James Talarico’s campaign thought it a great idea to trot out a girlfriend to try and shore up Beto 2.0’s masculine bona fides about a week ago. Meanwhile, his church is all about “Faithful Polyamory 101”.

The giggles over James’ masculinity began before the standard-issue progressive girlfriend, going back to the wider exposure of his past statements like God is non-binary, “there are six biological sexes”, and “Jesus is a radical feminist”.

Texas Democrats tapped Vanity Fair to put Beto on its cover, wearing jeans posed next to a pick-up and dog, to try and goose his T quotient.

No one really bought it, but Texas progressives aren’t going to give up on a Talarico make-over, so time to trot out Esquire magazine. Author Dave Holmes takes the tactic that to make James masculinity look better is to both redefine it and to attack the masculinity of any male who has questions.

The rising Democratic star is injecting some wisdom and empathy into Texas politics. Jesse Watters, Stephen Miller, and the like can’t seem to handle it. (snip)

James Talarico is injecting some wisdom and intellect and empathy into Texas politics and becoming extremely popular doing it, while Jesse Watters is on the television talking at length about whether it’s gay for a man to drink from a straw. I know who I’d rather spend my time with. I know who I’d rather be.

These are not real men, and they know it.

Oh, tell us what you really feel, Dave:

These men fall short of their own definitions of masculinity, and it is killing them. And the conflict is happening in a part of their brains and souls that they are too terrified to examine, so all they can do is lash out at the men who don’t care to follow. All they can do is reflexively insult a James Talarico, and the only insult that they can come up with is that he’s not actually a man.

Dave can’t define why so many people — women as well as males — find Talarico’s brand of maleness unconvincing. Hence his attempt is to fall back on the gay panic claim that criticism of Talarico comes from secret gay feelings. Part of this, too, is that Dave is making the call from inside the rainbow-striped tent. The former MTV VJ has his own family issues when it comes to a closeted-gay, artsy boy in a sporty family.

Talarico’s masculinity problem is tied up, too, in his claim to being a Christian pastor. Far be it from anyone to pass judgement on someone’s professed beliefs, but the behavior in the name of those beliefs is fair game. Besides Talarico’s own mindnumbing comments on what God and Jesus are really about, the Austin church he’s a member of, and the seminary he graduated from, are part of The Presbyterian Church USA and … boy howdy … are they little more than Woke-on-Steroids pseudo-ideology wrapped in vestments.

A progressive Christian denomination is facing sharp internal backlash over a proposed rule that would require ordained clergy to be in monogamous sexual relationships.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is set to vote on the monogamy requirement at its General Assembly this summer in Milwaukee. The measure has sparked fierce debate and outrage from three official progressive church committees and polyamorous church groups, according to Religion News Service.

PC(USA)has dabbled in politics for decades and, in the early 2000’s, decided to oppose Israel in all things. Their embrace of the so-called LGBTQA+ community started in the 1970s and has followed the same radical trajectory as the secular movement, including ordination of gay clergy in 2011 and redefinition of marriage in 2014. PC(USA) worships now on the altar of DEI and can’t believe that anyone would hold ordained clergy to monogamy. PC(USA)’s LGBTQA+ ministry is having a collective fit about the proposed monogamy rule:

In its official response, the Advocacy Committee for Women and Gender Justice claimed that requiring pastors to be monogamous attempts to “regulate the private lives and relational structures of individuals in ways that risk harm rather than healing.” The committee further argued that a monogamy mandate could “unintentionally reinforce systems of shame, silence, and spiritual coercion.”

The Advocacy Committee on LGBTQIA+ Equity also argued that the monogamy rule reinforced White privilege. The group claimed the mandate imposes “a narrow, culturally specific understanding of family” that “privileges a dominant cultural framework over the lived realities of communities of color and global Christians.”

Talerico was raised and educated in this environment. Steeped in its hostility towards any real Christian tradition, beliefs, or values so that even monogamy for clergy is beyond the pale of what is acceptable to “church”. How can any man be masculine in an environment that preaches against the most basic of values of the Judeo-Christian Bible — a man committed to a woman and being responsible to his own wife and children? Genesis 2:24

Talarico is male. But we don’t see any “man” in him.

featured image original graphic by Darleen Click