AND THE THIRD ANGEL FOLLOWED THEM, SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE, IF ANY MAN WORSHIP THE BEAST AND HIS IMAGE, AND RECEIVE HIS MARK IN HIS FOREHEAD, OR IN HIS HAND.
*** REVELATION 14:9
1. NATO is drafting plans to answer a Russian attack on alliance territory with conventional strikes deep inside Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported.
2. Targets would span bases, supply depots, infrastructure and defense plants, 93 miles to thousands of miles behind the front.
3. Twelve allies pledged $50 billion to long-range strike systems at July’s Ankara summit, but most European missiles remain years away.
NATO is developing defense plans that would respond to a Russian attack on alliance territory by striking military bases, supply networks and industrial plants deep inside Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported November 3.
The approach marks a shift from decades of planning built around halting an advance at the border. Alliance strategists now hold that stopping a Russian offensive means reaching the forces, factories and logistics that sustain it, a lesson drawn from nearly five years of fighting in Ukraine.
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed arrives to speak to supporters on Nov. 1, 2026 in Southfield, Michigan. El-Sayed, is running against GOP candidate Mike Rogers for the open U.S. Senate seat. (Salwan Georges/Getty Images)
"El-Sayed battles claims of family links to Muslim Brotherhood” was the first-page top headline of the print edition of The Washington Times on Oct. 19, 2026.
The article has some good facts, but one portion could be interpreted as being misleading: it is not accurate to report about the Muslim Brotherhood simply that, "The U.S. has not designated it as a terrorist organization, although Hamas emerged from the movement's Palestinian branch and is designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization."
An accurate report would have acknowledged that on Nov. 24, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order, "Designation of Certain Muslim Brotherhood Chapters as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists."
Section 1 of that executive order reads: "The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has developed into a transnational network with chapters across the Middle East and beyond.
"Relevant here, its chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt engage in or facilitate and support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests.
The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood was added to the U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions list on March 9, 2026.
The Muslim Brotherhood's motto since the 1920s, as explained in my 2014 article, is this: "Allah is our objective; the Koran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and dying in the way of Allah is the highest of our aspirations."
A month ago, The Federalist announced the formation of a new "Alliance for Islamic Remigration," the core values of which are the antithesis of the Muslim Brotherhood motto.
In his Sept. 30, 2026, article, Joshua Monnington reported that, "Several conservative groups are launching a coalition to safeguard America’s ‘constitutional order’ from the rising tide of Islam and its left-wing political allies."
The Archdiocese of New York and plaintiffs representing nearly 1,300 survivors of sex abuse from priests and lay personnel have finalized a deal. Under terms of the deal, the archdiocese for the first time must maintain a public data base of clergy who have been credibly accused of sex abuse.
Archbishop Ronald Hicks was only installed as the head of the New York Archdiocese in February, but had to complete the final negotiations in the $804.25 million deal to settle claims of clergy sexual abuse. ( Photo: Archdiocese of New York)
After more than a decade of litigation, the Archdiocese of New York and lawyers representing nearly 1,300 survivors of clergy sex abuse have finalized an $804.25 million settlement.
“Under the completed settlement, survivors have the option to receive an expedited settlement payment or proceed through an individualized allocation process that evaluates and scores their claims based on the abuse and harm they endured,” said the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, which represented plaintiffs in the class action that included 1,298 victims.
The law firm said that under terms of the deal, for the first time the Archdiocese will be required to publish the identities of every credibly accused offender, and that the data base must be updated and monitored in the future.
“Disclosure of the priest offender files that have been kept secret and under seal” [are] to be disclosed publicly in a database at the conclusion of the litigation,” said the law firm in a statement on its web site.
Archbishop Ronald Hicks sent an email announcing the settlement to parishioners on Nov. 5. “Under the terms of the settlement, the Archdiocese and other participating entities will provide a total pool of $804.25 million for victim survivors, with a first payment of approximately $619.25 million, and a second payment, due next year, for the balance.”
The deal means the Archdiocese avoids bankruptcy. The global settlement meant that all parties had to agree to the settlement before it became effective.
“The Archdiocese has been raising the money needed to fund the settlement,” Hicks said. “This money will come from various sources. The sale of the former archdiocesan chancery and the move into smaller, more affordable office space and the sale of the ground lease under the Palace Hotel raised a significant percentage of that figure, as has staff cutbacks and downsizing,” said Hicks.
The 20-story diocesan headquarters on First Ave. was sold to a residential developer early last year for $103 million. The land beneath the Lotte New York Palace Hotel was sold in October to the hotel owner for $490 million.
At least 10 candidates with Seventh-day Adventist connections won or were reported elected to congressional, state, and local offices across the United States on November 3, 2026, including five graduates of Oakwood University, the church’s historically Black university in Huntsville, Alabama.
The candidates include Democrats and Republicans elected to Congress, state legislatures, city government, and the judiciary. Some are Adventist church members or leaders, while others attended Adventist schools.
Among the winners was U.S. Representative Raul Ruiz, a Seventh-day Adventist and Democrat from California, who won reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives in District 25. Ruiz, a physician who has served in Congress since 2013, secured another two-year term representing communities in Southern California.
In Oklahoma, Herschel L. Brown, an emergency medicine physician and leader at Voice of Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church in Oklahoma City, won the state House District 99 race. Brown, a Democrat, received approximately 86% of the vote.
Two Democrats identified as Seventh-day Adventists also secured seats in Florida. Daphne Campbell, a registered nurse who previously served in both chambers of the Florida Legislature, won the House District 108 election with approximately 81% of the vote.
Felicia Robinson, an educator and former Miami Gardens city official, secured another term representing House District 104 after running unopposed. Robinson, first elected to the Florida House in 2020, is also listed as Seventh-day Adventist in legislative biographies.
In Hawaii, Republican Diamond Garcia, who attended the Adventist-operated Hawaiian Mission Academy and previously served as an Adventist missionary, was reported reelected to the state House in District 42 following a close race.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill
Religious accommodations are a right, not a favor
by Laura Slavis, opinion contributor - 11/03/26 7:30 AM ET
Mariam Zuhaib, Associated Press
The Supreme Court is pictured, Oct. 5, 2026, in Washington.
Every morning, like so many other Americans, I kiss my son and husband goodbye and leave for work. But unlike many Americans, that ordinary routine depends on accommodations.
My ability to practice law was contingent on the bar exam being presented to me in a format a blind applicant could use. Without accommodations, I would not have my job as an appellate lawyer. I would not have clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court and might not even be raising a family.
The accommodations that have allowed me to fully pursue my education and to participate in civic life have made all the difference.
The Supreme Court is now facing a similar issue in a case that will be argued this morning, St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy. The case, brought by my law firm, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, is about whether Colorado may legally exclude Catholic preschools from a tuition assistance program worth around $6,300 per year for children in pre-K.
Despite undergoing an operation on Oct 13 to remove a cancerous tumour, doctors have given him the all-clear to travel. PHOTO: AFP
Published Nov 06, 2026, 11:25 AM Updated Nov 06, 2026, 11:25 AM
VATICAN CITY – Pope Leo XIV heads to South America on Nov 6 for an emotionally charged reunion with the continent that helped shape his priesthood, three weeks after undergoing lung cancer surgery.
The 71-year-old head of the Catholic Church will in 12 days visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru in one of the most intense papal foreign trips in decades, meeting political leaders, prisoners, the poor, as well as old friends.
Leo said on Nov 4 that he was looking forward to returning to those countries “so dear to me”.
The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics said he hoped the trip would “strengthen faith, renew hope, (and) rekindle the fire of charity” in the countries, which share challenges from rising inequality and violence, to demographic falls and the decline of Catholicism.
Despite undergoing an operation on Oct 13 to remove a cancerous tumour, doctors have given him the all-clear to travel, and the Vatican said no special medical measures were necessary beyond the standard care on papal trips.
Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III speaks to the crowd during the We the People TX interfaith service, “A Night of Moral Resistance,” in Dallas, on Sept. 9, 2026. Photo: AP Photo/Gabriela Passos
Alain Stephens is an investigative reporter covering gun violence, arms trafficking, and federal law enforcement.
“Why do you wanna have a pep rally when people are hurting?”
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. Across town, Republicans were holding a midterm convention. Haynes, a longtime Baptist pastor and Democratic congressional nominee, was introducing James Talarico, the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas.
A month later, speaking at a Dallas megachurch, Talarico offered his own interpretation of Christian duty.
“I try to love my neighbor through public policy,” the Presbyterian seminarian told the congregation. “I’m trying to make my neighbor’s life easier, better, less stressful.”
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.
At Haynes’s Friendship-West Baptist Church, the ministry extends to legal services, immigration advocacy, counseling, economic justice, and food policy. It is an example of how churches often form the connective tissue of communities suffering under economic and political strain.
Nithya Raman thanks voters after winning race to become LA’s next mayor
Nithya Raman will become Los Angeles’ 44th mayor after beating incumbent Karen Bass in a hard-fought battle to lead America’s second-largest city.
The 45-year-old City Council member, who’s expected to take office next month, secured victory in the November 3 election by tapping into voters’ frustrations over Bass’ tenure.
Chris discusses the results of the 2026 Midterm Election cycle, where the Trump administration was rebuked by voters and Republicans were ousted from power. We discuss the results and what the Bible warns us about placing trust in men rather than God. Also discussed is Reformation Day -- which was originally October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door and set in motion events that changed the world. For the first time in history, President Trump and the White House acknowledged Reformation Day by an official declaration. We further discuss warnings from British commentators (Douglas Murray, David Starkey) about the conditions in the United Kingdom and how these elements are beginning to show themselves here in the United States. Is America headed for another dark age? Is it time for another Reformation?
LIVE: French students, workers and pensioners protest in Paris
Reuters
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are expected to march through French cities and public workers to strike on November 5, in a fresh test for President Emmanuel Macron, after weeks of unrest that have rattled his government and dominated the agenda five months ahead of a presidential election
MILAN (AP) — Bomb threats targeted more than a dozen flights in Europe on Thursday, leading to a slew of emergency landings and military escorts in some cases, authorities said. No hazardous or suspicious materials have been found in what a British official called “malicious” hoaxes.
While fake bomb threats are not uncommon, it is unusual to see so many in a single day, causing widespread disruptions. They come at a time of increased geopolitical tensions and warnings from authorities that Russia may be ramping up so-called hybrid threats in Europe. The continent has experienced a slew of other disruptions recently, such as attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions and mysterious triggers to alert apps.
It was not known whether this week’s threats were linked — and who was behind them remained murky.
An email containing the threat to Rome-bound planes was sent on behalf of a group that describes itself as anti-feminist, according to a copy provided by an airport official and reviewed by the AP. An official from another European airport said the threat they received also came from a group calling itself anti-feminist, and used some of the same language. It was not clear if they were the same groups. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to share the information.
Live coverage of speeches, rallies, and events across America with raw, unfiltered, authentic reporting. MAGNO NEWS is committed to transparency and consistency, delivering full videos without commentary or alterations, focusing on honesty and clarity in news presentation
Interfaith dialogue has been a priority for the Church since the Second Vatican Council. In 1964, Paul VI created what was then known as the Secretariat for Non-Christians, now the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
And that history includes KAICIID. The platform was born after a 2007 meeting between Benedict XVI and Saudi King Abdullah. Its structure brings together governments and religious leaders from different traditions.
Rome Reports is an international news agency covering the Pope, the Vatican, Rome and the Catholic Church, as well as major social, cultural and religious debates
A pedestrian walks past a mural depicting Pope Leo, before his trip to Argentina from November 8 to 11, in Claypole, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 4, 2026. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
By Lucinda Elliott
MONTEVIDEO, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Pope Leo begins his first trip to Latin America as pontiff on Friday, embarking on an 11-day journey across a region that remains the world's largest Catholic stronghold but where Catholic identity is steadily shrinking even as belief in God remains strong.
Coming weeks after the 71-year-old pontiff's lung cancer surgery, the ambitious itinerary from November 6-17 remains unchanged, the Vatican said. It is one of the most demanding overseas tours by a Catholic leader in decades. The trip takes him some 31,000 km (19,260 miles) from secular Uruguay to Argentina, homeland of his predecessor Pope Francis, before heading to Peru, where he spent years as a missionary and bishop, eventually becoming a citizen.
Leo will spend two days in Uruguay, three in Argentina and nearly a week in Peru, where he will celebrate outdoor Masses expected to draw millions, address political leaders, join youth vigils and reach remote Andean communities by helicopter.
Latin America remains the world’s largest Catholic region in absolute numbers. Yet the continent the Chicago-born pope is returning to is markedly less Catholic than the one he first encountered as a missionary decades ago. The Church has been losing ground to fast-growing evangelical denominations, more progressive social attitudes and individualized forms of worship.
A Pew survey in 2024 of six of the most populous Latin American countries found that in all those nations fewer people were identifying as Catholic compared to a decade ago. Around one-fifth of adults in each country said they were raised Catholic but had left the Church, the poll found.
Bob Dylan has thrown the internet into chaos with his hooded attire as he met the Pope at the Vatican with memes galore and social media users questioning if he was now a Jedi or a Sith Lord
American singer Bob Dylan met the Pope during a private audience
(Image: Getty Images)
Music legend Bob Dylan meeting with The Pope has caused a major stir on the internet. The American singer-songwriter rocked up to meet Pope Leo at the Vatican not quite dressed up the occasion, deciding on a black hoodie for today's (November 4) meeting .
Dylan was meeting the pontiff during his current tour in Italy, ahead of the 85-year-old's performance at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome. However, the meeting has now become historic for a more bizarre reason after the icon did not appear to remove his hood during the encounter with Pope Leo.
This led to a number of photographs that have now taken the internet by storm with joking Dylan has become a "jedi" or a "Sith Lord", while others said he may have gone "emo".
The series of photos has caused a meltdown on the internet
(Image: Getty Images)
Users on social media have been quick to jump on the photos with many popular memes being used, including the Star Wars themed darkside Sith Kermit from Frog, as the images continue to go viral.
One user said: "Why is Bob Dylan dressed like a Jedi". Another added: "Bob Dylan dressed up like Darth Sidious (Star Wars villain) to meet the Pope."
A third commented: "Is Bob Dylan emo?"
A fourth wrote: "Bob Dylan really had to bring the hoodie out for Pope Leo."
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Bob Dylan came knockin' on Pope Leo XIV' s door Wednesday, as the American singer-songwriter and poet visited with the American pope at the Vatican during a break between concert dates in Italy.
The Vatican said the encounter was brief, with Leo giving Dylan a rosary and Dylan presenting the pope with a copy of his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One."
Leo had quoted from an unpublished protest song Dylan penned in 1963, "Go Away You Bomb," in his 2026 book "Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift."
Leo was warning against the race to rearm and the recourse to nuclear weapons and quoted the lyric, addressed to a hypothetical atomic bomb: "I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an' man-handled."
Two Vatican officials accompanied Dylan: the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican culture ministry official who also accompanied Patti Smith to a July audience with Leo; and Andrea Monda, the editor of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
Spadaro said Dylan had wanted to speak with Leo, and the two met in private for a few minutes. In an essay in L'Osservatore Romano, he recalled that the former Robert Prevost, who was born in Chicago in 1955, grew up familiar with Dylan's music.
He also noted that Dylan was very familiar with St. Augustine of Hippo, the inspiration of Leo's spirituality and Augustinian religious order, penning "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" for the 1967 album John Wesley Harding.
Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, wore a black hoodie and a loose tie. Vatican photos of the encounter showed him with the hood over his head.
It wasn't Dylan's first papal encounter: He played for Pope John Paul II, and thousands of other people, in 1997 during a concert capping a religious congress in Bologna, Italy.
Dylan, who changed his name from Robert Zimmerman, was born to a Jewish family in Minnesota. He famously became a born-again Christian in 1979 and alienated some of his longtime fans with songs like "Gotta Serve Somebody" and "Saved."
In more recent years, Dylan has been more circumspect about his religious beliefs. In a 2022 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Dylan said that he was a "religious person" who reads the scriptures, meditates and prays.
Dylan met with Leo in between concert dates in Italy. He played in Milan on Monday and is playing Rome on Thursday. In his most recent concert before the meeting with the pope, Dylan sang his 1997 song "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" that contains the lyric, "I've been all around the world, boys/Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door."
AP reporter Scott Bauer contributed from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
For the last several weeks, governments around the world are suddenly telling their citizens to prepare. Meanwhile, reported cyberattacks, false emergency alerts, and infrastructure disruptions are raising questions about how prepared our institutions actually are. (Spoiler: results not good)
Following last week’s look at the Pentagon’s FORTRESS America initiative, I'm examining reports of supermarket refrigeration attacks across Europe, which followed freezer hacks at U.S. military commissaries, an incident involving French blood-service cold storage, a French banking "hack," and a strange Washington, D.C., power outage.
But don't worry, we're also taking a look at the European Commission’s 72-hour preparedness guidelines released this week, as well as EU Integrated Resolve 2026, and ending with Cyber Polygon’s earlier exercises involving a "cyber pandemic".
But again, the larger question remains: does a disaster even need to happen for everything to change? Does hell have to be unleashed in order for citizens to create their own through anxiety and worry? The nervousness alone can move money, shape policy, and influence what people are willing to accept...
Independent reporting, analysis, and commentary by reallygraceful. Developing reports and unresolved claims are identified as such.
Experience This Day With God: Perfect—As He Is, November 5
AI
Clash Of Minds
Nov 4, 2026
Perfect—As He Is, November 5
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
As becomes beings to whom the Lord God has given the faculties of reason and of action, we should use our powers in accordance with the divine purpose. God desires to be honored and glorified in the work of His hands. Every human being will have to give an account to God for the way in which he has used his entrusted talents. We are under obligation to use our powers aright that we may be qualified for eternal life in the kingdom of God. God demands perfection from every human being. We are to be perfect in this life of humanity, even as God is perfect in His divine character.
God made every provision in man’s behalf, creating him only a little lower than the angels. Adam disobeyed, and entailed sin upon his posterity. But God gave His only begotten Son for the redemption of the race. Christ took on Him the nature of man, and passed over the ground where Adam fell, to be tested and tried as all human beings are tested and tried. Satan came to Him as an angel of light to induce him, if possible, to commit sin, and thus place the human race entirely under the dominion of evil. But Christ was victorious. Satan was defeated, and the race was placed on vantage ground with God.
When the Father gave His Son to live and die for man, He placed all the treasures of heaven at our disposal. There is no excuse for sin. God has given us all the advantages He possibly could give, that we may have strength to withstand the temptations of the enemy. Had man, when tested and tried, followed the example of Christ, he would have given his children and his children’s children an example of steadfast purity and righteousness, and the race would not have deteriorated, but improved....
Many act in this our day as though this were a matter of small importance. But had the human family, even after the fall of Adam, worked according to the example of Christ, every father and every mother would leave their children an example of how to conduct themselves so as to fulfill their obligations to God, then the world would have been as Eden. The earth, now a desert of sin, would have rejoiced and blossomed as the rose.
—Letter 143, November 5, 1900, to Elder McClure, a minister in California
Bonfire Night is, in my opinion, a criminally underrated occasion. I personally love standing in a muddy field in the freezing cold with my friends; all wrapped up in scarves, gloves and hats with a cup of hot chocolate keeping me from freezing over entirely. But when I’m gazing up at a gorgeous firework display on 5th November, it’s hard to think that this annual event actually came from a Catholic conspiracy to overthrow a Protestant monarch back in 1605. Many of you might have heard the rhyme: ‘Remember, remember the 5th November; Gunpowder, treason and plot…’ (nobody really says the rest). Many of you might have also heard a different name for the holiday: Guy Fawkes Night, after the man deemed to be the face of the conspiracy. So who is Guy Fawkes, and how did gunpowder, treason and plot lead to rockets, wheels and sparklers being shot into the air every year?
To very briefly summarise centuries of British history, there had been a lingering tension between Protestantism and Catholicism (two different branches of Christianity) both nationally and globally. The Reformation swept Britain by storm throughout the 16th Century, with Protestant leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin criticising the Catholic Church’s immense wealth and corruption of the clergy (like with the selling of indulgences to ‘speed up’ a person’s journey through purgatory after death). Eventually, Henry VIII’s break with Rome in 1534 established the king as the supreme head of the Church of England. Over time, said Church moved away from Catholic tradition and practices (apart from a slight blip during Catholic Queen Mary I’s reign in 1553-58) and England became Protestant.
This leads us to the reign of James I of England (also James VI of Scotland). Britain was now a massive Protestant power, and although many Catholics were hoping for a bit of change and acceptance politically (possibly due to James being the son of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots – confusingly different from the Catholic Mary I), unfortunately this never occurred. Anti-Catholicism was deeply embedded in most members of the House of Commons, although Catholics didn’t help themselves either, with small plots against James I such as the Bye Plot and the Main Plot (1603) limiting the amount of sympathy for Catholics in the UK.
But some Catholics just couldn’t help themselves, and the Gunpowder Plot was born. Although Guy Fawkes is the most famous (or potentially the only) name usually associated with the plot, he wasn’t actually the leader or instigator of it. That role goes to Robert Catesby (from Warwickshire – where I went to college!!), who proposed the plan in May 1604 to blow up James I, the House of Lords and the House of Commons during the State Opening of Parliament. He recruited the other 4 main conspirators: Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Thomas Percy and Guy Fawkes, and the plan started to form.
Communist, Islamist, and Globalist Coalition on Full Display After Midterms: Newman on Newsmax
Liberty Sentinel by Alex Newman
Nov 4, 2026
Last night's blistering defeat for the GOP revealed key issues within the party, but it also illustrated what journalist Alex Newman has been warning about for years: the red-green-blue axis of Communists, Islamists, and globalists.
From Texas to Kansas, Democratic candidates drew on their religious values, securing wins and signaling a shift in the relationship between faith and politics.
Democratic Senate candidate Texas state Rep. James Talarico speaks at an election night event in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026.
(RNS) — Asked Tuesday night (Nov 3) about the state Rep. James Talarcio’s victory in Texas U.S. Senate race, the Rev. Jim Rigby, who has long pastored the Presbyterian church Talarico grew up in, said he was still grappling with the moment.
“It’s just too surreal,” Rigby said, who was watching the returns from home. “It’s going to take a while to completely take that in.”
But Rigby, a staunch liberal who has long advocated for immigrants and LGBTQ people, also reflected on what he sees as the broader dynamic of Election Night, which saw Democrats such as Talarico — himself a Presbyterian seminarian — win sweeping victories across the country.
“There’s an awakening taking place,” he said. “It’s not even so much one religion as opposed to another religion, but an idea that everybody counts.”
The victories marked a striking moment for the religious left, which has long struggled to match the influence and visibility of conservative Christians. Across the country, candidates and faith leaders embraced a message that put values such as compassion and inclusion at the center of their campaigns.
“Two thousand years ago, when the people at the top hurt his neighbors, that barefoot rabbi didn’t stay in his room and pray,” Talarico said in his victory speech, as he stood in front of a placard that read “Love thy Neighbor.”
Jesus “walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice,” he said.
In addition to Talarico in Texas, who made his religious beliefs a centerpiece of his campaign, Democrats saw a faith leader trigger an upset in the Kansas U.S. Senate race: There, the Rev. Adam Hamilton, who pastors a United Methodist megachurch, sailed to a resounding win in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932.
