▶ Key Takeaways
- Politicians regularly attempt to deceive evangelical Christians into voting for progressive and socialistic policies.
- They misquote Scripture to try to justify their socialism.
- Adam Hamilton is a Democrat Methodist pastor running for the U.S. Senate in Kansas.
- He has written 33 “Christian” books, but he doesn’t believe the Bible is God’s word; he believes God “influenced” the writers, but that their writings reflect the cultural beliefs of the times in which they lived.
- Hamilton believes passages about homosexuality and slavery “do not express the heart and character of God.”
- Democrat James Talarico – who calls himself a Presbyterian Christian – is running for the U.S. Senate in Texas.
- Talarico uses a distorted view of the Matthew 25 passage about the separation of the sheep and the goats at the judgment to justify his call for government-controlled, taxpayer-financed universal healthcare.
- He believes the Matthew 25 passage teaches that we are saved by healing the sick and feeding the poor.
- He also believes that both Christians and Muslims worship the same God and love the same Jesus.
- Candidates like Hamilton and Talarico win primary elections and gain traction among voters because of (a) a decline in Biblical literacy among Christians, and (b) because too few evangelical Christians vote in primary elections.
Progressive and socialistic politicians regularly pose as Christians to try to deceive conservatives, Republicans, Independents and evangelical Christians to vote for them.
The upcoming 2026 midterm elections are no exception.
Two socialistic Senate candidates are particularly dangerous because they are masquerading as Bible-believing Christians while spewing false doctrines about Christianity:
- United Methodist Church pastor Adam Hamilton is a Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kansas.
- Texas Democratic State Representative James Talarico is running for the U.S. Senate in his state.
Both of these Senate candidates are reaching out specifically to conservatives, Republicans, Independents and evangelical Christian voters.
But their beliefs are anti-Biblical and anti-Christianity.
Let’s take a look.
Adam Hamilton – running for U.S. Senate in Kansas.
He is running against incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall, who was elected in 2020 – and who also identifies as a Christian.
Hamilton is the founding pastor of Resurrection Church in Leawood, Kansas – a United Methodist Church.
He has written 33 books and studies about Christianity.
At best, Hamilton is a “progressive” Christian.
Here are 3 of his core beliefs about the Bible, based on his 2014 book, Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today:
1. Hamilton does not believe that the original biblical manuscripts are the infallible words of God.
He believes that Paul was using a metaphor in 2 Timothy 3:16 when he said that “All Scripture is inspired by God” – literally “God-breathed.”
Hamilton believes this verse should not be taken literally.
Instead, he says Christians should understand “inspired” as “God-influenced,” which “leaves open a variety of ways in which biblical authors were influenced by God.”[1]
“My premise is that the Bible is the words of people who were influenced by God, and yet who were also shaped by the times in which they lived.”[2]
His premise contradicts the words of Peter:
“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:21)
Notice Peter doesn’t say “men influenced by the Holy Spirit spoke about God.”
They were controlled by the Holy Spirit so that they spoke from God.
If Scripture is merely the words of men and not the word of God, it is all a matter of one’s own personal opinion, interpretation and preference.
In this vein, any difficult-to-understand passage can be conveniently rejected if it disagrees with one’s personal opinions about God.
2. Hamilton rejects God’s commands regarding the conquest of the Promised Land.
He believes that God’s command to destroy everything in a city – men, women, children, even animals – is “inconsistent with the character of God described in many places in the Old Testament, and certainly inconsistent with the Word of God revealed in Jesus Christ who calls His followers to love their enemies.”[3]
Apparently Hamilton is not aware of God’s perfect holiness and God’s perfect justice – which are difficult for us flawed humans to reconcile with God’s infinite love.
To limit God’s character by rejecting the character descriptions of Him in Scripture that we don’t understand is to create a god in our own image.
The God who commands us individually to love our enemies also commands us corporately to administer capital punishment to murderers.
He agrees with the commands in Leviticus about loving our neighbors as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18, 34)…
But he is personally offended by Leviticus 21:9, which gives a command regarding the priesthood specifically:
“Also the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by harlotry, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.”
“God commands priests to burn their daughters alive if they become prostitutes,” Hamilton states. “I cannot imagine God calling me to burn one of my children alive, regardless of what they had done.”
Hamilton makes two errors in his interpretation of this command:
- He ignores the context of Leviticus 21, in which God was giving instructions to the priests regarding what they must do and not do in order to be holy and pure in the exercise of their duties.To show how serious God was about the priests being holy, He had struck down two of Aaron’s sons for disobeying His instructions about offering incense (Leviticus 10:1-2).
- He assumes that God is commanding the priest to burn his own daughter. The text doesn’t say that. It only says, “she shall be burned with fire.” Perhaps God is saying that He Himself will inflict the punishment, just as He did with Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10.
The problem with Adam Hamilton is that he believes he knows the character of God more thoroughly than Moses did when he wrote down the commands given to him personally by God.
3. Hamilton believes Bible passages regarding homosexuality and slavery “do not express the heart and character of God.”
He believes that it is not unbiblical or contrary to Scripture for Christians to support gay marriage.
His rationale is that “what Moses and Paul were addressing in their teachings on same-sex intimacy was very different from two human beings entering into a covenant relationship of mutual love.”[4]
“I suggest it is possible to be a faithful Christian who loves God and loves the Scriptures,” he says, “and at the same time to believe that the handful of verses on same-sex intimacy are like the hundreds of passages accepting and regulating slavery or other practices we today believe do not express the heart and character of God.”
It is quite remarkable that Hamilton would equate a sexual perversion with a social practice that almost always in the Christian world involved the payment of a debt.
But even more remarkable is Hamilton’s assumption that he totally understands “the heart and character of God.”
God has not revealed Himself completely in Scripture, and even if He had, it’s not possible for a finite mind to completely comprehend an infinite God.
Is Hamilton not familiar with Isaiah 55:8-9?
“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”
James Talarico – running for U.S. Senate in Texas.
He is running against Republican Ken Paxton… and is currently leading Paxton in the polls.
We wrote about Talarico’s beliefs several months ago when he defeated Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic Senate primary in Texas.
Click HERE for that article.
Talarico identifies as a Presbyterian Christian… but his beliefs say otherwise.
Here are 5 more of his unbiblical ideas that were not mentioned in the previous article:
1. Talarico believes Bible stories should not be read to young children as part of a cultural literacy program in public schools.
In a video interview in 2025, Talarico spoke about his opposition to the new Bluebonnet Learning curriculum in Texas – optional K through 5th grade instructional materials created by the Texas Education Agency in 2024.
He said it was “most insidious” that Christian Bible stories would be taught “as historical fact, as the only truth to our youngest students, and, I mean, kindergarten, first graders.”[5]
He added that pushing such “propaganda” or “indoctrination” on “kids who aren’t able to think for themselves yet” is “deeply immoral.”[6]
Comprising about 2% of the reading and language arts lessons, a few basic Bible stories are included to highlight the Bible’s role in Western literature and in American history and culture.[7]
Their purpose is not to teach Bible doctrine or to proselytize, according to Texas state education officials.
Is Talarico’s opposition to Bible stories in kindergarten and first grade inconsistent with his advocacy of an inclusive approach to gender and LGBTQ+ topics in schools?
He hasn’t given a specific age at which he believes kids can “think for themselves” about how many genders exist.
2. Talarico believes we are saved by healing the sick and by feeding the hungry.
In a recent campaign town hall meeting at the Disciple Central Community Church in DeSoto, Texas, Talarico said:
“If you read our Scriptures, if you read the New Testament, what does Jesus spend most of his time doing? … It’s not preaching. It’s not teaching. It is healing. Healing the sick.”[8]
“And in Matthew 25, Scripture says that’s how we will be judged and how we will be saved — by healing the sick, by feeding the hungry, by welcoming the stranger, by visiting the prisoner.”[9]
Joshua Arnold, a writer for Family Research Council, disputes Talarico’s assertion that the Gospels show Jesus spending “most of his time” healing.
“Nowhere does Jesus say he will reward followers for healing the sick, only for visiting them (and the phrase ‘my brothers’ further limits the application only to those sick who are in Christ),” he wrote.
“…The sheep are praised for visiting those in prison, implying that the intended audience is individuals, not governments — and particularly individuals without political power.
“Thus, the ethical significance of this text speaks only to the conduct of individuals, not to government policy.”
Talarico uses his distorted view of Matthew 25 to justify his program of taxpayer-forced, government-controlled healthcare.
3. Talarico claims Muslims worship the same God as Christians.
This is actually a misconception of many who have never read either the Bible or the Quran from cover to cover.
They do not describe the same God.
Talarico asserts – as many Muslims do as well – that Muslims love Jesus.
In a video podcast interview, Talarico said:
“Muslims love Jesus. They love Moses and Abraham. We are all branches on the same tree as the Abrahamic faiths.”
“It’s heartbreaking to watch extremists, whether they are Christian nationalists or whether they are the Taliban or al Qaeda, perverting these beautiful traditions that have so much in common.”[10]
Notice Talarico uses the term “Abrahamic faiths.”
Abraham only had one faith, regardless of how many religions claim Abraham as their founder.
There is also only one Jesus… the Jesus described in the Quran is NOT the Jesus of the Bible.
4. Talarico thinks of himself as “a Christian who hates Christianity.”
Here’s what he said in a sermon:
“I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity. There is a cancer on our religion. Until we confess the sin that is Christian nationalism and exorcize it from our churches, our religion can do a lot more damage than a six-pack of Lone Star.”[11]
He explained the reference to a six-pack of beer by reading a text message he received from a pastor titled, “The top reasons beer is better than religion.”
The text message heavily criticized evangelism, disciplining children, perseverance until death, the second coming of Jesus, and total devotion to God.
Talarico accuses Republicans of making “abortion and homosexuality the two most important issues for religious voters when both of those issues don’t appear in the Bible … when both of those issues never come out of the mouth of Jesus.”[12]
There are a lot of issues that didn’t come out of the mouth of Jesus…
His disciples – as well as all of those who listened to his teaching – were familiar with the Old Testament.
They knew that murder was forbidden (Exodus 20:13)… as well as homosexuality (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13).
The fact that Jesus didn’t specifically repeat every Old Testament command is irrelevant… it’s a straw man argument.
Talarico characterizes the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the prospect of a “national ban on abortion” as part of a “Christian Taliban” that is “perverting my beloved religious tradition and using that to subvert our American democracy.”[13]
5. Talarico believes there are many paths to God.
In a sermon titled “God Is Not Christian: Confronting Christian Nationalism,” he rejected the claim of Jesus recorded in John 14:6 that he is the only way to God:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Instead of believing Jesus’ words, Talarico said, “Do we really think God would make all these beautiful people with all their beautiful traditions for no reason at all? There are so many pathways to the sacred. The Islamic mystic Rumi said, ‘Every religion has love, but love has no religion.’[14]
“God is so much bigger than our human categories. God is not a Presbyterian. God is not a Christian. God is not a noun at all. God is a verb. God is not a being. God is being itself. God is love, and that’s why Jesus is against anything that gets in the way of that love between neighbors, including religion.”[15]
It’s difficult to know exactly what Talarico means by these statements…
But it sounds like he is saying, among other things:
- God is not a Person; He’s just an emotion.
- Jesus is not God in human form.
- Jesus doesn’t want anything to interfere with love between neighbors… not even God and not even Himself.
In a recent interview, Talarico said all religions contain the “same truth” as Christianity.
So apparently, James Talarico doesn’t care whether we embrace Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Biblical Christianity, or Secular Humism.
Conclusion:
The phenomenon that has led to candidates like these gaining traction did not happen overnight.
Their rise is the result of a decades-long decline in biblical literacy and a broader rejection of God’s Word.
It’s also a result of evangelical Christians not voting in local and primary elections.
Ryan Burge’s Cooperative Election Study found that approximately 22% of American adults belong to evangelical denominations.
Pew’s independent estimate is 23%.
These percentages translate to approximately 59 million evangelical adults… of which Barna calculated that 59% voted in the 2024 election.
Here are the sad and shocking results:
- Voted – 34.8 million
- Registered but did not vote – estimated 13.2 million
- Not registered to vote – 11 million
Colossians 2:8 challenges us to stay on guard: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
But we can only guard against that deception if we know what the Word of God actually says.
What do you think? Email me at [email protected].
Action:
- Be sure to vote in the midterm elections in November this year. Click HERE to access my voter guides for 2026.
- Pray for the midterm elections later this year, that the Progressives and Socialists won’t gain control of Congress.
- Get my book, The Great Deception: 10 Shocking Dangers and the Blueprint for Rescuing the American Dream. Read the Preface: “The Epic Battle: Statism and Collectivism vs. Freedom and Prosperity.” Also pay close attention to Chapter 2, “The Road to Socialism.” Click HERE to order the book online.You can order the book on AmazonOr get the audiobook version HERE and on Kindle HERE.You can also get an autographed edition online HERE or by phone at 615-814-6633 (M-F 10 am to 3 pm).
You can also send a check for $26.13 (including shipping) payable to Media Specialists and send it to this address:
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Nashville, TN 37208 - Get my book, The Christian Voter: 7 Non-Negotiables for Voting For, Not Against, Your Values. Click HERE to order the book online.You can order the book on Amazon HERE.Or get the audiobook version HERE, or on Kindle HERE.You can also get an autographed edition online HERE or by phone at 615-814-6633 (M-F 10am to 3pm).
You can also send a check for $26.13 (includes shipping) payable to Media Specialists and send it to this address:Media Specialists
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FAQs:
Q: What is this article about?
A: This article is about progressive and socialist political candidates who try to deceive conservatives, Republicans, Independents and evangelical Christians to vote for them by quoting the Bible and pretending to have a Biblical worldview.
Q: Which specific candidates does the article focus on?
A: Adam Hamilton (Kansas), founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, and author of 33 books on Christianity. He is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall.
James Talarico (Texas), a state representative who identifies as a Presbyterian Christian. He is the Democratic nominee running against Republican Ken Paxton.
Q: Why are these candidates characterized as “wolves masquerading as sheep”?
A: Both candidates present themselves as Bible-believing Christians to appeal to conservatives, Republicans, Independents, and evangelicals, while holding progressive theological and political views that are anti-biblical and socialistic.
Q: What are some of Adam Hamilton’s key anti-biblical views?
A: He does not treat the original biblical manuscripts as the infallible words of God. He interprets “inspired by God” (2 Timothy 3:16) as “God-influenced” rather than God-breathed, viewing the Bible as the words of people shaped by their cultural times.
He rejects the Old Testament commands regarding the conquest of the Promised Land and the punishment in Leviticus 21:9 regarding a priest’s daughter as inconsistent with God’s character as revealed in Jesus.
He holds that passages on homosexuality and slavery “do not express the heart and character of God” and supports the view that Christians can affirm same-sex marriage.
Q: What are some of James Talarico’s anti-biblical views?
A: He believes that Christians and Muslims worship the same God and love the same Jesus. He rejects Jesus’ claim in John 14:6 to be the only way that a person can come to God.
He believes that the Matthew 25 passage about the separation of the sheep and the goats at the judgment teaches that we are saved by healing the sick and feeding the hungry.
Q: How do candidates like these win primary elections and gain so much traction politically?
A: Two primary reasons: (1) Too few evangelical Christians vote in primary elections during midterm years, and (2) there has been a substantial decline in Biblical literacy among Christians in recent decades.
About Craig Huey:
Craig Huey is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and publisher of The Huey Alert and Direct Marketing Update. Craig appears on national media such as FOX, FOX Business, Newsmax and more. He also co-hosts The Huey Alert Podcast with his wife Shelly and helps business leaders, Christians, conservatives, libertarians, young people and more understand the intersection of faith, politics, and freedom.
[1] Ian M. Giatti, https://www.christianpost.com/news/adam-hamiltons-3-controversial-bible-takes.html?page=2
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ian M. Giatti, https://www.christianpost.com/news/adam-hamiltons-3-controversial-bible-takes.html?page=4
[5] Alexander Hall, https://www.foxnews.com/media/ted-cruz-conservatives-respond-talarico-criticizes-bible-related-education-schools-propaganda
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ahmed Humble, https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/hisd-bluebonnet-readings-list-explainer-22322375.php
[8] Ian M. Giatti, https://www.christianpost.com/news/talarico-tells-crowd-christians-are-saved-by-healing-the-sick.html
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ryan Foley, https://www.christianpost.com/news/james-talarico-claims-muslims-christians-worship-the-same-god.html
[11] Joshua Arnold, https://washingtonstand.com/article/james-talarico-god-is-not-a-christian
[12] Ryan Foley, op. cit.
[13] Ryan Foley, op. cit.
[14] Joshua Arnold, op. cit.
[15] Joshua Arnold, op. cit.