{"id":28373,"date":"2025-07-24T15:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T19:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=28373"},"modified":"2025-07-24T15:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T19:12:12","slug":"eric-swalwell-praises-democrat-who-said-christians-can-support-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/eric-swalwell-praises-democrat-who-said-christians-can-support-abortion","title":{"rendered":"Eric Swalwell Praises Democrat Who Said Christians Can Support Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Phil Pasquini \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

State Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas, is receiving praise from Democrats after appearing on an episode of \u201cThe Joe Rogan Experience,\u201d where he asserted that Christians can support abortion. Talarico, 36, is an aspiring Presbyterian minister and discussed what Democrats need to do to win back voters. He offered some surprising praise of Donald Trump, saying, \u201cI do think there is something that Donald Trump tapped into. I think that other Republicans could tap into. And again, this is weird because I’m a Democrat making an argument for Republicans,\u201d he said. \u201cThe reason I’m doing this is I think when politicians feel that they can win over voters, we all compete to win over those voters and that leads to better public policy.”<\/p>\n

Talarico discussed the need for Democrats to win back young voters, a group President Trump did surprisingly well with. He also discussed a wide-ranging list of political issues, including abortion, which despite the Democrat\u2019s belief it was a winning issue, wasn\u2019t enough to get Kamala Harris across the finish line. Talarico made his case for supporting abortion through a religious lens. \u201cCreation has to be done with consent,\u201d he said. \u201cYou cannot force someone to create. Creation is one of the most sacred acts that we engage in as human beings. If this was something that really was central to Jesus’ ministry, I would think he would have said something about it … We have four Gospels with tons of teachings from Jesus and none of them are about this.”<\/p>\n

MSNBC\u2019s Nicolle Wallace spoke to California Democrat Eric Swalwell about Talarico\u2019s performance. Swalwell praised<\/a> Talarico\u2019s religious focus and accused Republicans of weaponizing faith. \u201cI made a decision after the last election, when I saw that 68% of the voters identified as Christian in one way or another, that I needed to do Christian podcasts,” Swalwell said. “And I\u2019ve been doing about one to two a month. I was raised as a Christian. I went to a Christian college on a soccer scholarship, but I would not talk about my faith because I thought it didn\u2019t really belong in politics. But what I\u2019ve seen is that Republicans are weaponizing faith, and it\u2019s actually to our own disadvantage to not talk about it.” Allie Beth Stuckey, however, had strong words for Talarico\u2019s Christian support of abortion. \u201cLet me guess, James Talarico, you disagree with the death penalty for brutal murderers, but you’re okay with the same chemical combination of that lethal injection being used on an innocent baby inside the womb,\u201d she declared. \u201cIs that your loving Christianity? Is that your compassion?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas, is receiving praise from Democrats after appearing on an episode of \u201cThe Joe Rogan Experience,\u201d where he asserted that Christians can support abortion. Talarico, 36, is an aspiring Presbyterian minister and discussed what Democrats need to do to win back voters. He offered some surprising praise of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":28376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nEric Swalwell Praises Democrat Who Said Christians Can Support Abortion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Democrat James Talarico sparks debate on Joe Rogan\u2019s podcast by claiming Christians can support abortion and praising Trump\u2019s voter appeal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/eric-swalwell-praises-democrat-who-said-christians-can-support-abortion\" \/>\n<meta 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