An undercover video has surfaced showing that St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, the longtime church home of Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, gives new members copies of an “Inclusive Bible” that removes gendered language for God and alters Jesus’s traditional titles.
The footage, first reported by the Daily Caller, was recorded in August and shows Rev. Jim Rigby, who has led the church for more than 35 years, telling an undercover journalist that the congregation “typically” distributes the translation to people who join.
“It’s good on the gender stuff,” Rigby said in the video. “The more, like, metaphysical stuff, it’s not a very good translation, if that makes sense. I think it’s really important to have a good translation so you can let go of the stupid stuff.”
The video shows a new member identified as Larry receiving a copy of the Bible during a service. An unidentified woman is heard explaining the choice to him.
“It’s the Bible that we use at this church,” the woman says. “It’s been rewritten so that there is only inclusive language and that it doesn’t use the gender-fueled language that the King James Version uses.”
The translation, first published in 2007 by the group Priests for Equality, describes itself as the “first egalitarian” Bible, according to the Christian Post. Its translators call the phrase “the Lord” a “sexist and classist form” of God’s name and replace it with alternatives such as “Most High” and “Sovereign One.” The titles “Son of God” and “Son of Man” for Jesus are rendered instead as “Only Begotten,” “God’s Own,” and “Eternally Begotten.”
Talarico’s Long History with the Church
Talarico has deep roots at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian in Austin. He was baptized there and has attended since childhood. Rigby officiated the marriage of Talarico’s parents and delivered the invocation when Talarico was sworn into the Texas House.
St. Andrew’s describes itself as “Presbyterian & Progressive” and has argued that referring to God as male is “perhaps the most sexist comment a person can make,” according to Texas Scorecard. Separate footage cited by that outlet quotes church minister Babs Miller saying the “vast majority” of the congregation would identify as “agnostic or atheist.”
During a 2021 Texas House debate, Talarico said that “God is non-binary,” a comment he later called “cringey” and “deliberately provocative.” He has also described himself as a “Christian who hates Christianity.”
The video’s release comes as Talarico, an Austin Democrat, campaigns for a U.S. Senate seat against Attorney General Ken Paxton in a race that polls show is competitive.
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