To address those heresies and gently correct the seminarian for spreading them, Jeff Mullen, a longtime pastor from Nevada, has written an open letter to Talarico.
"He's trying to proclaim the gospel: 'I'm a Christian. Follow me. Listen to me.' But virtually everything he says is wrong," Mullen recently told American Family Radio (AFR). "His theology is a complete train wreck."
Talarico earned a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in May 2025 and remains in good standing to complete his Master of Divinity (M.Div.), though he is currently on leave while running for the U.S. Senate.
He has approximately one year of coursework left to finish the M.Div. program, but his liberal statements that "Jesus never said anything" about abortion and that the Bible is "all over the place" on gender and marriage have caused widespread dismay, criticism and theological condemnation from evangelical Christians.
In a Jan. 13 interview with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, for example, Talarico was asked about comparative religion and whether he believes Christianity "to be more true than other religions."
"Christianity points to the truth," he responded, adding that he believes "other religions of love point to the same truth."
After claiming to have learned more about Christianity "by learning more about Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism," Talarico said he views "these beautiful faith traditions as circling the same truth about the universe, about the cosmos" and said, "That truth is inherently a mystery."
When Klein asked why "politicized Christianity is so worried about gender and sexuality, and so unconcerned with greed," Talarico suggested the Bible teaches contradictory principles.
"The Bible is all over the place when it comes to marriage," he said. "Paul tells us not to get married, and you certainly see many different kinds of marriages throughout Scripture. The same with gender. Paul says that in Christ, there is neither male nor female, which is pretty woke for the first century."
During an interview on Joe Rogan's podcast last year, Talarico made the case that the Bible sanctions abortion, arguing that Mary's agreement to become the mother of the Messiah means that "creation has to be done with consent," or what abortion activists call "reproductive rights" for women.
He pointed out that before she becomes pregnant, an angel "asks Mary if this is something she wants to do, and she says, 'If it is God's will, let it be done.'"
"To me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent," the aspiring Presbyterian minister said. "You cannot force someone to create. The idea that there is a set Christian orthodoxy on the issue of abortion is just not rooted in Scripture."
During a 2021 debate on legislation regarding transgender athletes, Talarico, an active member of the Texas House of Representatives since 2018, argued on the Texas House floor that the opening lines of Genesis use both masculine and feminine Hebrew words:
"God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary," he stated.
Though he later acknowledged that the remark was meant to be deliberately provocative, he has reinforced these views in podcasts, interviews and public appearances during his run for Senate in the Lone Star State.
Citing Matthew 6:9, John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Psalm 139:13, Jeremiah 1:5, Luke 1:38, Genesis 1:27 and Matthew 19:4-6, Mullen's letter uses Scripture to address each of Talarico's errors.
He argues that God reveals Himself as Father, salvation comes through Christ alone, unborn children are known and valued by God, and marriage is defined as a covenant between one man and one woman. He also invokes James 3:1 and 2 Timothy 4:3-4 to warn that those who teach Scripture bear greater responsibility and must not reshape biblical truth to accommodate cultural preferences.
"He's leading people off the right path," Mullen lamented to AFR. "Whether he's deliberately lying or he has just simply been deceived, he's just spreading his poor theology."
Turn him loose with the Constitution?
Though Mullen realizes that Talarico is not running to be Texas' Sunday School teacher, he says the candidate's rewriting of Scripture raises a much broader concern: "Will it be just as easy for him to rewrite our founding documents?"
Before entering politics full-time, Talarico worked professionally as a middle school English language arts teacher on the Westside of San Antonio through Teach For America. He has drawn upon his background as an educator during legislative debates on education and youth issues.
If Talarico is willing to twist traditional Scripture to fit modern progressive goals, he could use that same approach to reinterpret the strict text of the U.S. Constitution. That skepticism is further fueled by past controversies over Talarico exaggerating details of his teaching history, which critics point to as a pattern of altering facts to serve a political narrative.
"My prayer for you is the same prayer I pray for myself: that every belief, every ambition, and every public statement would be brought under the authority of Scripture," Mullen's letter concludes. "One day neither of us will stand before voters, political parties, commentators or public opinion. We will stand before God and give an account."
