It is a battle about power. Power can be defined as the ability to control, if not dominate. Power can also be defined as the ability to build solidarity and cohesion. The battle to control and dominate is becoming more intense as the country approaches an election cycle. There is an almost frantic attempt – by Republicans and Democrats – to dominate the airwaves, to amass enormous “war chests” from which funds can be deployed to demean and discredit opponents, and to hold campaign rallies that are increasingly designed to emasculate and eviscerate perceived enemies, often with phrases and imagery that barely disguise violence. Candidates continue to employ these displays of power because they think they work. They figure that people want to be on the dominant side – and also want to be in a position of taking a perverse pleasure in seeing the vanquished – both the candidates and their supporters — writhe in defeat.
For an increasing number of people this limited notion of power, particularly as it is on display as we approach midterm elections is, in fact, not working. It is too ugly. It is too mean spirited and punitive, if not hateful. In contrast, there are some candidates for higher office who are being regarded as the prophetic voices of the other kind of power – of openness and compassion. Of kindness and charity.
There are three candidates who stand out for me, partly because of their generosity of spirit and partly because they come from the so-called mainline Christian world, which has been my home for as long as I can remember. They are James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and Senate candidate in Texas; Adam Hamilton, pastor of Church of the Resurrection in the Kansas City area, the largest Methodist Church in the country, and a Senate candidate in Kansas; and Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran pastor and a candidate for the third Congressional District in Iowa. All of them are Democrats, which – full disclosure – has been my political home since I began voting 54 years ago. Yet each transcend politics because, in different ways, they speak eloquently, passionately, and faithfully about this different kind of power, which derives from their deep faith, and which seeks to bring people together instead of creating a theological hierarchy of who is in and who is out. I hosted a podcast with Adam Hamilton two years ago during which he eloquently outlined the roots of his faith and his commitment to promote the power of kindness and generosity. Those values are very much a part of his campaign for the Senate. You can listen to the podcast (or read the transcript) here: https://www.markbeckwith.net/2024/09/15/ep-17-adam-hamilton/.
Adam Hamilton has claimed that the Bible is influenced by God but not dictated by God. James Talarico has claimed that God is “masculine and feminine and everything in between”. Sarah Trone Garriott has promoted interfaith dialogue, as a commitment to inclusivity and understanding. I am in agreement with each of their theological positions, but as the religious battle ramps up, Hamilton is identified by some as a PINO – “Pastor in Name only”; Talarico has been accused by some other Christians as “blasphemous and evil”; and Trone Garriott is often identified as the “wicked witch of woke.”
These comments are being made by fellow Christians. To some degree these insults emerge from a very different theological and biblical perspective, but I would submit that the put downs of these three candidates are more about the fact that the Reverends Hamilton and Trone Garriott and Seminarian Talarico present a challenge to their fellow Christian’s power, their insistence on retaining that power, and their conviction that Christianity is the only true faith and must be followed through a prescribed evangelical lens.
An egregious mistake, if not an arrogant put-down that many make, is to identify evangelical Christianity as a monolithic theological and voting bloc. It is not true, and it is not fair. There is considerable diversity – and disagreement, within the evangelical church movement. The desire to dominate is not shared across the evangelical Christian spectrum. That said, having earthly power is an intoxicant that is that is hard to let go of, much less recognize. And there are far too many who wield that power with a nastiness and hostility that is deeply troubling.
In my podcast with Adam Hamilton he describes moments when is he is asked if he is liberal or conservative. “And my answer is always, “yes, of course… I think to be conservative means that you recognize there’s certain things that are just always true, and you want to conserve those. You want to be able to make a case for those. You want to treasure those things. And yet, if you’re only conservative without being liberal, you’re stuck and often blind. To be liberal means to be gracious, to be generous of spirit, to be open to reform and seeing things in new ways, which is what we’re doing. And we need to be that. But if we’re only that without conserving anything, then we’re sort of unmoored and just drifting.”
The candidacies of Adam Hamilton, James Talrico, and Sarah Trone Garriott are presenting a different dimension of power. It is bringing people together. It is not alternative. To my mind it is profoundly biblical. It is ancient. It is deep.
It is needed.
