{"id":52376,"date":"2026-08-26T11:27:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=52376"},"modified":"2026-08-26T11:27:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:27:41","slug":"actor-rainn-wilson-calls-james-talaricos-brand-of-christianity-achingly-close-to-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/actor-rainn-wilson-calls-james-talaricos-brand-of-christianity-achingly-close-to-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Actor Rainn Wilson Calls James Talarico\u2019s Brand of Christianity \u201cachingly close\u201d to Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_52379\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52379\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/08\/Wilson-Talarico_credit-Left-Kathy-Hutchins-Shutterstock-Right-John-Pesina-Shutterstock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52379\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/08\/Wilson-Talarico_credit-Left-Kathy-Hutchins-Shutterstock-Right-John-Pesina-Shutterstock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-52379\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Kathy Hutchins \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: John Pesina \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico is receiving praise from \u201cOffice\u201d star Rainn Wilson, who discussed Talarico\u2019s faith on a recent podcast. Wilson appeared on Ezra Klein\u2019s podcast, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=c-QptuelrhM\">Soul Boom<\/a>\u201d where they discussed the prominent role faith has taken in the Senate race, discussing how the role of Christianity \u00a0has taken on such a prominent role in the Texas Senate race. Talarico\u2019s critics have increasingly gone after his self-proclaimed Christianity, with Talarico making claims that the Bible supports abortion, saying that God is \u201cnon-binary,\u201d and aligning himself and the Christian faith with other progressive ideologies. In an interview with \u201cPolitics War Room,\u201d Talarico stated he\u2019d met Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, atheists and agnostics who were more Christlike than some of the Christian lawmakers in the Texas House.<\/p>\n<p>Klein criticized attacks against Talarico\u2019s faith. \u201cWhenever I watch these attacks, I think, \u2018You all would have hated Jesus Christ. You would have found him to be the most annoying, weepy, worrying about the wrong people \u2014 the outsiders, the outcasts\u2026\u201d 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\u2019s \u201cbrand\u201d of Christianity. \u201cWell, that&#8217;s why I frame this around Talarico, because Talarico is Christian. That&#8217;s the point, that it is his Christianity they hate,\u201d said Klein. \u201cHis brand of Christianity, which is so, so achingly close to Jesus&#8217; brand of Christianity,&#8221; agreed Wilson. Both men asserted that contemporary Christianity focused too much on sexual ethics and not enough on greed and abuse of power.<\/p>\n<p>The comments received pushback from conservatives like Frank Turek, who spoke with <em>Fox News <\/em>about the podcast. \u201cCalling James Talarico&#8217;s brand of Christianity \u2018achingly close\u2019 to Jesus&#8217;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,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/office-star-says-james-talarico-religious-beliefs-achingly-close-jesus-christ\">he said<\/a>. \u00a0He cited Talarico\u2019s support for abortion and drag queen story hours. \u201cIt\u2019s a little ironic that Rainn Wilson, who follows the Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed Faith, and Ezra Klein, who is Jewish, apparently decided that James Talarico is a modern-day Jesus,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PecoreThomas\/status\/2091887344949297192\">wrote one commentor on X<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s a bit like two guys who don\u2019t play baseball announcing they\u2019ve found the next Babe Ruth.\u201d \u201cUnfortunately Wilson doesn\u2019t seem to know Christianity any better than the Texas talarico twit \u2026\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/millerdlllc\/status\/2091702644452552791\">wrote another account<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico is receiving praise from \u201cOffice\u201d star Rainn Wilson, who discussed Talarico\u2019s faith on a recent podcast. Wilson appeared on Ezra Klein\u2019s podcast, \u201cSoul Boom\u201d where they discussed the prominent role faith has taken in the Senate race, discussing how the role of Christianity \u00a0has taken on such a prominent role&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":52379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Actor Rainn Wilson Calls James Talarico\u2019s Brand of Christianity \u201cachingly close\u201d to Jesus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rainn Wilson praises James Talarico\u2019s Christianity, sparking conservative pushback over the Texas Senate 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