{"id":366073,"date":"2026-03-26T11:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/366073\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:13:09","slug":"democratic-rising-star-extends-love-after-hegseths-pastor-prays-for-his-death-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/366073\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic rising star extends \u2018love\u2019 after Hegseth\u2019s pastor prays for his death \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Talarico<\/a>, the Texas Democratic<\/a> state representative and Presbyterian seminarian, has said he forgives Pete Hegseth\u2019s<\/a> pastor for praying for his death. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Texas\u2019s popular Democratic nominee for a US Senate seat pushed back against comments from Brooks Potteiger, the defense secretary\u2019s closest spiritual adviser, who said: \u201cWe want him crucified with Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talarico said on X: \u201cJesus loves. Christian Nationalism kills. You may pray for my death, Pastor, but I still love you. I love you more than you could ever hate me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old\u2019s response comes after Potteiger wished for his death last on a Christian nationalist podcast called Reformation Red Pill, which Hegseth has appeared on several times. <\/p>\n

Potteiger had joined a discussion about Talarico with podcast host Joshua Haymes, a former pastoral intern at Potteiger\u2019s church who previously claimed that the Bible is \u201cpro-Ice raids\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the podcast, Haymes said: \u201cFirst and foremost, we pray that a man like this would be cut to the heart,\u201d adding: \u201cThis is where you have imprecatory psalms. This is where you pray strongly \u2026 The psalmist is not shy. God, destroy them. Make them as dung on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haymes went on to say: \u201cI pray that God kills him \u2026 Ultimately, that means killing his heart and raising him up to new life in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Potteiger agreed, saying: \u201cRight, right \u2026 We want him crucified with Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the podcast, Potteiger released a statement clarifying his comments, saying: \u201cAs a Christian, when I pray imprecatory psalms about those who celebrate baby murder, I am not, from my heart, praying for their death. I\u2019m praying for their conversion. That the \u2018old man\u2019 would die. That he would be \u2018crucified with Christ\u2019 (Pauline language for conversation) and raised to new life, and given a new heart with new desires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Talarico defeated Texas\u2019s Democratic representative Jasmine Crockett in the state\u2019s Democratic primary, campaigning largely on faith-based populism and his bipartisan appeal.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Fight the system. Not the neighbour\u2019: Democrat James Talarico preaches third way in TexasOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Talarico, who is looking to unseat Republican senator John Cornyn this fall, recently said in an interview with Stephen Colbert that \u201cthere is nothing Christian about Christian nationalism\u201d. – Guardian<\/p>\n

[\u00a0James Talarico wins Democrat race in Texas amid voting chaos and chicanery claimsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Talarico, the Texas Democratic state representative and Presbyterian seminarian, has said he forgives Pete Hegseth\u2019s pastor for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14843,42,43,26574,9904,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-366073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-democratic-party","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-texas","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}