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BY LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF

As pastor of the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas, one of the largest United Methodist churches in the country, the Rev. Adam Hamilton has learned to live and to thrive amid shades of gray.

On Sept. 27, he brought news from this "in-between place" to an audience at Mt. Vernon Place UMC in Washington.

"Some things are always wrong or always right," he said. "But there's a lot more gray in the world than black and white" - conservative-liberal, Republican-Democrat, left-right, good-bad, wise-foolish, right-wrong. These are too simple divisions, he said. "We have the capacity to see the complexity in the world."

If you're only liberal, you're chasing ideas, have no fixed point; if you're only conservative, you're not changing at all, he said. "So we mature in faith as we see gray."

Hamilton's speech, which was based on thoughts from his new book, "Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White," was co-sponsored by Wesley Theological Seminary, Mt. Vernon Place UMC and Asbury UMC. It coincided with the 50th anniversary of the seminary's move to Washington, D.C., and the beginning of its downtown satellite campus for urban ministry at the church.

During the evening Hamilton spoke on how faith and the public arena can intersect in this year of elections and national divisiveness.

Seeing things in strictly a black-and-white manner can also apply to religions and how people of faith accept one another.

Applying black and white terms to the question of who would get into heaven, Hamilton said there are two kinds of people: exclusivists and the universalists. Exclusivists believe that anyone who does not have a personal relationship with Christ, such as Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists or Jews, are doomed to hell. The other extreme is that everyone regardless of belief is going to heaven and will like it there.

John Wesley, he said, held a belief in inclusiveness, believing that Jesus Christ is savior of the world and his death atoned for our sins. By grace one is saved, and God can offer grace to anyone.

"God can save anyone God chooses by the criteria he wants to apply," Hamilton said.

"In the end, what I believe about God and his judgment of those of other religions is captured in the words of the old hymn, ‘There's a Wideness in God's Mercy,'" Hamilton said. "For the love of God is broader than the measure of our mind; and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind."

"We have more diversity every day," Hamilton said in response to a question. "Some folk view that as a scandal and create a homogeneous church out of fear, but I believe pluralism is a blessing from God."

His remarks were met with enthusiasm by the audience.

"This evening is a foretaste of what I hope Wesley Seminary will do here," said the Rev. Shaun Casey. Wesley's program at Mt. Vernon Place will be a place of forums and theological discussions "in the center of the capital."