Scripture-twisting James Talarico rewrites the Bible for leftist ends

James Talarico may not think that God is non-binary anymore, but the Texas Democrat is certain that He’s in favor of universal health care.On Sunday, the US Senate candidate posted a riff on X about how the Bible is the foundation of his progressivism.Supposedly, through happy coincidence, Our Savior agrees with Talarico about important planks of the Democratic platform circa 2026.“When Jesus healed the sick,” Talarico said, “He didn’t ask for a deductible.So, when I fight for universal health care, I’m doing it on Biblical grounds.”This is the kind of cheap misuse of scripture that Talarico, a former seminarian, finds irresistible.Whereas Abraham Lincoln said that “the Almighty has His own purposes,” Talarico apparently thinks His purposes are readily discernible — and align perfectly with his own political priorities. Several years ago, when Talarico was extremely woke, he invoked the supposed nature of God to buttress radical gender theory.Now that he’s running in a contested statewide race and needs to appeal to the middle, he no longer wants to discuss what pronouns God uses, but how Jesus favors the Texan’s more palatable political positions, including on health care. If we do Talarico the favor of taking his rhetorical point seriously, the reason Jesus didn’t charge a deductible is that he wasn’t a health-care provider.

(Besides, no one had yet created medical groups, hospitals or insurance companies in first-century Galilee).For that matter, Jesus also didn’t have any training as a physician, or do proper diagnostics, or make follow-up appointments — all of which are as irrelevant to his ministry as the absence of deductibles. The healing miracles aren’t about what we need or expect when we show up at the emergency room for an appendectomy; they show the compassion of God.They reveal the identity and authority of Jesus.They point back to Old Testament scripture.They invite faith.They foreshadow the ultimate triumph over ...