Ted Cruz, conservatives respond after Talarico criticizes Bible-related education in schools as 'propaganda'
Texas state representative and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign responded after a resurfaced video of his comments on the Bible and education sparked outrage.
A clip resurfaced this week of Talarico, a Christian seminarian, speaking in a video hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund in 2025. In the clip, the host asked Talarico about his legislative battles with "Christian Nationalists," meaning people who consider America to be an inherently Christian nation.
The portion that went viral recently when Talarico blasted the "most insidious" legislation he fought to stop while serving in Texas government, claiming one bill required schools in the state to teach Bible stories as historical fact. He argued that this amounted to pushing "propaganda" on children and was not just bad for state schools, but for society overall.
"It was a new state curriculum that would teach Christian Bible stories as historical fact, as the only truth to our youngest students, and I mean kindergarten, first graders," he said. "These are kids who aren’t able to think for themselves yet. They haven’t formed their own worldviews."
He further warned that the alleged effort to "push propaganda, to push indoctrination on those youngest students is deeply immoral and should trouble all of us."
Sen. Ted Cruz. R-Texas, retweeted the clip, asking a brief, "Um, wut?" alongside numerous other commentators.
"The claim made by Representative Talarico is misleading," Mary Elizabeth Castle, director of government relations for Texas Values told Fox News Digital. "The curriculum he was referring to in the video from 2025 is the Bluebonnet curriculum, which was an English Language Arts curriculum adopted in the winter of 2024 that helped students understand the copious amounts of Bible references made in historical speeches and common stories like Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech."
"The references to the Bible in the Bluebonnet curriculum help students understand the thousands of everyday idioms that people use every day that have some context to Scripture," she continued.
"The Bluebonnet curriculum was defended by top religious liberty law firms like First Liberty Institute and high elected officials like Dr. Ben Carson," Castle added. "The purpose of the biblical references was to improve reading scores and reading comprehension among students. The majority of Texas parents and stakeholders testified in favor of the curriculum, which passed at the State Board of Education. A very small number of people would agree with Mr. Talarico’s sentiment and a number of school districts have purchased this curriculum."
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First Liberty executive general counsel Hiram Sasser told Fox News Digital, "Courts across the nation have determined that the Bible has had profound influence on Western culture and is an important piece of literature and history. No education is complete without understanding the Bible and its influence, as even the ACLU recognizes. What is crazy is that Talarico is to the Left of the ACLU, which agreed in a court settlement with us that the Bible may be taught in Texas schools."
"Democrats have a funny way of defining ‘indoctrination.’ When they do it, it's ‘inclusion.’ When it opposes their ideology, it's considered government-imposed cruelty," Tim Graham, the executive editor of Media Research Center's NewsBusters, told Fox News Digital. "Talarico has clearly and repeatedly identified himself as a pusher of leftist gender ideology, which stands in dramatic contradiction to biblical teaching. So it's not shocking he doesn't want anybody discussing the Bible in the classroom."
A spokesperson for Talarico's campaign told Fox News Digital, "James is a Christian seminarian who’s dedicated his life to the teachings of Jesus Christ — fighting religious and political corruption when he sees it because there’s nothing Christ-like about powerful people using scripture to score political points. While billionaire-bought politicians like Ken Paxton attack James for his faith — he will continue encouraging Texans across the political spectrum to come together by loving their neighbors as themselves."
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In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Talarico shared his personal views on the importance of the separation of church and state, even as a Christian seminarian.
"As a Christian, I think my concern is for the Muslim kid and the Jewish kid, the Hindu kid, the atheist kid who’s sitting in a classroom who now has a poster on the wall forced by the government that says, you know, your religion is inferior, or you're not welcome here," he had said. "And I just think if Jesus saw that, he would weep for those students and would demand that we love them as ourselves. And so that's why I kind of spoke out against the bill on theological grounds, not just constitutional grounds."
Talarico’s campaign has also drawn criticism over his support for raising children as transgender, though he has drawn a line regarding procedures such as gender reassignment surgeries for minors, a policy he explicitly opposed in a June interview.