Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico is receiving praise from “Office” star Rainn Wilson, who discussed Talarico’s faith on a recent podcast. Wilson appeared on Ezra Klein’s podcast, “Soul Boom” where they discussed the prominent role faith has taken in the Senate race, discussing how the role of Christianity  has taken on such a prominent role in the Texas Senate race. Talarico’s critics have increasingly gone after his self-proclaimed Christianity, with Talarico making claims that the Bible supports abortion, saying that God is “non-binary,” and aligning himself and the Christian faith with other progressive ideologies. In an interview with “Politics War Room,” Talarico stated he’d met Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, atheists and agnostics who were more Christlike than some of the Christian lawmakers in the Texas House.

Klein criticized attacks against Talarico’s faith. “Whenever I watch these attacks, I think, ‘You all would have hated Jesus Christ. You would have found him to be the most annoying, weepy, worrying about the wrong people — the outsiders, the outcasts…” said Klein. Wilson agreed, with neither man being of the Christian faith but stating that many Christians they know are very compassionate. They accused his critics of hating Talarico’s “brand” of Christianity. “Well, that’s why I frame this around Talarico, because Talarico is Christian. That’s the point, that it is his Christianity they hate,” said Klein. “His brand of Christianity, which is so, so achingly close to Jesus’ brand of Christianity,” agreed Wilson. Both men asserted that contemporary Christianity focused too much on sexual ethics and not enough on greed and abuse of power.

The comments received pushback from conservatives like Frank Turek, who spoke with Fox News about the podcast. “Calling James Talarico’s brand of Christianity ‘achingly close’ to Jesus’s reveals a social-justice lens so thick that people no longer care to interpret Jesus on his own terms, but would rather reimagine him on theirs,” he said.  He cited Talarico’s support for abortion and drag queen story hours. “It’s a little ironic that Rainn Wilson, who follows the Bahá’í Faith, and Ezra Klein, who is Jewish, apparently decided that James Talarico is a modern-day Jesus,” wrote one commentor on X. “That’s a bit like two guys who don’t play baseball announcing they’ve found the next Babe Ruth.” “Unfortunately Wilson doesn’t seem to know Christianity any better than the Texas talarico twit …” wrote another account.