James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, responded on Wednesday to a pastor who had suggested he should be “crucified with Christ” as part of a conversion, saying in a statement, “I love you more than you could ever hate me.”
The pastor, Brooks Potteiger of the Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship in Goodlettsville, Tenn., whose parishioners have included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, made the comment during a podcast episode released last week, evoking a biblical figure who had one of the most famous conversions to Christianity.
Responding to the remark, Mr. Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, emphasized compassion, a core theme of his campaign, and suggested that Mr. Potteiger was praying he would die. Mr. Potteiger and a representative for Mr. Hegseth said the pastor’s words were being twisted. Mr. Potteiger said he had not called for Mr. Talarico’s death, but rather called for him to have a religious conversion.
The back and forth underscored how disputes over Christianity, charged by partisanship, have moved to the center of one of the year’s marquee elections.
“Jesus loves,” Mr. Talarico, a progressive state lawmaker who has put his faith at the center of his political campaign, said in the statement. “Christian Nationalism kills. You may pray for my death, Pastor, but I still love you.”
During an episode of the podcast, “Reformation Red Pill,” Mr. Potteiger said he hoped Mr. Talarico would have a conversion like that of Saul of Tarsus, a biblical figure who persecuted Christians before undergoing a conversion after he heard the voice of Jesus while traveling to Damascus. He became a missionary and leader of the early church known as St. Paul the Apostle.
The phrase “crucified with Christ” alludes to a verse in the New Testament book of Galatians, which is attributed to Paul, describing how to live after being converted to faith in Jesus: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
Many evangelicals talk about needing to be “crucified with Christ” as meaning turning from one’s past behavior after conversion, as if it has been killed. But other, more common ways of describing someone’s need for conversion are phrases like needing “to be saved” or “come to Christ.”
In the context of discussing Mr. Talarico as a grave danger to American Christianity, the conversation took a more violent tone.
The host, Joshua Haymes, said of Mr. Talarico: “I pray that God kills him. Ultimately that means killing his heart and raising him up to new life in Christ.”
Mr. Potteiger responded: “Right — we want him crucified with Christ. I want him to be — I think, Saul of Tarsus — Talarico of Tarsus. That’s what I want.”
(Mr. Talarico, the grandson of a Baptist preacher, is a lifelong mainline Protestant who has said he plans to eventually become a minister.)
Mr. Haymes added, “And if it would not be within God’s will to do so, stop him by any means necessary.”
Mr. Potteiger argued on Wednesday that Mr. Talarico had misrepresented his comments.
“I did not call for his death,” Mr. Potteiger said in an interview with The New York Times. “I called for his conversion.”
Mr. Potteiger said that Mr. Talarico’s support for expanded abortion access was “absolutely counter-Christ” and an “abomination,” but that he would not wish for anyone’s death. He said he had been receiving death threats himself.
Mr. Haymes said in an interview that he and Mr. Potteiger had not been calling for violence and that they had been speaking to a Christian audience.
He called Mr. Talarico a “liar,” accusing him of seeking to “weaponize the ignorance of the masses” to target him and Mr. Potteiger.
“I want him to repent and to follow Christ,” Mr. Haymes said.
The Pentagon press secretary, Kingsley Wilson, issued a statement arguing that the news media was “twisting the words of Pastor Potteiger in order to attack him and Secretary Hegseth while advancing a partisan narrative.”
Mr. Talarico’s campaign in Texas, where Democrats are hoping to win after decades of failures, has brought considerable attention to his own house of worship, St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Austin.
Jim Rigby, the pastor at St. Andrews, recently wrote on Facebook that the attention had largely been positive, but that the church had also received an “influx of negative communication” and hired security as a precaution.
Mr. Talarico has said his support for abortion rights is consistent with his faith, pointing to a biblical story in which an angel visits Mary, the mother of Jesus, before her pregnancy.
“The angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do, and she says: If it is God’s will, let it be done,” Mr. Talarico told the podcast host Joe Roganlast year. He added, “To me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent.”
The campaigns of Senator John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who are competing in a runoff election for the Republican Senate nomination in Texas, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Elizabeth Dias is The Times’s national religion correspondent, covering faith, politics and values.
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