Hutchinson, the Reno County seat of 40,000, famous for its underground salt mines, is located 39 miles northwest of Wichita.
asserted
Hutchinson → locate → Wichita
I was there on October 8 because the US Senate campaign of Democrat Adam Hamilton had rented the venue for a meet-and-greet with attendees.
asserted
campaign → rent → attendees
I’ve admired Hamilton since meeting him after he delivered the sermon at former President Barack Obama’s second inaugural prayer service inside the Washington National Cathedral in 2013.
asserted
he → admire → 2013
The founding pastor of the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, the country’s largest United Methodist Church, with 24,000 members gathered on five campuses in and around Kansas City, he was both a model of a successful minister and a memorable pulpit orator.
asserted
he → found → minister
Today, he has turned what should have been a completely uncompetitive race for US Senate in Kansas into a contest that the Cook Political Report has characterized as too close to call.
asserted
Report → turn → that
Inside the 1200-seat auditorium, a mostly older crowd of about 400 people slowly found their seats or stood in small clusters chatting.
asserted
crowd → find → clusters
As we waited for Hamilton’s arrival, I spoke with Darrell Pope, who appeared to be in his mid-70s and was the only Black attendee I had seen in the room.
asserted
I → wait → room
He is the chairman of the deacon board of the Macedonian Missionary Baptist Church in Hutchinson, he said, a majority-African-American congregation, but with some white and Hispanic members as well.
asserted
he → say → members
What did he think about Hamilton?
asserted
he → think → Hamilton
I asked.
asserted
I → ask → ?
As a minister myself, I was curious about how this preacher-turned-politician might have been seen by such an active layman.
uncertain
preacher → turn → layman
Pope found him “refreshing,” he said, because Hamilton, as a pastor, “looks at everybody as an equal person rather than just certain people.”
asserted
Hamilton → find → people
Pope and I had just ended our conversation when Hamilton entered the theater, walking down the center aisle and waving almost shyly, as the room erupted into enthusiastic applause, and then a standing ovation.
asserted
room → end → applause
Longtime Kansas Democratic activist Betty Taylor and retired Kroger Company Chairman Dave Dillon, a Republican who grew up in Hutchinson, introduced Hamilton from the podium.
asserted
who → grow → podium
“He is willing to reach across the aisle to solve problems,” Dillon said, to affirmative nods by Taylor.
asserted
Dillon → reach → Taylor
“Two former Republican governors have endorsed Adam, and he has earned our vote.”
asserted
he → endorse → vote
Their bipartisan endorsement highlighted not only Hamilton’s remarkable success in making a Senate race in deep-red Kansas competitive, but also his pastoral work over the last 38 years, with a focus on bringing people together rather than emphasizing, even exaggerating, their differences.
asserted
race → highlight → differences
Hamilton went to the podium to address the crowd.
asserted
Hamilton → go → crowd
He may have become a politician, but his identity as a shepherd of souls is indelible.
uncertain
identity → become → souls
Nonetheless, as white and as Christian as much of Kansas is—according to the Pew Research Center, 70 percent of the population in Kansas identifies as Christian, with over half identifying as Evangelical or mainline Protestant—he was determined to disabuse anyone there of the sense that he was any kind of Christian nationalist, which has so dominated the Trump administration and GOP.
uncertain
which → accord → administration
“I’m not running for the US Senate to make everybody else believe what I believe about God, about who Jesus is, or what it means to be a Christian,” he said.
asserted
he → run → what
“I’m running for the United States Senate because things are broken in our country.
asserted
things → run → country
He deftly navigated between religious camps, alluding to authoritative instruction from the Bible at some points, “What does the Lord require of you?” he asked.
asserted
he → navigate → you
“Not, what does he suggest?
asserted
he → suggest → what
Justice is making sure there’s fairness for powerless people.
asserted
Justice → make → people
I wondered if others there would have recognized this text from the Book of Micah, where the prophet makes clear that God values virtuous behavior toward others over hypocritical religious ritual.
asserted
values → wonder → ritual
He explained how he came to organize his mega church in 1990.
asserted
he → explain → 1990
His bishop assigned him to start a congregation that would welcome “thinking people who didn’t go to church.
asserted
who → assign → church
Critical thinkers who had questions and doubts at a place where it was okay to not check their brains at the door, or the place where it was okay to ask questions and have doubts.
asserted
it → have → doubts
And he assured his audience that his was fundamentally a political campaign and not a religious crusade.
asserted
his → assure → audience
I was there that night for a few reasons—and not because I’m a Kansan.
asserted
I → ’m → reasons
I am a Hamilton supporter and even donated to his campaign.
asserted
I → donate → campaign
I have admired his message and style, and his identity as a Methodist minister resonates with me.
asserted
identity → admire → me
While we hold our clergy affiliations in two distinct bodies—his in the liberal-leaning United Methodist Church and mine in the conservative-leaning Methodist Evangelical Church—we share more than a common branch of the Christian tree.
asserted
we → hold → tree
We are both ordained ministers in our 60s and were Republicans for most of our adult lives.
asserted
We → ordain → lives
He, of course, is now a Democrat, and I am an independent who now votes for the Democratic ticket.
asserted
who → vote → ticket
He spent most of his professional life building up his congregation with astonishing success.
asserted
He → spend → success
I spent much of my professional life as an activist in the religious right—work that I have spent more than a decade doing my best to reverse.
asserted
I → spend → best
Hamilton received his B.A. from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an institution at the center of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Evangelical universe that I inhabited for 45 years.
asserted
I → receive → years
For Evangelical Christians, Oral Roberts University is as close to a Harvard or an Oxford as we can get—often producing celebrities as well as scholars.
asserted
we → get → celebrities
…and 173 more, not listed.
The Aporia
