> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.citizenjournal.us/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Both sides read the same Bible: religion in the Marshall-Hamilton race - URL: https://www.citizenjournal.us/both-sides-read-the-same-bible-religion-in-the-marshall-hamilton-race/ - Published: 2026-11-02T23:32:08.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-02T23:32:08.000Z - Description: Both campaigns have run on religion. Abraham Lincoln had a rule for that. - Author: Greg Loving - Tags: McPherson County, dnn, Columns, Hays, Hutchinson, Kansas, Lawrence, Manhattan, National, Newton, #opinion, Salina, Topeka Sign up for our free newsletter and never miss a story. [Sign up free](https://subscribe.citizenjournal.us/?ref=citizenjournal.us) Sunday night in Salina, inside Hangar 509 at the airport, a recording called ["God Made Trump"](https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/2097804869994176561?a=CXGjWZKK65lsRXi2xyQ&s=20&ref=citizenjournal.us) played for the crowd at the president's 30th and final midterm rally. Monday morning in Inman, at the Harvest Cafe, Sen. Roger Marshall told voters what he hears on the trail: "you know he's our King David." The challenger, Adam Hamilton, says he spent Lent skipping a meal a day and praying over whether to run at all. That makes three claims that God has a hand in this race, 2 of them inside a day, both within an hour of McPherson. Nobody in this race is against religion. Both sides have run on it, start to finish. Marshall identifies as a non-denominational Protestant. Hamilton has pastored the largest United Methodist congregation in the country for 36 years. What both campaigns are claiming, each in its own way, is discernment: that God's purposes and their side's line up. A voter's job is not to rule on whose claim is true. Abraham Lincoln wrote the rule for this situation in 1865, and it still holds. This column lays out what each side has actually said, where the "God made" cadence comes from, and what Lincoln said about competing prayers. ## The claims Start with the record, in each side's own words. Marshall, Monday in Inman, [as Citizen Journal reported:](https://www.citizenjournal.us/roger-marshall-stops-by-inman-in-last-minute-bid-to-be-reelected/) "We have a Christian obligation to go vote." On the president: "I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and said, you know he's our King David. He's certainly a sinner and fallen short, but he's certainly a good battle for us." He called the race "a battle for the soul of this nation" and thanked supporters "for arming me with the armor of God." Marshall's supporters put it more bluntly: Hamilton is a false prophet, and his church is too woke. You see that line of attack on Facebook and elsewhere. Hamilton's supporters answer with a word of their own: idolatry. The "God Made Trump" video drew that charge from pastors when it first played in Iowa in 2024, and the King David comparison draws it now. The president, at his January 2025 inauguration, said he "was saved by God to make America great again." The "God Made Trump" recording played on the jumbotron at the Republican convention in Dallas on Sept. 10, at midterm rallies throughout this election cycle, and in Salina on Sunday night. Hamilton has put his faith on the ballot as plainly as Marshall has. He announced after a Lenten fast, telling the Associated Press he skipped a meal each day while praying about the race. He describes 36 years leading a church "roughly equally divided between Republicans, Democrats and independents." None of this is new. The cadence, at least, is 48 years old. ## Paul Harvey: God Made a Farmer Most Kansans over 40 know the original by heart. In November 1978, radio broadcaster Paul Harvey stood in front of the 51st National FFA Convention in Kansas City and delivered "So God Made a Farmer." It borrows the rhythm of Genesis: on the 8th day, God looks down at his work and decides he needs a caretaker. Ram Trucks ran it as a 2-minute Super Bowl ad in February 2013, and it has been read at FFA banquets ever since. The format has been borrowed since. Casey DeSantis cut "God Made a Fighter" for her husband's 2022 reelection in Florida. On Jan. 5, 2024, a group of pro-Trump content creators called the Dilley Meme Team released "God Made Trump," narrated by an AI version of Harvey's voice. The candidate posted it to Truth Social 10 days before the Iowa caucuses, and it played before he took the stage at Iowa rallies that weekend. By September 2026 it was on the convention jumbotron. By Sunday it was in Salina. ## King David This is my interpretation of the King David comparison, based on my own reading of the scripture. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, sent to the front line to be killed (2 Samuel 11). Scripture still calls him "a man after his own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14). The comparison concedes the flaws up front; its claim is that God has used flawed men before. ## Lincoln's rule On March 4, 1865, with the Civil War weeks from ending, Abraham Lincoln gave a second inaugural address of roughly 700 words. Most of it was about God. "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other," he said of North and South. Then the lines that matter: "The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes." Lincoln knew it would not be popular. When a supporter, New York editor Thurlow Weed, wrote to praise the speech, Lincoln replied that people do not like being told God's purposes and their own are not the same thing. He said it anyway. He was shot 6 weeks later. A Senate race is not a civil war. The lesson carries anyway. My takeaway, and you may disagree, is this. The people on the other side of this race read the same Bible you do. They pray to the same God. Most of them are trying to do the right thing as they understand it. That holds for the Marshall voter who thinks Hamilton's church lost its way, and for the Hamilton voter who thinks Washington could use a pastor. Call the other side wrong. Argue the policy. "False prophet" and "idolatry" do something else. They take a disagreement between neighbors and turn it into a verdict from above. Lincoln refused to say that about men shooting at his army. It is a strange thing to say about a neighbor who votes differently. Both men agree on one thing: vote Tuesday. Polls open at 7. Find your polling place through [Kansas VoterView](https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/voterview/?ref=citizenjournal.us) or call the McPherson County clerk at 620-241-3656. *This article was written using our proprietary AI system, Cronkite. The final decision to publish this article was made by a human. For more info, read our* [*AI policy*](https://www.citizenjournal.us/ai-policy/)*.* --- --- Found a mistake? Have a news tip or feedback to share? Contact our newsroom using the button below: [Contact Us](https://www.citizenjournal.us/contact/) ---