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(RNS) — In a recent campaign ad for Ken Paxton, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, his Democratic opponent James Talarico appears to sit at a desk while he scribbles on a Bible page.

“I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity,” says the ad’s Talarico before adding that God was a “radical feminist” who “never asked people to worship him,” a reference to Talarico’s liberal Christian views, which have drawn criticism from political opponents.

The scene seems realistic and pulls quotes from Talarico’s speeches and his sermons at his Presbyterian church. Yet, it is not an actual clip of Talarico.…