James Talarico, a Democrat currently running for Texas Senate seat, recently said,

“You don’t want to fit the big thing into the small thing. And God is the biggest thing there is. If you try to fit God into a political party, whether it’s the Republican party or the Democratic party, you’ve got it reversed…We need to put the big things first. The love of God and the love of neighbor before anything else…Right now what you’ve got is people baptizing their partisanship and calling that Christianity. When in reality, your politics should grow out of your faith, not the other way around.”

He’s right.

I’ll even take it and run a bit further. It isn’t just that your politics should grow from your faith. It’s that your faith must be the lens through which you assess and, when necessary, correct your favored politicians or party. For the Christian, Christ and his word, the big thing, sits in judgment over everyone and everything else, the small things.

To use a baseball picture, God’s Word must be the strike zone by which all believers call balls and strikes no matter who is at bat.

Balls and Strikes for the Red Team

On January 4, 2017, I agreed with Michael Horton who wrote that Christians should make clear that Paula White, Trump’s spiritual advisor, is a heretic preaching a false prosperity gospel. The name-it-and-claim-it gospel is not the gospel. It needed to be said regardless of who she was advising or what your political preferences were. Whether you voted for Trump or not, as a Christian, you should be willing to call out the wolf in his house.

Balls and Strikes for the Blue Team

On March 6, 2026, I made the same claim about Talarico and his false progressive gospel. A Christianity that encourages women’s right to kill their unborn babies. A gospel built entirely on our works, where Matthew 25 becomes the whole of salvation and we are judged by how we treat the poor rather than by faith in Christ. A Jesus that is merely another expression of the same truth that Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam teaches. A God who wants young men and women to mutilate their bodies permanently if they feel like it. None of that is Christianity, and Christians, in love for Christ and his gospel, must be ready to say so regardless of how warm his smile is, how many seminary classes he’s taken, or his political affiliation.

Different party. Same principle. Same verdict. Same King.

This Is Not About Politics

To be clear, Christians can disagree on politics. The practice is messy. The issues are complicated. Faithful believers can land in different places on immigration, the economy, or foreign policy. That’s fine. There is room for that.

What there is no room for is tolerating or excusing false gospels. We cannot allow other loyalties to overshadow our allegiance to Him. We can be flexible on policy. We cannot budge on the nature of Jesus, the authority of Scripture, or the message of salvation. When someone distorts those things, regardless of their party, their charm, or their seminary enrollment, Christians must be willing to say so. Clearly, lovingly, and without apology.

My point then and now isn’t about who to vote for. It’s about what Christianity actually is and what it isn’t. The standard does not — it cannot — change depending on who’s holding the microphone.

If you find yourself nodding along to the 2017 post but bristling at the 2026 one, or vice versa, that’s worth examining. You may be doing the very thing Talarico warned against: letting your politics form your Christianity rather than the other way around.