最近的一个周日，堪萨斯州牧师亚当·汉密尔顿——这位正在进行一场出人意料地极具竞争力的民主党联邦参议员竞选活动的人——原定要走访堪萨斯城周边的四座教堂。当他在橡树岭浸信会教堂的一排长椅上坐定时，他显得很焦虑。“我想留下来参加整个崇拜仪式，”他说。
One recent Sunday, Adam Hamilton, the Kansas pastor who has been running an unexpectedly competitive Democratic bid for U.S. senator, was scheduled to visit four churches around Kansas City. As he settled into a pew at Oak Ridge Baptist Church, he was fretting. “I want to stay for the entire worship service,” he said.
汉密尔顿在堪萨斯城南部郊区长大，没有接受过多少宗教教育。青少年时期，一位街头传教士说服他去一座五旬节教堂，从此他开始定期参加聚会。十四岁时，他请求将生命献给耶稣。高中毕业后，他娶了在教堂认识的一个女孩，随后进入奥尔·罗伯茨大学学习，这是一所著名的五旬节派大学。但汉密尔顿渴望为他的信仰寻找一个更广阔的智识传统。他最终发现了十八世纪神学家约翰·卫斯理，他是卫理公会的创始人，提倡将社会行动主义与个人虔诚相结合。
Hamilton grew up in the southern suburbs of Kansas City, without much religious instruction. When he was a teen-ager, a street preacher convinced him to visit a Pentecostal church, and he started attending regularly. At fourteen, he asked to give his life to Jesus. After high school, he married a girl he had met at church, and then began his studies at Oral Roberts University, a well-known Pentecostal college. But Hamilton craved a broader intellectual tradition for his faith. He eventually discovered the eighteenth-century theologian John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who promoted a combination of social activism and personal piety.
在竞选途中，汉密尔顿喜欢大谈他教会的政治多元性：根据教会内部数据，约四成是共和党人，四成是民主党人，其余大多为独立人士。他大力宣扬自己的独立性故事，指出自己只是最近才将选民登记改为民主党。这有点误导性。奥巴马第二次就职后，汉密尔顿曾在祈祷仪式上讲道；他还曾在总统信仰和社区伙伴关系咨询委员会任职。
On the campaign trail, Hamilton loves to talk up the political diversity of his church: according to ’s internal numbers, it’s about forty per cent Republicans and forty per cent Democrats, with most of the rest being Independents. He has leaned into the story of his own independence, noting that he only recently switched his voter registration to Democrat. This is a little misleading. Hamilton preached at a prayer service following Obama’s second Inauguration; he also served on the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
三十六年前，琳达·麦克罗伯茨收到一张关于复活教会首场平安夜礼拜的明信片，便决定前去参加。她深受汉密尔顿讲道的感动，成为了该教会的创始成员之一。“从最好的意义上说，他是一位真正的信徒，”她告诉我。但当她得知他要竞选参议员时，“我对此感到非常矛盾。我觉得他会陷入鲨鱼群中，”她说。她不喜欢他的竞选团队播放涉及政治丑闻的广告，“比如杰弗里·爱泼斯坦，他们还展示了罗杰·马歇尔的阴暗形象。”
Thirty-six years ago, Linda MacRoberts got a postcard about the Church of the Resurrection’s first Christmas Eve service, and she decided to go. She was taken by Hamilton’s message, and became one of ’s founding members. “He is, in the very best sense, a true believer,” she told me. But when she heard that he was running for Senate, “I was very ambivalent about it. I thought he’d be swimming with sharks,” she said. She doesn’t like that his campaign has run ads about political scandals “like Jeffrey Epstein, and they’re showing this dark picture of Roger Marshall.”