James Talarico

And so that's what it feels like for me.

Again, when I'm most faithful, it's a struggle on a daily basis to feel that trust and not to fight the water.

You know, I was really lucky that I grew up in an incredible church community.

I didn't grow up with my granddad as my pastor.

I grew up in a Presbyterian church, actually, in Round Rock, Texas, St.

Andrews.

Shout out to our church.

And our pastor, Dr. Jim Rigby, he married my parents.

He baptized me when I was two years old.

And he's a unique, I think, religious leader and thinker and got in trouble a lot.

When I was in elementary school, he was ordaining gay and lesbian clergy.

He was blessing same-sex unions, which now doesn't seem controversial, but certainly back in the 90s.

Well, in some traditions, it certainly is.

That's true.

But I think it's hard to remember just how controversial universally it was, how radical and dangerous it was.

And we almost lost our church because of those actions by our minister and our congregation.

And the National Presbyterian Church put him on trial.

And so these early memories were kind of seared into my brain.

And so I was brought up in a very countercultural faith that didn't sound like everything I heard at school or at work, in the media.

So I feel like I was given a really healthy tradition and one that has worked for me, partly because Dr. Jim, my pastor, always said that