JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In this heated election season, places of worship across the United States find themselves caught in the middle of intense partisan divides. As Zane Irwin of the Kansas News Service reports, one church in the Kansas City area has sparked a national effort to lower the temperature on the political conversation.
ZANE IRWIN, BYLINE: Four years ago, pastor Adam Hamilton worried that his 24,000-member church in Kansas City was splitting at the political seams.
ADAM HAMILTON: Our community has gotten - and our society has gotten - more and more polarized.
IRWIN: After decades of refereeing debates at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection about abortion, LGBTQ inclusion and racism, it all got to be too much.
HAMILTON: There have been two periods of time where I felt most like quitting. Told my wife this once in one of those periods, and I said, you know, are you OK if we - if I take another job? And one time she asked me this question. Is God calling you to leave, or are you running away?
IRWIN: Despite the political tension, the graffiti attacks and the angry emails, Hamilton stayed. But he knew Resurrection would have to get creative if they wanted to counteract the social media algorithms and politicians working to divide his community.
HAMILTON: I might tell you a little bit about our campaign, this Campaign for Kindness. Is that all right?
IRWIN: Resurrection's Campaign for Kindness has all the trappings of the political programming you're probably sick of seeing - billboards, yard signs and even TV spots. But instead of candidates or policies, their campaign advertises ethics.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Choosing kindness isn't about avoiding our differences but navigating them with respect and compassion.
IRWIN: This election cycle, more than 1,600 churches across the country have signed on to use sermon outlines and branding from the campaign, including some in pivotal swing states like Wisconsin.
ANNA-LISA HUNTER: We are completely buried with the advertising coming from every direction about anything you can think of.
IRWIN: Pastor Anna-Lisa Hunter leads Suamico Methodist Church just outside of Green Bay. Political experts say this county could help decide the outcome of the presidential race. Folks in her community, like many Americans, are feeling the pressure.
HUNTER: What they have noticed in the last 10 years in their neighborhood is that people who are Republican and Democrat don't talk to each other anymore.
IRWIN: Suamico UMC is wrapping up a six-week sermon series - courtesy of the Campaign for Kindness - on what the Bible says about discussing politics. To summarize, it doesn't always have to be apocalyptic.
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DOUG WYCKOFF: We're trying to blanket Kansas City in love, compassion, understanding and just calm down, you know? We're going to make it.
IRWIN: Back at the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, Doug Wyckoff is helping distribute signs for the campaign. Before he got involved, he says his hobbies were golfing, fishing and getting angry at the news.
DOUG WYCKOFF: My wife would comment, and she said, you're getting to be a grumpy old man. And I think I was.
IRWIN: That started to change when Hamilton challenged his church to do a certain number of kind acts every day, especially for people they disagree with. Wyckoff says it helped him turn his political rage into something more productive.
DOUG WYCKOFF: And I don't think I'm a grumpy old man anymore. So, yeah, I found out maybe that was my purpose or something.
IRWIN: As millions of Americans feel anxious about the presidential election, Hamilton hopes his Campaign for Kindness can make a difference, even if it's just one grumpy old man at a time. For NPR News, I'm Zane Irwin in Leawood.
(SOUNDBITE OF QUINCY JONES AND HIS ORCHESTRA SONG, "THE TWITCH") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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