James Talarico

And so the fact that we have powerful politicians who are forcing now their teachers to preach a certain kind of religion from the front of the classroom or from the walls of the classroom,

to me is not only unconstitutional, not only un-American, but I think also deeply un-Christian.

And it's why I fought so hard against that bill.

I also just think, is Christianity really at a point where we have to force people to put up a poster to prove our faith's legitimacy?

To me, that's the sign of a dead religion.

And my religion is not dead.

I know it's not dead for you either.

But I think when you have politicians who feel like they've got to force people to put up a poster in their classroom for the sake of that religion, that's a real troubling sign in our faith, in our church.

And it's something I think Christians have to push back against loudly because it is a perversion of our faith and it's a subversion of our democracy.

Well, I've been a fan of Stephen Colbert since I was in high school when the Colbert Report was on.

And so when we got invited to go on The Late Show, it was just like, I can't believe I'm going to meet Stephen Colbert, right?

This is so cool.

And then...

I think it was a few weeks later, they told our team that because of the FCC, because of their investigation into The View, after I went on that program, that their lawyers advised them not to air the interview with me.

And so they said, well, we could still do it on YouTube and we'll put it online.

And it was obviously a disappointment because being on YouTube,

The YouTube Late Show is not the same as being on the TV Late Show.

And so I remember like we did the show and I got to meet Steven and it was great.

But I went to bed a little disappointed that we weren't gonna be on the Late Show and that the most powerful politicians in the country were able to censor one of the major news networks.

And then the next morning I woke up and it was everywhere.