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“Pastors in name only.” That’s the latest epithet the political Right is hurling at pastors who are running for office as Democrats. Just this week, Vice President J.D. Vance said that what Kansas Senate candidate Rev. Adam Hamilton stood for was “not Christianity,” but rather “left-wing radicalism dressed in the skin suit of our religion.” It’s an odd claim for the vice president to make about the pastor of the largest United Methodist congregation in the country. In recent years, talking about faith and politics has often meant talking about Christian nationalism—the way Christian language and symbols can be twisted to endorse policies that erode trust in elections, strengthen white Christian hegemony, empower autocrats, and generally sound very little like “love thy neighbor.” But in this year’s midterms, candidates like Hamilton and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico are doing something different. They’re talking openly about their Christian faith, yes, but the policies they support are often a direct contrast to Christian nationalism. As Noah Berlatsky writes this week for Sojourners, Talarico, a seminary student, has condemned Christian nationalism and cited “Mary as a model for consent and a justification for abortion rights.” So what’s the difference, asks Berlatsky, between Talarico’s approach and Christian nationalists? “If you oppose Christian theocracy, how can you use Christian theology to justify your political positions in the public sphere?” In short: Are candidates like Talarico doing what we criticize Christian nationalists for doing? It’s a good question—and one I hope those of us who care about social justice are ready to answer. Similarly, in our latest issue, Adam Russell Taylor points out that while we’re swimming in examples of the bad ways that politicians use faith on the campaign trail, the solution isn’t to wipe all God-talk out of politics. Instead, we need to think about “what it looks like when candidates for office—regardless of political party—engage their faith in a healthy way.” (I’ll go on the record saying: I believe it can be done!) Elsewhere this week: In her bestselling book Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes Du Mez offered a searing look at white Christian masculinity; in her latest book—Live, Laugh, Love—she turns her attention to white Christian women. We say farewell to writer Annie Dillard, “a religiously eclectic skeptic” and champion ping-pong player who was often at her best when she looked at things and told us about them. A pair of documentaries look at what happens when churches fail small-town queer folks, and Kat Armas writes about the liberating theology of abuelitas in a piece from our archives. Plus, a fun bonus: How we recently learned Sojourners has been translated into Urdu.
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