Kansas City clergyman considers run against U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall. What’s he thinking?
The Rev. Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection, is considering an independent run for the U.S. Senate. (Kansas Reflector screen capture)
The naysayers emerged quickly, as those of little faith usually do.
One of Kansas City’s best-known preachers, the Rev. Adam Hamilton, is mulling a U.S. Senate run.
After a Lenten season of prayer and study, Hamilton will decide if he’ll challenge incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican who is often lockstep with whatever the Trump administration is preaching.
Hamilton, senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection, would run as an independent.
Online commenters jumped in with political skepticism, with most pointing out the obvious.
Independents face hurdles in an entrenched two-party system. They don’t draw the financial and organizational leverage of the Democratic or Republican Party machines. They risk slicing votes away from more viable candidates.
The points are valid, but only to a point. They also miss the point.
Hamilton is asking the right questions: Must Congress be so polarized? Must the nation’s rhetoric be so toxic?
Congress could do more to compromise and find avenues to help, not harm people by legislation and policy. It’s a choice that neither party consistently offers.
Hamilton is well-suited to reshape political discourse with the critical thinking he encourages from his congregation.
Hamilton is a bit of a pastoral unicorn, an entrepreneur of Christian faith. He’s cultivated and nourished the Leawood-based Church of the Resurrection into a megachurch.
He managed to grow an enormous flock at time when polls proclaim that Americans are less faithful, less likely to join an organized religion. Church of the Resurrection has 24,000 active members and many more who tune in online for the engaging sermons. There are nine local locations, dotting a good portion of the greater Kansas City area.
COR, as it’s known, is like a franchise system. Each location encourages involvement with the community, through a range of options to connect with and serve others.
For the most part, Hamilton has managed to accomplish all of this without inducing a cringe factor for the scale of COR. He’s refreshingly void of the hubris that has imploded other religious leaders who grew mammoth congregations.
The question for this Lenten season is if Hamilton’s skills translate into politics.
Hamilton will make the decision after Easter, and in consultation with his wife of 43 years. And after he takes a road trip across Kansas, driving and speaking with Kansans.
He wants to know: What troubles Kansans? What excites them? What about government has broken their hopes and dreams?
Hamilton’s choice to run as an independent is based on framing himself as a bridge-builder. It’s also a factor that will have many a professional lobbyist, consultant and pundit discounting him, likely with a condescending “Well, bless your heart.”
Hamilton would likely be cast as the anti-Trump candidate just by the fact that President Trump has already endorsed Marshall.
Marshall, a medical doctor, was first elected to Congress as a representative in 2016, then initially won his Senate seat in 2020.
Yes, Hamilton carries a bit of naivete. He recently learned about opposition research and the political tricksters who try to dupe candidates into a regrettable comments or reactions, caught on video.
Yet the entrepreneurial model that Hamilton established for COR is powerful. It could translate into effective political messaging.
He focused on drawing together people who were nonreligious, or only nominally so.
In political terms, he went after the disaffected, those yearning for something different from the normal offerings.
COR began in a chapel within a funeral home in 1990. It’s now the largest church in the Kansas City area and the largest United Methodist church in the United States.
Clearly, Hamilton knows how to inspire others, build coalitions from differing mindsets and focus their energy on similar goals.
In a sane political world, those skills of leadership would be among the most valued and impactful for Congress, for state legislatures, indeed for elected officials at any level. For those who believe that being a pastor signifies a softie, someone who has never been tested by business, or the harsh realities of life, consult any clerical leader for their view.
Hamilton’s led on the global stage. He was among centrists who mediated a schism in the United Methodist faith on the issue of LGBTQ+ inclusion. African ministers wanted to separate from the denomination, and some did.
Like any minister, he’s tested, having counseled families through deaths, grief, joy, life.
The major headlines of any week are often addressed in his sermon. Somehow, it’s deftly done, as if Hamilton is highly aware that the COR congregation has Republicans, Democrats and probably many who identify as politically agnostic, or independent.
Author’s note: I’m not a member of COR, but I serve with Hamilton on the board of American Public Square, which focuses on fact-based, civil conversations around important civic topics.
Mary Sanchez is a national syndicated columnist with Tribune Content Agency and a familiar face and voice in Kansas City media. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.