The Power of Sending Others to Hell

Commentary

by

Christy Thomas

Special to United Methodist Insight | June 23, 2026

According to the Lt. Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian who is running for Senate, is “going to hell” because of his views on the Bible.

The actual quote: “I’ve never seen so much blasphemy from anyone running for office. Let me tell you what, I’m going to pray for that guy, because when he loses the Senate race, if he campaigns against God as he’s been doing, he’s going to Hell for sure.”

I

am taking this one at face value: Patrick sincerely means it.

Now, Patrick has been, and I assume still is, a member of the Second Baptist Church of Houston, TX.

I checked out their website and picked up this part of their belief statement:

Salvation is God’s free gift to us. We receive this gift through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone. Repentance means turning away from our sin and turning toward Christ. Faith means trusting in Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, His perfect obedience is credited to us so that God sees us as the righteousness of Christ. Every person who truly is saved is eternally secure in the Lord Jesus Christ and will spend eternity in heaven, while those who die in their sins will spend eternity in Hell separated from God.

[The proof text explanations:] Romans 6:23 | Titus 3:5 | John 14:6; 1:12 | Galatians 3:26 | Ephesians 2:8-9 | Romans 5:1

I then found the official Baptist statement on hell. I admit that reading it shocked me—I hope you’ll take the time and dig into this extensive statement.

According to these fine people who have dedicated their lives to being faithful Baptists, God is not only fully present in heaven but is also fully present in hell, pouring out never-ending wrath and torment on those who don’t make the cut.

Quite the frightening perspective and one would think not a place any reasonable person would wish upon anyone else.

So exactly why has Mr. Patrick pronounced with such absolute certainty that Mr. Talirico is going to hell? Because Mr. Talarico declares that Jesus never spoke against abortion (true), that God is non-Binary (of course God is non-binary: the appearance, no matter how rare, of Intersexed babies makes that abundantly clear. Otherwise, it is necessary to call such humans, also made in the image of God, “mistakes”) and that the command to love one’s neighbor, whom Jesus defined as one’s absolute enemy in the “Parable of the Good Samaritan” is the primary message of the Bible (true).

Yet in Mr. Patrick’s theological world, Mr. Talarico is going to hell, while we must assume that the Republican and totally ethically and morally challenged Ken Paxton, Mr. Talarico’s opponent in the Senate race, is going to heaven. I trust that is true because Paxton is also a Baptist, a [apparently former] member of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX.

This being the case, somewhere along the line, Mr. Paxton said the words, “Jesus, I accept you as my Lord and Savior.”

And there is my problem, and here I admit I line up with Talarico. The only people Jesus condemns in the Gospels are those who treat others in exactly the way they themselves don’t want to be treated.

Matthew 23 is worth reading in full here but here’s a sample from The Message version:

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You buff the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.

Here’s how Jesus describes the righteous. Again, a quote from The Message version from Matthew 25, starting in verse 31.

The Sheep and the Goats

“When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:

I was hungry and you fed me,

I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,

I was homeless and you gave me a room,

I was shivering and you gave me clothes,

I was sick and you stopped to visit,

I was in prison and you came to me.’

“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’

“Then he will turn to the ‘goats,’ the ones on his left, and say, ‘Get out, worthless goats! You’re good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because—

I was hungry and you gave me no meal,

I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,

I was homeless and you gave me no bed,

I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,

Sick and in prison, and you never visited.’

“Then those ‘goats’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?’

“He will answer them, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.’

“Then those ‘goats’ will be herded to their eternal doom, but the ‘sheep’ to their eternal reward.”

In Mr. Patrick’s world, these words from the sacred Scriptures appear not to matter. It only matter’s that his particular interpretation of the way of salvation is followed—everyone else goes to hell.

That’s a lot of power. I wonder if it is possible he has it backward. But I will stay this: no matter how much I may disagree with Mr. Patrick, I personally do not wish for him to suffer eternal conscious torment, the official Baptist doctrine of hell. But that’s the difference between us loosey—goosey “liberal” Christians and the abolute, unbending rightness of the “conservative” Christians.

I will go ahead and admit it: I spent my years as one of those living in absolute certainty that anyone who did not believe the way I did would indeed be sent to hell.

What changed my mind? I actually read the Bible. What an eye-opener!

Author and columnist, the Rev. Dr. Christy Thomas is a retired clergy member of the Horizon Texas (formerly North Texas) Conference of The United Methodist Church, This post is republished from her Substack blog, "Christy Thomas: Quiet Resistance for a Noisy Age."