You can learn a lot about a person by what they’re willing to throw away.
In Texas, where Sunday mornings carry spiritual significance and Scripture remains treated as authoritative, most Texans believe the Bible is not subject to editorial change—it is the Word of God. Yet undercover footage shows that at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin—a place deeply tied to Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful James Talarico—the biblical text has been systematically altered.
Talarico, running against Attorney General Ken Paxton in a Senate race with tight polling margins, has positioned himself as a thoughtful Christian voice in politics. But the church that shaped him reveals a starkly different reality. St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church is where Talarico was baptized and attended since childhood. The church’s head pastor, Rev. Jim Rigby, married Talarico’s parents and delivered the invocation at his Texas House swearing-in. The congregation describes itself as “Presbyterian & Progressive,” while separate undercover footage indicates minister Babs Miller admitted that “the vast majority” of members identify as “agnostic or atheist.”
Undercover footage shows new members receive a 2007 translation known as the “Inclusive Bible,” which strips Scripture of gendered language for God and removes foundational titles from Jesus Christ. The document replaces phrases like “Son of God” and “Son of Man” with terms such as “Only Begotten” and “God’s Own.” It swaps “the Lord” for “Most High” and “Sovereign One,” with translators labeling “the Lord” a “sexist and classist form” of God’s name.
An unidentified woman in the footage stated, “It’s the Bible we use at this church. It’s been rewritten so there is only inclusive language and it doesn’t use gender-fueled language from the King James Version.” Rev. Jim Rigby described the translation as “good on the gender stuff,” adding that it enables members to “let go of the stupid stuff.”
The church’s pastor, Talarico’s lifelong spiritual mentor, has previously stated that “God is non-binary” and once called himself “a Christian who hates Christianity.” He later dismissed his earlier remarks as “cringey” and “deliberately provocative.”
This church cannot bring itself to refer to Jesus as the Son of God, yet its leadership considers portions of sacred Scripture—such as salvation, resurrection, or Christ’s identity—“stupid stuff” worth discarding. The translation is not a revision but an amputation, reducing scripture until it contains nothing essential for belief. Texas has long distinguished between genuine faith and performance: when a candidate’s pastor calls Scripture “stupid” and the candidate himself denies core Christian doctrine, the implications are clear.
