达拉斯第一浸信会的资深牧师罗伯特·杰弗里斯，该教会拥有1.6万名会众，上个月在共和党的中期大会上走到麦克风前，发表了听起来像是一场宗教冷战宣言的言论：“詹姆斯·塔拉里科的信仰当然是错误的。但这不仅仅是错误。詹姆斯·塔拉里科的信仰是亵渎神灵的。它们是邪恶的，绝不是任何真正的基督徒能够支持的信仰。永远不会。”
Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas, a 16,000-member congregation, stepped to the microphone at the Republican Party’s midterm convention last month and issued what sounded like a declaration of a religious cold war: “The beliefs of James Talarico are certainly wrong. But they’re more than wrong. The beliefs of James Talarico are blasphemous. They are evil, and they are not beliefs that any true Christian could support. Ever.”
塔拉里科正在竞选德克萨斯州参议员，他有机会成为自1988年劳埃德·本特森击败名为博·鲍尔特的共和党众议员以来，首位在该州赢得参议员选举的民主党人。共和党人感到担忧，因此他们的言辞变得越来越狂野。
Talarico is running for Senate in Texas, and he has a chance to be the first Democrat to win a Senate election in the state since Lloyd Bentsen defeated a Republican congressman named Beau Boulter in 1988. Republicans are worried, and as a consequence their rhetoric is getting wilder and wilder.
根据塔拉里科批评者的说法，他是个异端。他是披着羊皮的狼，将引领上帝的子民迷途。特朗普总统称他为“塔拉弗里科”，显然他对共和党构成了巨大威胁，以至于据《华尔街日报》上个月报道，右翼播客提及特朗普的次数越来越少，而攻击塔拉里科的次数越来越多。
According to Talarico’s critics, he’s a heretic. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing who will lead God’s people astray. President Trump calls him “Talafreako,” and he’s apparently so dangerous to Republicans that, as The Wall Street Journal reported last month, right-wing podcasts are mentioning Trump less and less while attacking Talarico more and more.
他年轻、老练，且令人震惊的是，他是一名神学院学生（从奥斯汀长老会神学院休学中）。塔拉里科正在进行全国最强调信仰的竞选活动之一，与其他民主党候选人如堪萨斯州的亚当·汉密尔顿（牧师竞选参议员）和爱荷华州的罗布·桑德（竞选州长）不相上下。
He’s young, he’s polished and he is, heaven forbid, a seminarian (on leave from his studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary). Talarico is running one of the most faith-forward campaigns in the country, along with other Democratic candidates like Adam Hamilton in Kansas (a pastor running for senator) and Rob Sand in Iowa (running for governor).
民主党以前也运用过这套剧本。拉斐尔·沃诺克牧师在佐治亚州赢得了两次参议员选举，2021年在决选中击败凯利·勒弗勒赢得部分任期，随后在2022年击败“让美国再次伟大”派系宠儿赫舍尔·沃克赢得完整任期。全国民主党人正试图缩小自1970年代和罗纳德·里根时代以来一直是共和党不那么秘密的武器——“上帝鸿沟”。
Democrats have run a version of this playbook before. The Rev. Raphael Warnock has prevailed in two Senate elections in Georgia, winning a partial term in a 2021 runoff against Kelly Loeffler and then a full term in 2022, against a MAGA favorite, Herschel Walker. Democrats nationwide are trying to close the “God gap” that has been the Republican Party’s not-so-secret weapon since the 1970s and the advent of Ronald Reagan.
不过，塔拉里科的基督教信仰比许多共和党人的基督教信仰更自由派。它比我的信仰更自由派（这不难）。但对许多原教旨主义者来说，塔拉里科的神学使他成为错误类型的基督徒。对一些人来说，他根本不是基督徒。
Talarico’s Christian faith, though, is more liberal than the Christian faith of many Republicans. It’s more liberal than mine (which isn’t hard). But for many fundamentalists, Talarico’s theology makes him the wrong kind of Christian. And to some, no Christian at all.