The Democrats won a TX state senate race in a district Trump won by 17 points. The lame stream said this is a bellwether for the midterms! In reality, there has never been a less consequential election. But don't forget the Democrat's US Senate candidate and how he justified abortion using the Bible. Woe to him.
Welcome to politics by faith. Thanks for taking time today. I want to talk about this Texas Senate race that happened the other day. And then I want to get to this James Tallarico fella and we'll talk about Mary and Gabriel. That's the plan. So there was a Texas state Senate race last week outside of Fort Worth and a Democrat won it.
Now Trump won this district by 17 points in the last election and a Democrat won. So the media loved him. This is a bellwether of what's to come for the midterms when the Democrats are going to crush it and the Republicans are going to be crushed. And here we see, even in deep red Texas, we have a Democrat winning this seat that Trump won by 17 points. Would you like to know the full story? Would you like to know what really happened?
This is a state Senate race that couldn't matter any less. There's no way you could conceive of an election that has less significance than this one. This winner, this Democrat, will not even take office until after the November election. So the same two people, the Democrat who won and the Republican, are going to have another election in November. In the meantime, there will not be any meeting of the Texas state legislature. He will not get sworn in.
He will not vote. nothing will happen from now until November. He was elected to literally nothing. There was no job that he was elected to. And the people knew that. First of all, there was an ice storm as well.
So that decreased turnout, but the people knew there was nothing to vote for. He won with 54 ,000 votes. I think she had like 43 ,000 or something. So he won with 54 ,000 votes. The last time there was a real election in this seat, 2022, the winner did not have 54 ,000 votes, but 2 .9 million. And the winner had 2 .4 million.
So 5 million people voted in this race normally. And in this race, the winner had 50 ,000. There's never been an election in the history of America that has mattered less than this one. Now, what we can gather from this story, and this guy is nothing about Pell Weathers or the Trump administration or anything. What you can gather from this story is that the Democrats are trying to run a new kind of Democrat. We'll put them in the category called bearded white guys.
Fetterman, now they don't necessarily need beards. It's a little, like Fetterman, I don't think he has a beard, but tough guys, like big, strong, tough guys. Like this guy in Texas was a machinist. You have Fetterman, right? The guy in Maine who turned out to maybe be a Nazi, Graham Platner is running for Senate in Maine. They're running a bearded white guy for Senate in Iowa, Nathan Sage.
Dan Osborne's running for Senate in Nebraska, another bearded white guy. So the Democrats are trying to shore up their working class white guy union vote play here. Now, is it going to work? Clearly a lot of those guys left when the Democratic Party leaned really hard into the trans queer, right? I mean, they lost a lot of that working class base. Now there's another type of Democrat that that party is throwing out there as well.
They're trying to run not only bearded white guys, but also Christians. I got to do the air quote Christians. One of these guys is James Tallarico. He's a 36 -year -old state senator in Texas who's running for U . S.
Senate in Texas, which is great because it's either going to be him or Jasmine Crockett as the Democratic candidate.
candidate. So the Republicans are going to win in the end, but it's still fun. He, at the top of his bio, he says that he is a Presbyterian seminarian, Presbyterian seminarian. He's leading as a Christian. That's his first, that's my identity is I'm the Christian guy running for the Senate in Texas. I don't know.
where he's going to seminary or what exactly that means to him. I don't know what he's studying. It's not the Bible. Pro -abortion. So we have a big, big red flag there. And this happened on Rogan.
He was on Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan's been going to church lately. So Joe Rogan doesn't need someone like this around him spouting ridiculous things like this.
Here is James Tallarico. But I say all this in terms of, in context of abortion, because before God comes over Mary, and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary's consent, which is remarkable. I mean, go back and read this in Luke. I mean, the angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do. And she says, if it is God's will, let it be done. Let it be, let it happen.
So to me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent. You cannot force someone to create. Creation is one of the most sacred acts that we engage in as human beings. But that has to be done with consent. It has to be done with freedom. And to me, that is absolutely consistent with the ministry and life and death of Jesus.
And so that's how I come down on that side of the issue.
Wow. Using the birth of Jesus to justify abortion. Well, Matt Walsh says, this is why I say you cannot be Christian and pro -abortion. Maintaining your pro -abortion position requires you to mutilate the Bible and Christian teaching in unspeakably blasphemous ways.
This is example 1 ,325 ,000 He's trying to make a biblical argument for abortion.
Yikes. So, let me play this clip here before we go to Luke, which he said to do. He said, if you look at Luke, and we will, our special that we recorded the other day, that we're gonna come out, I think, tomorrow, here, was about the war on empathy. Hillary Clinton wrote this long article about the conservatives and how conservatives are against empathy. And she quoted Ali Bastaki and Dr. Joe Rigney, and we'll talk to Dr. Joe Rigney, it's great. He was awesome.
We ran through the whole article with Dr. Rigney. But Hillary makes, in this case, in her article, she makes the argument for abortion from the empathy perspective. And she says, well, why do you conservatives have no empathy for the woman who was raped, who now is forced to have the baby from her rapist? That's always what they go to. I mean, that's like, 0 .00001 % of abortions, but okay, fine. That's what they always go to.
Here is Allie Beth on the Major Garrett podcast, asked about that argument from Hillary.
And the moral diagramming of the rape victim who traumatized, feels objectified, criminalized by an offender, does not want to bring a child to term because that would extend all of the things she most felt criminally invasive upon her in the original act of rape. Well, I think all of us would agree that we wouldn't kill a child outside of the womb because he or she was the product of rape. And if we are not killing people outside of the womb because of the circumstances surrounding their conception, then I don't see the moral justification for killing a baby inside the womb because of the circumstances surrounding her conception. The only difference there is time. And are we really killing people based on their location and their age?
Look, a baby inside the womb is a human being, and he or she should have the right not to be murdered no matter how they were conceived. That's great. Ali Beth is wonderful. There's only one minute left. Let me play the rest of her.
Let's play her last comment here about empathy itself. The article that Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote had the headline, MAGA's war on empathy.
Do you figure yourself, do you see yourself as someone who is objectively at war with empathy? No, I don't. I want people to see the vulnerability in what I believe sometimes to be emotional propaganda that gets people to not think about both sides of an issue. And I really want people to approach this as a Christian with this dichotomy of the truth and love. The thing about love that we read as Christians in the Bible is that it is inextricably intertwined with the truth. That's first Corinthians 13, six.
And so I want us to seek the truth in love, loving other people. while still realizing that order is important, that morality exists, that babies in the womb have value, and that we don't want more Lake and Rileys.
And so all of this has to play into how we decide on policy. Allie Beth is awesome. First Corinthians 13 6 says, love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. So let's go back to James Tallarico's claim that Mary, excuse me, Gabriel asked Mary if she would be willing to carry to term Jesus Christ. All right, so let's just go.
Let's see what it says. Luke 1 11. Well, actually, let's go to this. Luke 1 11 is John the Baptist, but let's start here. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard. and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son and you shall call him John and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. " Now, James Tallarico, this maybe doesn't dispute, debunk what Tallarico said because the angel here is saying that we're going to answer your prayer. So maybe there is some consent here, I suppose. But the angel didn't come down and say, are you sure? Let's jump to the main point. This is also in Luke 1. Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee. named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, rejoice, highly favored one. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was." Meaning if an angel came to you and said, rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. It'd be like, why? So she was taken back.
Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. I'm not skipping any words here. The angel said, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.
and his kingdom. There will be no end of his kingdom. There will be no end. That's it. There is no asking permission anywhere in this. I don't even know what he's talking about.
How could he possibly have come anywhere to that conclusion at all? It says, do not be afraid, Mary. He said, do not be afraid, Mary. You found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son. Not will you please pretty please with a question mark. Just says you will conceive in your womb.
What is he reading? Let me read a little more. Then Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that Holy one who is to be born will be called the son of God. Then Mary said, behold, the maid servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.
And the angel departed from her. No question marks. The angel didn't say, will you do this? The angel said, you will. She said, let it be. But that wasn't in response to a question.
That was just her submission. It's really hard to debunk this because that's not what the text said at all. I mean, I guess that's all you have to do.
He said, well, let me, it's just so crazy.
God asks for Mary's consent.
Where? Which is remarkable.
I mean, go back and read this in Luke.
We just did.
I mean, the angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do.
No, where, when, how, in what way? And she says, if it is God's will, let it be done. Let it be. let it happen. So to me, that is a an affirmation in one of our most
central stories that creation has to be done with consent. Wow.
Wow.
Okay.
All right. This is interesting. Creation has to be done with consent.
That's not real because what he's talking about is rape.
Okay. Now, even if, let's go here. Even if the angel did ask for permission, which didn't happen, just want to be very clear that did not happen, but let's just go with it. That was before Jesus was conceived. What he's talking about is killing God. a baby after it's conceived, after the creation has already taken place.
Or in Mary's case, she would have the right to kill Jesus after he was conceived, like three months in the womb or something. That is so crazy.
Listen, all we're asking is for you to stop murdering babies.
Okay? That's all we want is for you to stop murdering babies. And you really want to do it. and you want to do it so badly you will just make up stuff out of the Bible and that is a dangerous game to play. Woe to you! Now we shouldn't be surprised at this blasphemy at all.
This Presbyterian seminarian was asked in the New York Times, do you believe Christianity to be more true than other religions? Now the answer is not that it's more true than other religions, it is the only true religion. The proper answer is yes. John 14, six, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the father except through me. I'll never forget this guy who called in my show the other day, like a week or so ago. And he's like a, like a white guy from, he's from California.
He's like a, like a white guy and he's a Muslim. He said, he's a Muslim. And I said, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I've never talked to him.
It's just a guy, like a white guy converted to Islam.
Right. And, and he said he did it because he couldn't. accept that there was only one way to heaven, as the Bible says. So he went with Islam, I guess. I guess they think there's many ways. I don't know.
They behead a lot of people who aren't Muslims. I don't know what they... I don't know who told him what that made him think Muslim, Islam is then therefore the way to go. But okay, here's... But I'll tell you, that's what the Bible says. The Bible says there's one way and that's it.
You may not like it, but I'll tell you this, you cannot reject God's commands. and then expect to go to heaven because that wouldn't be just of God. God says, do this and you'll get to heaven. And then we don't do it and expect that we'll go to heaven anyway. No way. Can't happen.
Hebrews 10, 26, for if we go now, you may not like what I said so far, but again, I'm not telling you Hebrews 10, Hebrews 10, 26, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, this is not just, um, you know, you commit a sin. This is like deliberate. I know what the truth is and I'm going to not do it. After receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, Jesus, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse judgment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified?
and has outraged the spirit of grace. For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Do you think that Jesus can die for your sins? You then blaspheme his word like you just heard from James Tallarico.
Not not misunderstand or miss or oh you know I oh I misread that no no no I'm a Presbyterian seminarian and I'm gonna blaspheme his word like that. You are spitting in God's face and you're saying nah I don't I don't have to do what you want. I don't have to read your your word accurately. I'm good. So here's that New York Times that I was just talking about.
Here he is asked by Ezra Klein. How do you think about the competing claims of different religions? Do you believe Christianity to be more true than other religions?
Do you believe there to be exclusivity in these beliefs, that they're incompatible with each other? I believe Christianity points to the truth. I also think other religions of love point to the same truth. I think of different religious traditions as different languages. So you and I could sit here and debate. what to call this cup, and you could call it a cup in English, you'd call it something else in Spanish and French, but we are all talking about the same reality.
I believe Jesus Christ reveals that reality to us, but I also think that other traditions reveal that reality in their own ways, with their own symbol structures. And I've learned more about my tradition by learning more about Buddhism and Hinduism and Islam and Judaism. And so I see these beautiful faith traditions as circling the same truth about the universe, about the cosmos. And that truth is inherently a mystery. And I think the most destructive thing is when religion becomes an end in and of itself. That's when religion implodes.
My pastor always told me growing up that religious symbols are like aspirin. In order to work, they have to dissolve. They point beyond themselves.
If you get lost in the symbols, If you get lost in the words, you're missing the reality that we're all trying to describe and talk about. Yikes. Anti here, it can mean opposite of, but it can also mean instead of. It's very important. It can mean opposite of, it can also mean instead of. So there's the Antichrist, but then there's small a Antichrist.
There's capital A Antichrist and there's small a Antichrists who present themselves and they present themselves as, as Christians, as Christ followers, as Presbyterian seminarians, perhaps as Christian Senate candidates. They're not. People who would distort scripture in such a way, such a way. that they would make up text like Gabriel asking Mary for permission which to therefore come to the conclusion that abortion is biblical and acceptable and good that is antichrist stuff and we should run from people like this or boldly call them out for exactly who they are mike slater . locals . com transcript commercial free on the website mike slater .