James Talarico

The separation of church and state, I was taught that that constitutional boundary was sacred.

not for the benefit of the state, although there's benefits to our democracy, but for the benefit of the church.

Because when religion gets too cozy with power, we lose our prophetic voice, our ability to see beyond the current systems, the current era.

One of my favorite verses in the New Testament is in the Sermon on the Mount.

I encourage everyone to go back and read it, especially as Christianity is more and more in our political conversation.

Go back and read Christianity 101, which is the Sermon on the Mount.

And it's interesting because Jesus takes his followers not into a church, not into a business, not into a governmental building.

He brings people to a hillside.

And he says, look at the birds of the air.

Look at the lilies of the field.

This is how we're supposed to live.

This is who we truly are.

That is revolutionary.

It is radical in the true meaning of that word, going to the root of all of our lives and our problems and our dreams.

And to me, that is the spirit of our tradition of breaking these chains, of breaking out of these systems.

The word church in Greek means to be called out of, called out of our culture, called out of our economy, called out of our political system.

That is what religion, I think, at its best does.

It's what I was given that kind of religion.

just because I happen to be growing up across the street from this incredible church.

I believe Christianity points to the truth.