Alain Stephens is an investigative reporter covering gun violence, arms trafficking, and federal law enforcement.
asserted
Stephens → cover → violence
“Why do you wanna have a pep rally when people are hurting?”
asserted
people → have → rally
That was the question Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III posed at a September food drive in South Dallas, where volunteers were collecting groceries for struggling families.
asserted
volunteers → pose → families
Across town, Republicans were holding a midterm convention.
asserted
Republicans → hold → convention
Haynes, a longtime Baptist pastor and Democratic congressional nominee, was introducing James Talarico, the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas.
asserted
Haynes → introduce → Texas
A month later, speaking at a Dallas megachurch, Talarico offered his own interpretation of Christian duty.
asserted
Talarico → speak → duty
“I try to love my neighbor through public policy,” the Presbyterian seminarian told the congregation.
asserted
seminarian → try → congregation
“I’m trying to make my neighbor’s life easier, better, less stressful.”
asserted
life → try → ?
Both men are making a deceptively simple argument in some of the staunchly staunch red-as-hell, Republican territory in America, one that might transcend the conventional wisdom about national campaigns and the millions poured into competing campaign war chests: When far-right policy translates into actual pain, at what point does intervening become a spiritual obligation?
Amid the big-ticket ad buys, fundraising appeals, and armies of political consultants, Talarico and Haynes are tapping into a political tradition that has long sustained communities across the South: showing up.
uncertain
that → make → South
At Haynes’s Friendship-West Baptist Church, the ministry extends to legal services, immigration advocacy, counseling, economic justice, and food policy.
asserted
ministry → extend → services
It is an example of how churches often form the connective tissue of communities suffering under economic and political strain.
asserted
churches → form → strain
Texas is home to four of the nation’s 10 most financially distressed major cities, including Houston, which ranks second nationwide, according to a 2026 analysis.
uncertain
which → include → analysis
Feeding America estimates that nearly 1 in 5 Texans experienced food insecurity in 2024.
asserted
Texans → estimate → 2024
Meanwhile, federal analysts project that changes to Medicaid eligibility enacted last year will increase the number of uninsured Americans by 7.5 million by 2034.
asserted
changes → project → 2034
While Democratic Party leaders publicly debate how to punish Donald Trump politically, allege corruption, or navigate the ideological divide between moderates and democratic socialists, a different argument is emerging from Southern pulpits.
asserted
argument → debate → pulpits
From Quaker abolitionists to the Social Gospel’s challenge to industrial exploitation, progressive religious institutions have helped drive some of America’s most consequential political transformations.
asserted
institutions → help → transformations
Christian farmworker ministries supported migrant laborers before joining the United Farm Workers’ California grape boycotts in the 1960s.
asserted
ministries → support → 1960s
And while Black churches overwhelmingly led, sustained, and suffered the brunt of violence in the fight for equal civil rights in this country, a handful of white denominations joined them.
asserted
handful → lead → them
Of course, churches also defended slavery, segregation, and exploitation.
asserted
churches → defend → slavery
The blunt reality is that throughout American history, Christianity has always been political and has been used to justify a wide variety of competing political ends.
asserted
Christianity → use → ends
But Republicans have deftly exploited the perception that they alone speak for American Christians.
asserted
they → exploit → Christians
The Trump administration has readily embraced religious iconography, from evangelical leaders praying over the president in the Oval Office to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s frequent invocations of the medieval Crusades.
asserted
leaders → embrace → Crusades
There is no way around the fact that Republicans have built a formidable religious coalition, particularly among white evangelicals.
asserted
Republicans → be → evangelicals
Last year, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI, found a majority of Republicans qualified as either Christian nationalist adherents or sympathizers in 2025, compared with 17 percent of Democrats.
asserted
majority → find → Democrats
But Republicans don’t have a monopoly on Christian voters.
asserted
Republicans → have → voters
Pew Research Center polling this month found 73 percent of white evangelical Protestant registered voters preferred Republican House candidates, while 74 percent of Black Protestants and 59 percent of Hispanic Catholics preferred Democrats.
asserted
percent → find → Democrats
Nor is this some newly discovered religious awakening.
asserted
this → discover → ?
According to PRRI’s Census of American Religion, which was published in April, 57 percent of Democrats identified as Christian in 2025, a significant drop from 70 percent in 2013.
uncertain
percent → accord → 2013
The white Christian left isn’t necessarily growing, but it’s far from insignificant.
asserted
it → grow → ?
Much of it has simply been politically overlooked.
asserted
Much → overlook → it
It’s a perception the GOP has routinely capitalized on, often spending a great deal of their election campaigns attacking opponents on religious ground.
asserted
GOP → ’ → ground
On Sunday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott cravenly tarred his Democratic gubernatorial challenger, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, as supporting “Sharia law,” citing an endorsement from a Muslim advocacy group’s political affiliate.
asserted
Abbott → tar → affiliate
“My faith is my moral compass,” Hinojosa told the National Catholic Register in September.
asserted
Hinojosa → tell → September
“It grounds me in purpose and gives me the courage to do what is right regardless of obstacles or consequences.”
asserted
what → ground → obstacles
For those who have spent years watching their faith become synonymous with a politics they don’t recognize, frustration may finally be giving way to something else: a determination to be heard.
uncertain
frustration → spend → something
There are signs that this long-overlooked religious tradition is finding a more public voice.
asserted
tradition → be → voice
An August study by PRRI documented progressive Christians organizing against Christian nationalism in eight states, including Texas and Louisiana, channeling local meetings, religious discussions, and community networks into political action.
asserted
study → document → action
Elsewhere, hundreds of members of the clergy have joined protests against immigration enforcement, and some have been trained in direct action and civil resistance.
asserted
some → join → action
While the movement may not be growing in numbers, its willingness to challenge political power is increasingly visible.
uncertain
willingness → grow → power
As retired Texas Rev. Kathleene Card, who has thrown her support behind Talarico, told the Houston Chronicle, “faith should influence how people respond to poverty, human rights, the environment, and the well-being of their community.”
asserted
people → retire → community
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
