"Economic justice is mentioned 3,000 times in our Scriptures, both the New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures. This is such a core part of our tradition, and it’s nowhere to be seen in Christian nationalism or on the religious right." - James Talarico

@jamestalarico Everything depends on the definition of the term "economic justice" Your definition and the definition in the Bible are wildly divergent.

@jamestalarico I don't know anyone could say that about the homosexuality part, it's pretty blunt.

Christ's command of providing for the poor and welcoming the stranger were directed toward individuals, not governments. Nowhere in scripture does it say that the government is the conduit for charity. It appears that @jamestalarico has never heard of: Sisters of Life: St. Vincent De Paul Society @svdpusacouncil Catholic Charities Samaritan’s Purse @SamaritansPurse Feed the Children @feedthechildren Children's Hunger Fund @ServeAChild Christian Healthcare Ministries @iheartchm Christian Military Fellowship @CMFHQ

@jamestalarico Throughout the Bible, themes of poverty and justice are deeply woven into its teachings, appearing across both the Old and New Testaments. These scriptures call for compassion, fairness, and a collective responsibility for the poor and oppressed.

@jamestalarico He's lying. Abortion and homosexuality are mentioned, but economic justice is not at all. Concern for the poor is mentioned, but it is a personal admonition, not a political directive.

@jamestalarico “It’s time to start flipping tables.” - James Talarico James Talarico is a bright light shining in Texas for us all.

@jamestalarico You lie. The new right is clear about focusing the US Govt on the economic wellbeing of citizens. Mass migration centers the wellbeing of asset owners. This argument has been made repeatedly.

@jamestalarico Exodus 20:17 "“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

@jamestalarico Do the scriptures say the govt is supposed to provide that economic justice?

@jamestalarico The term economic justice does not appear anywhere in those texts

Economic justice is exactly what James fights for because he starts from the wrong premise. He assumes outcomes must be engineered through the forced sacrifice of one group to another. That need, inequality, or suffering creates a moral claim on someone else’s life, labor, or property. But economic justice is not redistribution. It is not outcome control. It is not equal results. Economic justice means equal rights. The right to earn. The right to trade. The right to keep what you produce. The right to say no. The right to fail or succeed by your own choices. Once you redefine justice as guaranteed outcomes, you have already abandoned justice. You have replaced it with coercion dressed up as compassion. Someone must be forced to pay. Someone must be stripped of autonomy. Someone must be treated as a means, not an end. Scripture may praise charity, mercy, and generosity. It does not sanctify theft. It does not bless coercion. And it does not turn envy into virtue by calling it justice. What James calls “economic justice” is simply the moralization of force. And force is always unjust, no matter how holy the language wrapped around it.

I don't think he's ever read the Bible. Same sex relationships are mentioned a few times (Where do you think the word sodomy comes from...The town of Sodom)and thou shall not kill is in the 10 commandments. Also, just because something isn't mentioned specifically doesn't mean it's not immiral. Kicking puppies isn't mentioned so should people be able to do that?

@jamestalarico Here come the fake Christians who voted for a greedy adulterer and somehow justify violent actions & rhetoric toward other human beings.

@JohnCleese @jamestalarico It’s funny how the religious right is bashed by the pro abortion, sterilize children and push homosexuality onto everyone group.

@jamestalarico This might be more dangerous than a Kamala Harris or someone who is explicitly not Christian.

@jamestalarico It's funny how he thinks you can only help people through govn't

This is simply false. He would probably put me in what he calls "the religious right". Here's just one (of many) pieces of research/writing on the impacts of various policies, in this case immigration, on America's poor: Who Loses Most from Illegal Immigration? America’s Poor. By Ken Cuccinelli Conservatives have long done a lousy job informing Americans about just how good conservative policies are for poor Americans. And as is well known, our poorest fellow Americans are disproportionately minorities. As we hear election-year debates about the importance of fighting illegal immigration, it’s worth looking at how important this issue is to America’s poor. Did you know that the nation’s poverty rate reached an all-time low at the end of 2019, before Covid struck? Simply put, it was the result of higher wages and spectacularly low unemployment. And while that sounds simple enough, we have to ask: how was this achieved? There are a host of driving factors behind these successes, including President Trump’s common-sense economic policies, which slashed red tape through deregulation and cut taxes for working families, unleashing the American spirit of innovation and unlocking the American dream for millions of previously-forgotten Americans. But one of the greatest boons for low-income Americans under President Trump was his administration’s immigration policy. By actually enforcing immigration law and reducing the influx of illegal, low-wage labor that directly competes with America’s poorest workers, President Trump helped the long-neglected working class to see their highest pay raises in 20 years and lowest unemployment in 50 years, including the lowest blackand Hispanicunemployment ever recorded. Whether you liked President Trump or not, a working-class coalition elected him in 2016 to end the open-borders policies of previous administrations. He followed through on his promise, and not only did American workers benefit, but the poorest Americans benefitted the most of all – and as I have noted, they are disproportionally minorities. President Trump recognized a reality others refused to acknowledge: our broken immigration system has hurt poor Americans most of all. Decades of low-skill, low-wage immigration had depressed wages and employment for workers on the bottom rung of the economic ladder. This is not a phenomenon that was recently discovered. Numerous studies from the General Accounting Office, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the National Research Council, and more agree that high numbers of illegal immigrants hurt wages. In 2016, an estimated 7.8 million illegal immigrants were working in the U.S. while 7.6 million Americans were unemployed. It’s common sense, really — maybe that’s why Washington struggles to understand it. When millions of low-skilled illegal immigrants are allowed to break the law and compete for jobs, it increases the low-skill labor supply. Economics 101 tells us that when supply increases, prices — aka wages — decrease. Of course, many special interests want wages depressed, because it helps the bottom line of their business. But there is no question it hurts America’s poor. President Trump came into office and immediately began working on the problem. His first week in office, he made it easier for law enforcement to deport illegal immigrants convicted of crimes and expanded enforcement of long-standing immigration laws – including laws for which then-Senator Joe Biden voted. Trump worked to fix eight years of broken Obama-era policies at the Department of Homeland Security, rolling back “catch and release” policies, deporting criminals, and enacting common-sense reforms both at the border and in the interior. In addition, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rolled back many of the “pull factors” which incentivize illegal immigrants to come to the U.S. Trump’s DHS curbed the rampant abuse of our generous asylum system: prior to 2019, migrants crossed the border en masse simply by claiming “credible fear” to apply for asylum. Most entered the country, then never applied for asylum or never appeared for court dates. Even those whose claims were denied simply continued working, and law enforcement did nothing. In 2019, President Trump directed several fixes to the problem, including regulations tightening employment authorizationsand a policy ordering illegal immigrants to stay in Mexico as their claims are processed. Taken together, these were the most successful actions against illegal immigration in decades. Not only did these no-nonsense policies enforce the law to reduce illegal immigration into the country, they gave a clear signal to potential illegal immigrants that America’s borders were no longer open, and America’s poorest workers immediately benefitted the most. For an example of how these policies helped low-income Americans, particularly unemployed black workers, just look at a small Mississippi town in 2019. After ICE raided a chicken plant employing hundreds of illegal workers, the company had a job fair to hire legal replacements. Over 200 showed up, mostly black workers, — the fair had to extend its hours to process the applications. Juan Grant, one of the new workers, told the New York Times he got a 50% raise to begin working at the plant. Grant’s experience is evidence against the notion that there are jobs Americans won’t do. There are jobs Americans might rather not do, but if they are paid enough, they are glad to get the job – just like Mr. Grant. The key is enforcing the law so the wages on low-end jobs can rise as a simple matter of the laws of supply and demand (without a minimum wage mandate), improving both employment and wages for America’s poorest workers. Trump’s illegal immigration policies and successful economic reforms led to the most worker-friendly job market in decades, raising employment and wages to record levels. From 2016 to 2019, real median household income shot up by 9% and fewer workers earned minimum wage than ever before. The lowest-earning 20% of households saw their real income increase by an average of 11% from 2018 to 2019 alone — more than any other income group. Thanks to a booming economy and a tight labor market at the lowest end of the economic scale, largely caused by Trump’s immigration policy, construction workers saw their wages soar by 6.1% in 2019, higher than any other industry, according to a Glassdoor report. Poverty hit an all-time low in 2019 as well, driven by record gains in black and Hispanic communities. Aren’t these accomplishments we’d like to repeat? After a long eight years under President Obama, when workers had to strive to get hired at all, workers of all skill levels suddenly had their pick of employers, which allowed them to earn more money and ascend the economic ladder. Despite the media narrative, low-income Americans were the big winners from these conservative policies. Donald Trump reignited the focus on the working class and the poor within the Right — and he followed through. Too often, conservatives cede the battle of ideas to the Left when it comes to the poor. But the numbers don’t lie: conservative immigration and economic policy has helped our poorest Americans in ways Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden can’t even dream of. As Congress passes amnesty legislation and President Biden’s administration continues to invite in a flood of low-skill illegal immigrants, they should remember that America’s workers will pay a high price in fewer jobs and lower wages. Ken Cuccinelli is the former Acting Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

@jamestalarico Similar vibes for property rights to be honest!

@jamestalarico Huh? Homosexuality is explicitly mentioned. Leviticus 18:22. You know it's BS political pandering to Christians when someone can't be honest about Leviticus. No point in giving a pass on abortion despite scripture about the born and unborn.

@jamestalarico This is who we are dealing with when it comes to @jamestalarico

This was a great interview. I’d only heard about Talarico (negatively) from Josh’s @jbarro piece (pre-Crockett). I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with Talarico. He is poised, knowledgeable, and grounded in a deep sense of morality. He is going places. Even if he doesn’t win in Texas, he is going to be around and important.

@jamestalarico Weird when Dems are out bible thumping the GOP. How about we not base govt policy on scripture at all?

@jamestalarico Talarico is a good man.

@jamestalarico Utter bullshit

@jamestalarico I'll put it bluntly. James Talarico tells numerous bold lies in this interview about what Scripture says and doesn't say. But he's in the PCUSA, so this is SOP. Their Progressivism is the interpretive lens through which all Scripture must pass.

@jamestalarico Opposition to debt and usury are economic illiteracy. Even the Bible makes mistakes.

@jamestalarico "Poverty" of the sort Jesus spoke to hasn't existed since the Industrial Revolution. What passes for "poverty" today exists almost entirely as a result of the post-Christian Equality Cult. Biblical "economic justice" is that Christ is KING, and you aren't.

@jamestalarico Jesus said the poor will always be with us. That means you are a liar when you say you can solve it or fix it. The Acts church sold all that they had and distributed it amongst those who needed it. They were soon impoverished. And homosexuality is an abomination according to God

@jamestalarico The Jesuits are eccentric in this way

@jamestalarico A gospel of respect and dignity is as ancient as Scriptures and as recent as Pope Francis. It is as political as Archbishop Romero, when he sought dignity for his people when confronting the rich and powerful, or militants from the left or the right.

Scripture speaks of justice, not “economic justice” as an abstract, redistributive principle. Biblical justice is covenantal, moral, and relational - ordered to faithfulness before God and responsibility toward neighbor. Material commands address survival, restraint, and charity - not enforced equality or guaranteed comfort. The modern misreading of this, preached as Gospel, reappears in socialism. And as Venezuela, Western experiments, and the socialist nations that once covered a third of the world continue to demonstrate, the result is neither Christian nor even just.

@jamestalarico Literally everything said here is provably incorrect. 🤦🏻‍♂️

@jamestalarico @jamestalarico has so much credibility.

@jamestalarico But ur the guy who FALSELY called student loan cancellation "upward redistribution", Ezra. Get in ur limousine. Go to the airport. FLY AWAY YOU FRAUD.

@jamestalarico So this guy has clearly never read the Bible or the Didache which was written contemporaneously with the Bible around 70 AD