25 Who Inspire | James Talarico

Editor’s Note: James Talarico first caught our attention in early 2024 due to his efforts to combat Christian nationalism in the Texas House of Representatives. Good Faith Media ran a profile of his work in February of 2024, and earlier this year, he was selected as one of the inaugural honorees of our “25 Who Inspire” list. His national profile has been elevated in recent months, and in September, he announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate. Good Faith Media is a non-profit and non-partisan organization and, as such, does not endorse candidates for political office.

___

James Talarico is a member of the Texas House of Representatives and a graduate of Austin Seminary.

By Greg Garrett

Rep. James Talarico went viral for speaking out against white Christian nationalism. Those sermons inspired many of us who sense (or see) something deeply un-Christian about the movement. The fact that he spoke not out of his partisan political identity but from his own deep religious commitments was the aid and comfort many of us have been craving.

Since those early posts, he has continued to call out the dangerous marriage of faith and far-right governance. More recently, Rep. Talarico was the most expressive voice in the Texas legislature opposing private school vouchers, again not because he disagreed as a policy matter, but because he couldn’t support Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan based on his belief in the interconnection between faith and justice. Rep. Talarico explained to me that as the law was written, “the vast majority of the money ends up going to the wealthiest families so they can get a discount on their tuition bill.” His opposition grew out of his commitment to the least of these: “I can’t think of anything more un-Christian than stealing from the poor to give to the rich.”

James Talarico’s articulate and informed commitment to Christian justice offers a light in the present darkness. When this time has passed — may it do so quickly! — his very public advocacy for an active faith expressed as compassion, justice, and mercy will be a blueprint for how Christianity might be an absolute good in the public square.

—Greg Garrett is the Carole McDaniel Hanks Professor of Literature and Culture at Baylor University and a lay preacher at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, TX.