WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress held a preemptive state funeral honoring Senator Mitch McConnell on Friday, as the Senate sergeant-at-arms had him lie in state, “just in case.”

The atmosphere in the nation’s capital was somber this week as speakers from both sides of the aisle spoke about McConnell’s undying commitment to Democracy, a commitment, they say, won’t let him die.

“Might as well get it out of the way now,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, “We all saw him ‘come back to work’ this week, but let’s be honest… he’s just running on fumes here. That’s why I was the first to recommend having him lie in state in the rotunda. At least he’ll get to enjoy it this way.”

McConnell seemed to be at peace with the decision, with witnesses saying he remained perfectly still while staring blankly at the ceiling. “He seemed happy about it,” one witness said. “He was smiling the whole time.”

When asked to comment on how it felt to be the first person to receive a state funeral prior to death, McConnell said, “…………………”

At publishing time, McConnell’s staff had announced that he had changed his mind about retirement and would instead be seeking re-election in November.

Babylon Bee

Trump says U.S. to build a ‘large Military presence’ in Greenland as part of a security deal with it and Denmark

President Donald Trump on Friday announced an agreement with Greenland and Denmark that gives the U.S. what he described as “permanent control over security, and all other needs” in the Danish island territory.

“We will immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland, of which there are many,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Greenland already has a U.S. military presence under a decades-old defense agreement with Denmark.

The deal as described in Trump’s post appears to stop far short of his prior insistence that Greenland must be made a part of the United States.

Greenland has maintained it is not for sale, and the European Union earlier this year united to rebuke Trump over his push to acquire the island.

But Trump signaled Friday that he was satisfied by the new deal, claiming that it addresses “ALL of our many U.S. concerns.”

“There will be NO COST to the United States,” he wrote.

The Danish prime minister’s office in a press release later Friday said that the three governments expect to sign the agreement at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

Greenland Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in an included statement that the deal “strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic area and therefore is great for NATO and Europe as well.”

He added that it “recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination.”

Trump’s post included some vague claims about the agreement, including that it guarantees that the U.S. “will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland.”

The official text of any deal was not immediately available. The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for additional information on the deal.

Kevin Breuninger covers national politics for CNBC.com, with a focus on Donald Trump, legal news and breaking political news. He joined the newsroom as an intern in 2017 while enrolled at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

PLYMOUTH, MA — Reports indicated that a modern “Underground Railroad” had been established to help the lone black juror from the Lindsay Clancy case escape from angry, violent, white Democrats.

Though shrouded in secrecy, the new Underground Railroad would purportedly use checkpoints along the Atlantic coast to help shepherd the black man away from the thousands of white Northern liberals who have threatened him with violence.

“We’ve got to get him to the South,” said an operative, on condition of anonymity. “He’ll be safe if he can just get below that Mason-Dixon line. The Republicans won’t let anyone touch him. It’s not going to be easy, though. There are mobs of bloodthirsty white liberals all over the North, looking for a lynching. And the feminists. Dear Lord, the feminists. He’s secure right now, but we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Volunteers had reportedly prepared to hide the juror in houses, church basements, and Chick-fil-A stockrooms along the escape route. “We’ve got our people looking out for any sign of danger, like a shirt saying ‘Love Is Love’ or ‘Believe All Women,'” explained a pastor working the trail. “It’s a little different direction from the old Railroad, but it’s still black people fleeing angry white Democrats who want to do them harm and force them to do their bidding. Some things never change, I guess.”

At publishing time, the juror had reportedly made it safely across the Pennsylvania border after narrowly escaping a mob carrying “BE KIND” signs.

Babylon Bee

Many Republicans predict that if Democrats regain Congress (and later the White House), everything they do will be about retribution. They won’t do anything constructive to help people such as cut taxes, cut regulations, address Social Security and Medicare bankruptcy, etc.

Correct. However, it’s also true that Republicans missed their final chance to arrest and bring to justice the traitors and willful, open lawbreakers — Fauci, Hillary Clinton, Obama, Biden, Comey, their henchpersons, among many others. Not one has seen justice. Not one. Consequently, we angered the rattlesnake and should the rattlesnake return to power, there will be widespread retribution everywhere.

Unlike Republicans and MAGA, Democrats will not be concerned with rule of law, justice, or actually being guilty. Like all totalitarians, they are only after people who don’t agree with them. They will bring down all opposition with a decisive force and brutality seen throughout history whenever dictatorships come to power — but like nothing yet seen in American history.

So go ahead. Vote for the now fully radicalized Democrats, thinking you’ll get “affordability” guaranteed by politicians.  And enjoy.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Rights were never supposed to be politicized. The Constitution is in operation regardless of the Party in charge. Individual rights are not negotiable. You can debate who should be in charge of the government, but not the scope and limits of government — especially the preservation of rights.

Sadly, that seems to be all over. Democrats dislike the First Amendment, due process, Second Amendment, election integrity, private property, and borders — so they just ignore them. They don’t like voter identification, so they simply let in whomever they feel like to vote. This leaves the rest of us in a difficult position. Either we do like they do — ignore their rights, while upholding our own — or try to keep the Constitution going. Keeping it going is commendable and ultimately practical — assuming the Constitution was still in operation. Assuming elections were still honest. But in places run by Democrats, a sizable part of the country, there is no Constitution. They got away with suspending it during COVID fascism, and they learned their lesson well. Democrats tend to operate on the premise that Trump is not a “real” President, and use it to rationalize they can do their own thing. But not those who disagree with them!

MAGA and Republicans insist the Constitution still matters. It does. But it’s not in operation in Newsom’s California, or Mamdani’s NYC, in Minneapolis, and in none of the “sanctuary” cities and states where the President of the USA is denied authority over federal matters. The Supreme Court (except for two lone Republicans) mostly undermines President Trump, not because he’s unconstitutional, but because they don’t like him. So far as Democrats are concerned, the Constitution is over. That’s our core problem, and it’s why the USA is so dysfunctional despite Trump’s efforts to hold it all together.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Two days ago, the global media rushed to declare that the Iranians had outplayed Donald Trump and his blockade of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC’s proxies in Yemen seized strategic turf in the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, damaging Saudi Arabia’s pipeline and sending oil prices higher. The Telegraph reported that the IRGC was “hitting [Trump] where it hurts,” while insisting that the Red Sea action effectively countered – or at least paralleled – the US Navy’s total blockade of Iranian sea traffic:

Iran’s leaders were never going to passively submit to slow strangulation. Facing Donald Trump’s blockade of their ports and the near-total loss of their oil exports, the regime is now striking back across the Middle East, aiming to inflict enough damage to force America to relent.

In the last seven days, the Houthi rebels in Yemen have broken out of their highland strongholds and advanced down the coastal plain, seizing key positions alongside the Bab el-Mandeb strait, where the Red Sea meets the Indian Ocean. …

Iran is now doing everything possible to wreck this alternative, which is why the Houthis have strengthened their hold on the choke point, where they have positioned Iranian-supplied anti-ship missiles.

Much further into the story, though, the Telegraph conceded that this was still both asymmetrical and likely very temporary:

So this is how Iran is trying to break Trump’s stranglehold. And there is plenty more that the Islamic Republic’s leaders might do. They could, for example, resume firing ballistic missiles at the other Gulf states with the twin goals of forcing the oil price still higher and inducing more US allies to implore Trump to reach a new peace agreement.

That option would, of course, risk heavy American retaliation. But, in their own terms, Iran’s actions are logical and effective.

It does not follow, though, that they will necessarily succeed. Some Gulf states, instead of trying to restrain America, might do the opposite and urge Trump to strike even harder at their common enemy. Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, has already asked Trump to bomb the Houthis. The United Arab Emirates is officially co-operating with the US campaign to asphyxiate Iran’s economy, known as Operation Economic Outcast.

This is not a “stranglehold,” at least not by the Iranians or the Houthis. Significant amounts of oil are being shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. Scott Bessent claims that the US Navy now has about 65% capacity restored through its safe-passage corridor through the Strait; other sources estimate it somewhat lower, but everyone now acknowledges that the US has restored a significant level of commerce.

The Saudi-UAE pipeline backstopped that until this week, bringing total exports to nearly pre-war levels. That interruption has spiked oil prices, but it’s temporary, and the Saudis now have more reason to go fully into offensive operations to put an end to the partial Houthi occupation of Yemen.

The only ‘stranglehold’ that exists is the one on the IRGC. Even the Telegraph pointed this out, noting that oil shipments from every other Gulf state are increasing through the Strait of Hormuz, but not a single drop has come from Iran:

One certainty is that none of the tankers now passing through the Strait of Hormuz is carrying Iranian oil. By ruthlessly blockading the country’s ports, America is suffocating the regime’s financial lifeline.

The IRGC has countered this by attempting to bolster its trade routes by highway and rail, and across the Caspian Sea with neighboring trade partners. The regime has insisted that Iranians could sustain themselves through these distribution channels, both for exports and imports. Attempts to move oil by rail got stymied by US attacks on rail lines during the July clashes, but the highways were mainly open, and the IRGC propaganda organs painted them as a negation of the American blockade.

How’s that going? The Wall Street Journal reports today that even the open roads have turned into a disaster. Even without any other considerations, the capacity on those channels falls far short of what Iran is losing in the Hormuz blockade. However, the IRGC regime’s corruption and incompetence have made the situation at the crossings much worse, and similar problems in Pakistan aren’t helping either:

Hundreds of Iranian truck drivers are currently stuck at Iran’s border with Pakistan, unable to send their goods into Tehran’s neighbor. They say they are facing worsening bureaucratic hurdles and costs, many caused by their own government. The same thing is happening at Iran’s land borders with Turkey, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, dealing Tehran a self-inflicted blow and throttling trade through its few remaining economic release valves.

Tons of stranded apricots have been spoiled because of the delays. Lucrative cargoes of iron ore, cement and bottled gas are stuck at entry points to the Pakistani and Afghan borders, truckers say.

“Neither Iran is taking responsibility for the situation, nor is Pakistan allowing us to unload our cargo,” one driver says in a video posted by the Union of Truckers and Drivers Organizations Across Iran over the weekend. 

Some of these problems predate the war, the WSJ notes. The customs stations had been understaffed before, but now that traffic has nearly tripled during the blockade, processing on both sides of these borders has all but collapsed. That’s true even with Turkey, where one might expect a little more competence; at the moment, 3,700 trucks are sitting on the side of the road, unable to cross over and deliver their cargoes. 

The backlog is lower on the Pakistan border – 700 trucks are sidelined – but the conditions are much worse:

Iranian truckers trying to get into Pakistan say they can be stuck for several days without access to water, food or sanitation as temperatures rise to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, according to footage, published by the Truckers’ Union on its social-media account. The union said some bottled-gas tankers are crossing into Pakistan. But the Pakistani authorities asked Iranian drivers for the equivalent of more than $10,000 each to cross, an unprecedented amount, it said. A spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said he wasn’t aware of any new charges or restrictions at Pakistan’s border with Iran.

Meanwhile, at the border with Turkmenistan, the gateway to China, transporters complain of constraints tied to a lack of warehouses and of a proper registration process to bring goods by rail to China. One businessman complained it was increasingly difficult to bring in automotive spare parts from the Asian powerhouse.

At some point, Iran will run out of truckers, and may run out of refined diesel and gasoline even before that happens. Iranians are reportedly sleeping in their cars at gas stations in order to avoid losing their place in line for heavily-rationed fuel. Having thousands of trucks sitting idle for days and weeks on end not only reduces capacity to get goods to consumers, it also strands the drivers. It adds more costs per unit delivered in the end, both in real costs and opportunity costs. The added costs, both official and graft, are also adding to Iran’s hyperinflation crisis, the issue that touched off the revolt in January. Iran’s officially acknowledged inflation rate in August was a staggering 128% on food, thanks to the added costs and delays of using overland routes. 

That is not sustainable for an authoritarian regime, theological or otherwise. The US and its allies have options for getting goods to market; the IRGC is rapidly running out of options. If Trump keeps the blockade in place rather than attempt to cut a deal for an “October surprise” to boost Republicans’ election efforts in the midterms, he has a real chance to break the regime and force real change in Iran. 

So much for convoys, eh? Maybe Ahmad Vahidi was too much a fan of C.W. McCall. Pig Pen, this here’s Trumpy Duck, and he’s about to put the hammer down … we hope. 10-4?

Ed Morrisey, Hotair

September 11 is not a day for vague emotional uplift. It is not a seminar on American foreign policy. It is not an occasion to distort a massacre into “differences with the United States.” It is the anniversary of a morning when Islamist terrorists murdered nearly three thousand people on American soil.

Calls to unite Americans and “do a good deed” to honor those murdered by these terrorists are fine if they come with a clear account of who attacked this country, why they did it, and a hard commitment that it must never happen again.

The al Qaeda terrorists did not hijack those planes because of political differences with the U.S. They did it because they despised the civilization those towers represented: democracy, mixed societies, individual liberty, women in public life, Jews and Christians, and secular people living without clerical veto. Al Qaeda’s leaders said so. Their documents said so. Their sermons said so. Pretending otherwise is not nuance. It is amnesia.

There is a persistent effort to minimize that record or invent “another side” to the story. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) reduced the attacks to “some people did something.” Hasan Piker, who campaigned with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, said in 2019 that “America deserved 9/11.” A New Jersey curriculum produced with CAIR-NJ and “Teaching While Muslim” has told students that the attacks were a response to U.S. support for Israel, the Persian Gulf War, and the American military presence in the Middle East.

Even worse, according to a September 5 New York Post article, two-thirds of American Middle East studies professors say college kids cannot identify who attacked the U.S. on 9/11 or why. The Post article attributes this to a lack of mandatory teaching standards about the terrorist attack, which has allowed woke ideology blaming the attacks on U.S. policy or “Islamophobia” to be taught instead. Some of these lesson plans reportedly have been funded by far-left billionaire George Soros.

This is not teaching history. It is a radical woke attempt to rewrite history and explain away murder.

Some school systems are fighting back. For example, the Texas Board of Education recently sparked controversy when it approved changes to the state’s high school social studies curriculum that say radical Islam motivated the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

This excuse-making matters because it is not unique to 9/11. The same instinct—to explain away Islamist violence as a response to policy differences rather than an expression of extremist ideology—shows up every time such terrorist attacks occur. London in 2005. Madrid in 2004. Paris in 2015. Brussels in 2016. Bali in 2002 and 2005. Mumbai in 2006 and 2008. The 2017 siege of Marawi in the Philippines. These attacks can’t be linked to differences with the U.S. or the American military presence in the Middle East. They were assaults on democracy, freedom, and modern society.

The October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre against Israel also belongs on that list. Hamas murdered about 1,200 people—including babies, children, and the elderly—burned homes, took hostages, and filmed their murderous work. Hamas did not raid Israeli communities over a zoning dispute. It attacked because its ideology cannot tolerate a free, neighboring society that it cannot defeat except by terror. Some details differ from 9/11. The civilizational contempt does not.

Remember this when radical leftists like Hasan Piker try to recycle their blame-the-victim arguments to explain the 9/11 massacre.

The morning of September 11, 2001, belongs first to the victims and family members of this massacre. It belongs to the heroic firefighters and police officers who ran toward the fire and climbed stairs while others fled. It belongs to the brave passengers on Flight 93 who understood they were already dead and chose to fight anyway. It belongs to office workers who carried strangers down darkened stairwells. These were acts of duty and patriotism under conditions designed to produce panic. Their sacrifice deserves a sober memory, not an effort to minimize this atrocity.

The killers were Muslim fanatics who rejected the modern world. That is not an indictment of every Muslim. The vast majority reject that fanaticism and have often been its victims.

We are seeing a version of this Islamist fanaticism now in Iran, where the IRGC and the ruling mullahs are executing protesters and people who talk to the Western media. A regime that hangs its own people for demanding a normal life is not resisting some vague threat from the U.S. or Israel. It is at war with modernity itself. When such a state talks about resistance, look at what it is resisting: dissent, pluralism, and the idea that sovereignty belongs to citizens rather than the regime’s armed thugs.

Good deeds are not enough. Name who did this. State why. And say, without embarrassment: never again.

Heroes. Sacrifice. A radical Islamist enemy that named itself. Reject euphemism and denial on this solemn day. Teach our children that kindness will not protect our freedom or our lives from those who want to destroy us. We must recognize the foreign threats to our nation, be willing to defend it, and be ready to fight.

* * *

Fred Fleitz previously served as chief of staff of the Trump National Security Council. He is a co-chair with the America First Policy Institute and is also the author of North Korea, Nuclear Brinkmanship, and the Oval Office, which was just released by Texas A&M Press. 

It’s easy to see why Abdul El-Sayed wants to separate himself from left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. 

In an interview with Axios, Piker said that he believes the Middle East would be more stable if Iran had a nuclear weapon. 

.@AlexThomp: “Do you think the Middle East would be more stable if Iran had a nuclear weapon?”

Hasan Piker: “I believe yes.”

(the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism) pic.twitter.com/S8uaLJEBMC— Sarah Gallagher (@sgallz_) September 17, 2026

Piker said that America conducts more terror than Al-Qaeda. 

“You once said that America is the top dog in terrorism,” Axios’ Alex Thompson said. “Do you think America then is worse than al-Qaeda?”

“Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes, we’ve caused tremendous terror all around the world,” Piker said. “I think that that is not only terror that we are waging on regular civilians in nations in the periphery, but it’s also having consequences on ourselves. It’s having dramatic consequences on the home front.” 

“One clear example of this is what we did in MENA (Middle East and North Africa),” he added. “There’s no distinction between blowing up a school, triple tapping it with Tomahawk missiles. If you’re killing 140 schoolgirls, that is an act of terror. This doesn’t mean that all Americans are terrorists, but the reality of the matter is we have to create an environment of accountability to ensure things like that never happen again.”

👀 NEW: @hasanthehun joins @alexthomp on the Season 3 premiere of The Axios Show in what Piker called “the most contentious interview” he’s done.

Piker claims that “pound for pound,” America conducts more terror around the world than al-Qaeda. pic.twitter.com/c8xFVvbixl— Axios (@axios) September 17, 2026

👀 NEW: @hasanthehun joins @alexthomp on the Season 3 premiere of The Axios Show in what Piker called “the most contentious interview” he’s done.

Piker claims that “pound for pound,” America conducts more terror around the world than al-Qaeda. pic.twitter.com/c8xFVvbixl— Axios (@axios) September 17, 2026

Hasan Piker, who’s stumped for several far-left Democrats ahead of the midterms, says America is worse than al-Qaeda.

“We have caused tremendous terror all around the world.”pic.twitter.com/3Bn9BpPhGt— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 17, 2026

FETTERMAN: “[Hasan Piker] is an individual that just declared that we are worse than Al Qaeda and Democrats are campaigning with him, defending him!” pic.twitter.com/wahiLJrscS— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 18, 2026

Hassan piker was interviewed on the “Axios show” and had some interesting things to say.

Hassan piker is a famous streamer far left lunatic that wants socialism and Muslims to literally rule the world. He’s said it himself.

In the interview he states that America, where he… https://t.co/HANZYOdn2W pic.twitter.com/jwKpDTpok0— Faithful Patriot (@Omerta1926) September 17, 2026

👀 Hasan Piker admits he’d never go to Israel and post pro-Israel content the way he did in China.

Axios’ Alex Thompson presses him on why Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs gets a pass while Israel doesn’t. pic.twitter.com/xfx9AkV1BE— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 17, 2026

Piker previously said that America deserved 9/11.

Scott McClallen, Townhall

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter

The longtime pastor of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico was recently caught on camera promoting an “inclusive” translation of the Bible that strips the text of gendered language for God, including Jesus’ titles as Lord and Son of God.

The Rev. Jim Rigby, who has pastored St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) near Austin, Texas, for more than 35 years, discussed The Inclusive Bible with an undercover journalist posing as a prospective new church member, according to video recorded in August and first reported Thursday by The Daily Caller.

Noting the church typically provides new members with a copy of The Inclusive Bible when they join, Rigby claimed, “It’s good on the gender stuff.”

“The more, like, metaphysical stuff, it’s not a very good translation, if that makes sense. I think it’s really important to have a good translation, so you can let go of the stupid stuff,” he added.

The video also depicts a new member named Larry being given a copy of the inclusive translation to applause during a service at St. Andrew’s.

“And Martha’s here to give Larry his Inclusive Bible,” a woman says in the video. “It’s the Bible that we use at this church. It’s been rewritten so that there is only inclusive language and that it doesn’t use the gender-fueled language that the King James Version uses.”

First published in 2007, The Inclusive Bible touts itself as “the first egalitarian translation” and offers “a re-imagining of the scriptures and our relationship to them,” according to a description.

“Not merely replacing male pronouns, the translators have rethought what kind of language has built barriers between the text and its readers. Seeking to be faithful to the original languages, they have sought new and non-sexist ways to express the same ancient truths,” the description reads.

The video also depicts a new member named Larry being given a copy of the inclusive translation to applause during a service at St. Andrew’s.

“And Martha’s here to give Larry his Inclusive Bible,” a woman says in the video. “It’s the Bible that we use at this church. It’s been rewritten so that there is only inclusive language and that it doesn’t use the gender-fueled language that the King James Version uses.”

First published in 2007, The Inclusive Bible touts itself as “the first egalitarian translation” and offers “a re-imagining of the scriptures and our relationship to them,” according to a description.

“Not merely replacing male pronouns, the translators have rethought what kind of language has built barriers between the text and its readers. Seeking to be faithful to the original languages, they have sought new and non-sexist ways to express the same ancient truths,” the description reads.

The translation was published by Priests for Equality, which is an extension of the Maryland-based Quixote Center. Co-founded in 1975 by Bill Callahan, a Jesuit priest who was removed from the order for promoting women’s ordination, the Quixote Center also served as the basis for the pro-LGBT New Ways Ministry, which helps Roman Catholics find “LGBTQ-friendly parishes.”

According to an explanatory introduction, the translators of The Inclusive Bible said they “had to consider whether modern renderings of sacred scriptures present modern sexist biases, in addition to biases of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean cultures.”

Claiming that “scriptural language specifically referring to God presents a major problem,” they go on to denounce “the Lord” as a “sexist and classist form” of God’s personal name. They replace it instead with “YHWH,” “Most High,” “Most High God,” “Almighty” or “Sovereign One.”

God the Father’s title as “Father” is replaced with “Abba” or “Loving God.” Christ’s titles as “Son of God” and “Son of Man” are especially “difficult,” according to the translators, who replaced such terms with “Only Begotten,” “God’s Own,” and “Eternally Begotten.” The terms “Chosen One” or “Promised One” are also used.

Acknowledging that Jesus’ title as “Lord” is “hard to replace because it is confessional,” the translators said: “To avoid sexist and classist connotations, we use substitutes for Lord that are meaningful in our own confessing of Jesus, such as Sovereign, Savior, and Jesus Reigns.”

In another undercover video released Thursday, Rigby boasted of speaking at an event with the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist nonprofit that wages legal campaigns often aimed at removing Christian expression from the public square.

“Because to me, it’s like, if you love humanity and you love nature, and that’s why you hate religion, then we’re on the same team,” Rigby said, echoing a similar sentiment from Talarico, who said on a podcast in 2021 that he thinks of himself “as a Christian who hates Christianity.” The video also appears to show the Rev. Babs Miller, who serves as “minister to the parish” at St. Andrew’s, claiming she doesn’t “have a need for a God” and that Rigby’s church is “not a worshipping church.”

Talarico, who raised eyebrows for claiming God is non-binary, has touted Rigby as one of his most influential mentors, whose church he has attended since childhood. The pastor baptized him, officiated his parents’ marriage and delivered the invocation before his 2019 swearing-in ceremony at the Texas House of Representatives. In a recently resurfaced clip from 2023, Talarico praised Rigby’s church by noting it taught him “the idea that Christianity is just another word for causing trouble.”

Known for promoting the liberal theology that Talarico has often echoed throughout his political career, Rigby has repeatedly clashed throughout his ministry with the dwindling conservative wing of the mainline Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), especially over issues of sexuality and gender.

Rigby openly defied the PCUSA’s former prohibition on homosexual marriage and ordination since the 1990s, though he failed to trigger the formal ecclesiastical trial he said he wanted.

In 1995, when the PCUSA’s Book of Order still limited ordination to those living in fidelity in heterosexual marriage or chastity in singleness, he took to refusing to wear his clerical robe or share the Lord’s Supper at presbytery meetings in protest that the sacrament was not open to those who unrepentantly practice homosexuality.

Rigby has also compared aborted babies to “extracted teeth,” and appeared to deny the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection in a lengthy, sarcastic Facebook post on Christmas Day in 2015. In another Facebook post he made during the Christmas season in 2022, he called Jesus “the magical baby” and used the Nativity story to condemn gendered descriptions of God, claiming instead that “the transcendent does not need to have a gender.”