United Methodist pastor and author, Rev. Adam Hamilton, recently described his concern that “over the past 40 years many Christians have been stuck” in a pattern of identifying religious and political groups as “either… righteous or evil; [in] a way of understanding the world that pits one side against another, [saying] it’s either black or white.” To address this trend, Rev. Hamilton wrote Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality and Politics.” For him, “when it comes to faith, morality and politics, it’s more complicated” than the black and white picture that he says some Christians tend to paint.
Rev. Hamilton is the pastor of the 14,000 member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS. On September 25th, he addressed a group of United Methodists at Mt. Vernon Place United Methodist in downtown Washington, DC. Rev. Donna Sokol and Rev. Dr. Louis Shockley introduced him to the audience of Methodists from Mt. Vernon Place, Asbury UMC, Wesley Theological Seminary, and various local churches. Rev. Sokol estimated that roughly 180 attended the Thursday night event.
Hamilton told the story of growing up in a broken home, and being converted by a Pentecostal evangelist early in his tumultuous adolescence. When he attended college at Oral Roberts, he found that the Pentecostal “theology was narrow,” and increasingly did not answer his questions. After considering Roman Catholicism, Hamilton said “I was converted to Methodism” because the United Methodist church “made it okay for me to ask questions, it said that God gave me a brain and wanted me to use it.”
He added that he was very drawn by John Wesley, who “talked about conjunctive faith” that balanced the “Evangelical Gospel… and the Social Gospel.” While he observed that mainlines have valued evangelicalism and social gospel since their establishment, he said that “increasingly, Evangelicals are figuring it out.” “Emergents,” remarked Hamilton, are often “disaffected Evangelicals [who have discovered] that they want something broader than that.”
“This is not just an issue for conservatives,” Hamilton declared. “Far left-wing people and far right-wing people are a lot more alike than they realize. Both are fundamentalists, they just have different fundamentals.” Often, he suggested, the truth really does lie between the two extremes; “anytime you’ve got a problem where society’s divided 50-50, there’s probably a reason for that.”
Rev. Hamilton emphasized the practice of humility in political discourse. He recalled St. James’ admonition that “everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger” an approach that he said was “great to remember during this election cycle.”
For Christians who may feel threatened by the growth of other religious groups, Hamilton said that the trend towards religious diversity in the United States would likely continue. “We live in a pluralistic world; even in Kansas there’s a pretty good chance that one of your kids’ elementary school teachers is a Hindu.” Christians should realize, however, that “if Christianity is the truth, then it will stand up to a study of other religions.”
Hamilton said that when interacting with other faiths, it is important to remember that there are three theories of who will be saved: exclusivism, inclusivism, and universalism. He stated exclusivists believe that “unless you personally accept Jesus Christ, God can’t save you because you’re still dead in your sins.” Universalism, remarked Hamilton, “offends all parties” because it goes against the more exclusive teachings of most faiths by saying that all paths to God are equally right. It also, “presupposes that everyone wants to go to heaven,” which may not be true. John Wesley’s own belief, said Hamilton, was inclusivist. Along with C.S. Lewis and St. Justin the Martyr, said Hamilton, inclusivists believe that “Jesus is the only savior of the world… whose death on the cross” atoned for human sin, but that God can choose to apply that Christ’s atoning work to whomever he desires to save, even if they were not given the opportunity to explicitly accept Christ as their savior in this life.
Linking spiritual maturity to the ability to see the truth that lies on both sides of major societal conflicts and admit to an opponent, ‘It’s possible you may be right,” Hamilton suggested that embracing “paradox and ambiguity, but still trust[ing], still believe[ing],” characterizes the latest stage of spiritual development. It requires acknowledging that there are limits to what one can know.
Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White is Hamilton’s eighth book. It discusses past and present Christian engagement in society and politics, lays out the arguments for both sides of controversial issues, and then charts a course through what Hamilton believes is the center of the extremes. For United Methodists who would like to read more, Rev. Hamilton’s book can be purchased on Cokesbury’s website, http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=645099.
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