(RNS) — The Texas Legislature has raised eyebrows and hackles in recent weeks as lawmakers advanced a trio of religion-related education bills championed by conservative Christian activists and lambasted by liberal critics as evidence of Christian nationalism.
The bills include one that would allow public schools to hire chaplains, another that would mandate Texas classrooms to hang a donated version of the Ten Commandments and a third that would allow schools to set aside time for staff or students to pray or read religious texts.
One prominent critic of at least two of those bills, Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico, is a Presbyterian seminarian, and his public, faith-infused back-and-forth with another lawmaker over the Ten Commandments bill caught fire on social media last week.
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Talarico took a moment on Tuesday (May 9) to speak to Religion News Service from the floor of the Texas House of Representatives as he prepared for a vote on the chaplains bill. A few minutes after the interview concluded, he stood before the House and gave another impassioned, religion-filled speech criticizing his Republican colleagues — this time for failing to pass gun control legislation.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
You’ve mentioned your Christian faith a lot in recent debates over legislation in Texas. Can you say a little bit about your religious background?
I’m the grandson of a Baptist preacher from South Texas. I was born and raised in the Presbyterian Church, baptized when I was 4 years old, and I have taught Vacation Bible School. I am now a seminary student myself.
Faith is the whole reason I’m in politics. My church taught me that the two most important commandments Jesus gave us were to love God and love our neighbor. Both of those commandments, but particularly the second one, compel us to enter into the political arena. Whether it’s as elected official or an activist or an advocate or an organizer, that love we’re taught to have for our neighbors has to grow into justice. Justice is just another word for love out in public.
My faith, my church growing up, is why I became a political organizer in college. It’s why I became a public school teacher. It’s why I became a nonprofit leader. It’s why I ran for office, and why I serve here.
What compelled you to go to seminary?
The emphasis in my church growing up was “Love thy neighbor,” and the political dimension of that commandment. But after serving here in the Legislature for three terms, you know, it can be really difficult to love thy neighbor, especially as a progressive policymaker in the Texas Legislature. So, I came to believe I needed to spend an equal amount of time focused on the First Commandment, of loving God, because that first commandment sustains the second.
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It can be really difficult to love thy neighbor, whether it’s fighting for marginalized neighbors here in the Capitol, or whether it’s loving my neighbors who are pushing those bills that hurt those marginalized people. Doing both of those things can lead to burnout pretty quickly. So seminary was, I think, a way for me to try to right the ship and create a better balance between those two equal commandments we were given as Christians.
The chaplains bill is expected to pass in the Texas House of Representatives later today, at which point it will be sent to the governor’s desk. Do you have any reaction to that? (The bill passed shortly after this interview.)
These things are hard for me, because I am a former teacher who, when I first got elected, introduced a package of legislation called the Whole Child Agenda. The idea behind that legislative package was that students should be treated as human beings first, and students second. We should not just focus on academics, but also tend to the physical, mental and spiritual health of our students. I do believe we have a spiritual crisis in this country — including in our schools. That is something that should be addressed by policymakers and by educators and by parents.
