative of his denomination’s, views that are prevalent at the seminary that he attended, and fairly representative of this larger strand of what we might call progressive Christianity,” Williams told the Washington Examiner.
“It’s perhaps not familiar to a lot of American Christians,” Williams said, “but I think the views that he has expressed accurately reflect the official positions of denominations of which several million Americans are members.”
Talarico’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.