Are Kansas voters ready to send a pastor to Washington? WWJD? | Walker
Adam Hamilton is running for U.S. Senate in Kansas. You might know this. Hamilton is the founding pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, a large Methodist church with several campuses in the Kansas City area. You might also know this.
What you might not know is Hamilton’s candidacy as a faith leader is one of several this electoral cycle across the country. They are from various ethnic backgrounds. And they’re almost all Democrats.
Faith leaders in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee are stepping into politics. So, what would Jesus do at the ballot box?
Here in Kansas City, we’re not surprised to see a Democratic faith leader in politics. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II is now serving his eleventh term representing Missouri’s 5th Congressional District. Before becoming congressman, he was on the City Council and served as Kansas City mayor for eight years in the 1990s.
Cleaver said during a podcast interview that he originally was told that “I had to make up my mind whether I wanted to be a United Methodist pastor or whether I wanted to be a politician, that I could not do both.”
But Hamilton wants to move straight from the pulpit to Congress. And maybe that’s not a bad idea. Not everyone will think so.
“What about separation of church and state?”
“What about religious freedom?”
“What about the First Amendment?”
Even my own pastor last Sunday preached from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, reminding the congregation that God is more important than government.
The Pew Institute surveyed Kansans in 2023 and found that 70 percent identify as Christian, but 28 percent (and growing) identify as religiously unaffiliated (less than one percent are religious but not Christian). For those non-religious voters out there, this might be a turn-off at the polls.
But these faith leaders believe otherwise.
Adam Hamilton’s candidacy
Hamilton is senior pastor at Church of the Resurrection with nine churches in the Kansas City area, one in Mason, Ohio, and a thriving online church. Growing up in Kansas City, he has spent 36 years as a faith leader. Hamilton studied pastoral ministry at Oral Roberts University before receiving his master of divinity from Southern Methodist University. Beyond the pulpit, his influence already has extended to the White House, where he served in the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2012.
He joins a crowded field of Democrats, with at least eight competing in the Aug.t 4 primary: Christy Davis of Cottonwood Falls; Jason Hart of Wichita; Anne Parelkar of Overland Park; Erik Murray of Kansas City, Kansas; Patrick Schmidt of Topeka; Michael Soetaert of Wellington; Sandy Sidel Neumann of Mission and Noah Taylor of Kechi.
If he wins, he’ll vie against incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall.
I spoke with Hamilton, not so much about his platform or what he’s promising, but about faith and leadership. Are we seeing a trend?
Hamilton said he did not think it surprising to see the number of clergy and those in the faith area deciding to run.
“So, I think what happened was there’s a lot of pastors who said I care about these things. This is what I’ve been preaching my whole life, in part, is that we need to be concerned for the vulnerable. We need to care about the marginalized, and that was being lost in Washington.”
He cited the current administration’s belittling or demeaning allies, and even a “tone of bullying” that has caused some people to step up.
“You know, Jesus said, ‘I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,” Hamilton said. “ ‘I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and in prison, and you visited me. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. And as much as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.’ ”
Connecting with Republicans, non-faithful
Hamilton’s church is reported to have more than 24,000 active members, plus thousands online, at its Kansas City-area campuses: Leawood, Downtown, Olathe, Blue Springs, Overland Park, Brookside, Spring Hill, Liberty and Lee’s Summit. That’s a lot of voters, but no guarantees. Hamilton will have to connect with others, including the non-faithful and Republicans.
In our discussion, Hamilton occasionally leaned on his experience as a pastor and knowledge of scripture, but when you look at his videos and political material, there is little of that. He acknowledges this.
“Actually, there is a place to talk about that. And I feel like anything I say is informed by my faith and my Christianity. But I’m also looking for what are the parts of my faith that most people would embrace. If you think about the golden rule, it is pretty simple. … But almost every world religion has some version of it and even people who are totally non-religious say yes, we should treat people the way we want to be treated.”
Hamilton said he’s been preaching for decades to mixed congregations of Republicans and Democrats, something he hopes he can use in Congress. “When Republicans and Democrats are so polarized that they can’t get along, then we stop solving problems.”
But why run as a Democrat? Hamilton said he originally decided to run as an independent, but voters convinced him not to.
“I visited 18 cities across Kansas, and every place I went, people said the same thing. ‘We don’t think you can get elected as an independent. Please run as a Democrat.’ And it was easy for me to say yes to that.”
Looking at the roster of faith leaders running as Democrats, apparently they have been able to connect with voters. All but one have won their primary or are still in the running.
Pastors and politics
As of now, there are at least seven faith leaders vying for Democratic seats in the U.S. Congress across states, including Kansas, and at least one Republican (Jackson Lahmeyer) in Oklahoma:
Alaska
Matt Schultz: Presbyterian pastor running in Alaska’s at-large congressional district
Iowa
Lindsay James: State representative and Presbyterian pastor running for the U.S. House in the 2nd District. She advanced from the Democratic primary.
Clint Twedt-Ball: Founder of the nonprofit Matthew 25, and a former United Methodist minister also running in the 2nd. He lost the Democratic primary in June.
Sarah Trone Garriott: State senator and Lutheran minister in Iowa’s 3rd District running for U.S. House. She advanced from the Democratic primary.
Kansas
Adam Hamilton: Senior pastor of the Church of the Resurrection running for U.S. Senate in Kansas
Oklahoma
Jackson Lahmeyer: Lead pastor of Sheridan Church in Tulsa running for U.S. House in Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District. He is a Republican.
Tennessee
Chaz Molder: Mayor of Columbia, Tennessee, Sunday school leader running for U.S. House in Tennessee’s 5th district
Texas
James Talarico: State representative, Presbyterian seminarian, running for U.S. Senate from the Westside of San Antonio, Texas. He advanced from the Democratic primary.
Frederick Haynes: pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church, running for U.S. House from the south side of Dallas’ 30th District. He advanced from the Democratic primary.
And while he’s not running in this election cycle, Raphael Warnock, who served as the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta is a sitting U.S. senator for Georgia.
All but one of these candidates all are running as Democrats, but can be different in ideology. On his website, Talarico says, “It’s time to start flipping tables,” a reference to Jesus overturning the moneychangers’ tables in the temple.
Hamilton calls himself an “independent-minded” Democrat. “I want to work across the aisle. (I) want to bring people together, solve problems — that’s just really important. And I hope there’s a lot of other people who get elected who want to do the same.”
What happens if he wins?
So, what if he beats Sen. Marshall? Will he still lead his Church of the Resurrection? Perhaps in some way, Hamilton told me, but emphasized he doesn’t plan to be the “nation’s pastor.”
“If there’s some role that the church wants me to continue to play, I would love to do that,”he said. “You know, I’ve spent 36 years developing this congregation, but my primary focus will be on how to be a great United States senator and how to be a champion for the people of Kansas.”
I did want to return to the question of separation of church and state with Hamilton, who said he believes the principle is meant to protect the church from the state, and to and to make sure that the state doesn’t establish an official church. He added that the first American Congress had six full-time pastors, including the first speaker of the House — Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, a Lutheran pastor.
“Our Founding Fathers didn’t think you couldn’t be a person of faith or even a pastor and also run for office,” Hamilton said. “But if I get elected, I’m going to uphold the Constitution."
Perhaps it’s fitting to return to Cleaver’s podcast interview, where he reminded listeners that no matter what happens with the elections, “God Almighty is still sitting on the throne. No matter what happened on this Earth, God is looking down, and he will save his own. No matter how we think we’re in charge. God is still in charge of this planet and this universe.”
Amen, Congressman Cleaver.
