Talarico says 'Islamic mystics' shaped his Christian faith

In a resurfaced 2024 podcast Texas Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico, who has faced security over the way he has publicly chosen to display his “Christianity," says he has learned about his Christian faith as much from islamic poets like Rumi as much as Christian writers.

“I know personally that I've learned as much about my faith from Salman's tradition, from the Islamic mystics, from poets like Rumi as much as I have from Chrstian authors and Christian writers,” the Senate hopeful said.

The remarks came during an April 2024 episode of The State of Belief podcast, hosted by Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, in which Talarico appeared alongside fellow Texas state representative Salman Bhojani. In the conversation focused on faith and public service, the then-state lawmaker and Presbyterian pastor gave credit to Islamic mystical traditions for shaping his understanding of Christianity just as deeply as the Christian writers he studied.

He went on to insist that interfaith dialogue does not dilute religious identity but instead strengthens it, bringing out “new flavors and new colors” in one’s own tradition. The audio, largely overlooked at the time, has been widely circulated in recent days by Republican researchers as Talarico campaigns for the U.S. Senate in a closely watched Texas race.

Talarico who had said in the past he is a Christian who hates Christianity seemed to imply in a May 2026 address to Paul Quinn College that spiritualism was the same as Christianity

“I’m not asking you to join an organized religion. I’m asking you to join something bigger than yourself," he said. "Find a spiritual practice that works for you, whether it’s meditation or fasting, gardening, or bird watching, whether it’s in a church, or a temple, or a book club, or a neighborhood group, find a community that can help you touch the ground of your own being," the Daily Wire reports.