Editor’s note: United Methodist Insight has developed a shared content agreement with Baptist News Global, an independent news service mainly covering issues from a perspective that is Baptist in heritage and ecumenical in spirit. This article was published in Baptist News Global Sept. 17 and is used here by permission.
Vice President JD Vance mischaracterized the views of U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hamilton and the work of his United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Sept. 14 drawing an unusual rebuke from the bishop of Hamilton’s conference.
Vance appeared at a campaign rally at Webco Manufacturing in Olathe, Kan., to support Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, the incumbent in the race. State Senate President Ty Masterson, the Republican nominee for governor, also was present.
Vance condemned Church of the Resurrection for being a sponsor of Kansas City PrideFest.
Hamilton “proudly supported a drag group called Our Ladies of Perpetual Indulgence,” Vance claimed. He called that group “the devil worshiping group that was saying special blessings before LA Dodgers games” and an “anti-Christian hate group.”
What Vance apparently meant was to reference the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a 47-year-old volunteer network of queer and transgender activists who promote human rights, respect diversity, attempt to spread joy and expel stigmatic guilt.
The Advocate said Vance “reached for satanic panic Monday while campaigning in Kansas, falsely describing the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as devil worshipers and mangling the group’s name in the process.”
The Kansas City Reflector reported: “Vance brought up some oft-repeated soundbites from Hamilton’s old sermons that without context indicate Hamilton thinks people should repent for eating meat and that white privilege is a sin. He also condemned Hamilton’s church, Resurrection, for sponsoring a local pride festival, along with dozens of other organizations.”
Vance said at the rally: “In this race, we have got Dr. Roger Marshall, a proud servant of this state, and a proud Christian to boot, versus a guy who would insult your faith and spit on your religion to accrue donations to himself.”
Glynnis Harvey, a spokesperson for the Hamilton campaign, said the church in 2025 fed more than 45,000 people, distributed 60,000 children’s books, held blood drives, led foster care support programs and built affordable housing.
The pastor and Senate candidate “welcomes VP Vance to come visit Resurrection, instead of attacking the largest United Methodist Church in the country in an attempt to save Roger Marshall’s flailing campaign and distract from record diesel and gas prices, the war in Iran, and Roger Marshall’s usurious medical debt collection practices,” Harvey said.
Vance’s comments prompted David Wilson, bishop of the Great Plains Conference of The United Methodist Church, to issue a statement correcting the record.
Bishop David Wilson
“The heated rhetoric of political campaigns often harms others, and I have been saddened by the accusations and criticisms that have been made against Resurrection, a United Methodist Church, made by opponents to Rev. Adam Hamilton’s campaign for U.S. Senate from Kansas,” he wrote.
“Their invective against the church, of which Adam is the founding pastor, is inaccurate and unwarranted. The language used, in effect, criticizes fellow Christians merely for living up to what Jesus taught in the Gospel texts. A reading of the parable of sheep and goats found in Matthew 25 is helpful for reference.”
Wilson then listed his view of the church’s track record: “This is a church that has baptized more than 10,000 people since its founding in the 1990s and has confirmed more than 6,000 teenagers as followers of Christ. The church has distributed more than 6,300 Bibles to third graders over the years. It has numerous members who donate time to worthy nonprofits across the Kansas City area. Together, the people of Resurrection have given more than 10 million pounds of food to people in need, deployed a mobile food pantry, and have given out 800,000 backpacks filled with food for children so they don’t go hungry over weekends.
“This church that some have criticized has given away more than $26 million to outside organizations dedicated to children and families over the years from its Christmas Eve offerings. Its members have donated beds to children who don’t have one, distributed hundreds of thousands of books, secured dental care by providing a mobile clinic, given more than 65,000 pints of blood, and have helped lead grassroots efforts to solve community problems throughout the Kansas City area. The people of Resurrection have donated tens of millions more to ensure people have access to clean water, education and healthy meals around the world.”
That’s not something to criticize but to praise, the bishop said. “To me, that sounds like a church that is living up to what Jesus taught in the parable I mentioned earlier. The people of Resurrection — whether intentionally or not — are really the ones being criticized in these attacks. That is inappropriate and unfair.”