The Truth Behind The He Gets Us Super Bowl Jesus Commercials

The 'He Gets Us' Super Bowl Jesus Commercials Are a Net Win for America.
Yes, the group behind the ad campaign has funded egregious causes. But an emphasis on Jesus Christ's message to love the Other is welcome these days.
By Jack Holmes Published: Feb 13, 2023.
Jesus has never been the issue in American Christianity. The trouble usually comes when church leaders start freelancing, and cryptocurrency they've done a lot of that over the years. When, in this belief system, God Himself came down to Earth in the form of a man, that man said exactly nothing about abortion, and not much about homosexuality, either. These just weren't priorities for Him, it seems, though they've been close to #1 and #2 for his disciples in America since the 1970s. In recent times, Evangelical leaders have also added militant hostility to immigrants, as if Jesus would be a big proponent of the Big, Beautiful Wall, alongside the notion that He'd be a fan of semiautomatic rifles. Which is why I, personally, have found the "He Gets Us" ad campaign that culminated with a couple of Super Bowl spots to be a net positive.
A lot of what you'll read about the ads on this Super Bowl Monday—still not a national holiday, I'm noticing—will focus on the group behind the ads, and with good reason. The Servant Foundation, an organization based in Kansas also known as "The Signatry," is a charitable outfit that's reportedly given millions to the Alliance Defending Freedom, "the world's largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, parental rights, and God's design for marriage and family." They're providing legal representation to the plaintiffs in a suit looking to get the engineered conservative courts to strip women of their right to access the abortion pill mifepristone. The group proudly reports it helped draft the Mississippi abortion law that ultimately became the vehicle for the Supreme Court's conservatives to overturn Roe v. Wade . The Alliance also seems extremely invested in making sure businesses are free to discriminate against people based on their gender or sexual orientation.
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With all this in mind, the "He Gets Us" ads might seem like a Trojan Horse for a malicious form of American Christianity. It's impossible to know, but that might even be the intent: rope people in with generalized, non-denominational appeals rooted in compassion and human decency before you serve them the hate for The Others. The theory in some precincts is that this campaign is an attempt to reach young people who were long ago alienated from institutional churches and organized religion, which is really a broader social phenomenon in the West. It would not be unheard of for cultural conservatives to look upon the wider public's rejection of their philosophy and decide the best course of action is to change nothing except the marketing materials. Theoretically, they could win some young converts with this campaign, who could eventually turn into anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion zealots. But how many are we talking about here? How long and winding would that pathway be? There's a reason a lot of conservative Christians are angry at this campaign: it doesn't carry their message nearly so directly as it does others'.
But personally, I don't think it's so bad for Christian messaging that actually reflects the words and deeds of Jesus Christ to be broadcast so broadly, particularly following an era where Evangelicals broadly embraced a guy as their leader who reflected exactly none of the principles Jesus espoused. I don't know if the ad makers will have won any converts, but it could be useful for already self-identifying Christians to be reminded of the Savior's call to love your enemies, to be exposed to the idea that there could be justice in challenging the established authorities of law and order. Even encouraging people to try to patch up the torn fabrics of their families is a message the country could probably do with hearing right now. But more than anything, there's the "Refugee" ad.
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There will be folks who say this is all blasphemy, that Jesus was no refugee, as if this is primarily about whether He properly left one country and sought asylum in another 2,000 years ago. But when I first saw this spot, what struck me above all was the depiction of people who want to come here seeking refuge from horror in their home countries, who want the chance of a better life in America, as human beings. Sadly, that is the bar now in this country.
There are millions and millions of people here who are bombarded all day, every day with the message that hordes of faceless criminals and various other undesirables are orchestrating an "invasion" of America so that they can take it over and render the country you know and love unrecognizable. (As if that isn't the same damn thing they said about the Irish, then the Italians and the Chinese, then everybody who's come since.) If there are people who've been inundated with that stuff, and they saw this ad, I count that as a win. Not because everyone will suddenly agree we need one specific policy solution, but because over the last few years the way some people in this country have talked about people who want to come here has verged on eliminationist rhetoric. History tells us that does not end well. It also tells us we did not always offer people safe refuge when they cried out that they were in danger back home.
Maybe I'm just an easy mark, but I don't see the path from this ad to some new generation of anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion crusaders. The organization behind it should stop funding those efforts, but in this case, they're presenting a vision of Christianity to Christians watching football that's worthy of respect. Anything that gets the words and deeds of Jesus Christ a more prominent place on the list of priorities for American Christians is welcome, particularly when it doesn't seem to be a ploy to separate people from their money: I couldn't see anywhere to "donate" on the promoted website, which isn't usually hard to find, probably because they've got plenty of money from ultrarich Christian families including the Hobby Lobby folks. Sure, we can't assume they have pure intentions, and they could have spent all this ad money to just help the poor and the sick and those in need of shelter and refuge, just as Jesus said. But if we accept they're going to run an ad, I'm not mad it's this ad.
Senior Staff Writer.
Jack Holmes is a senior staff writer at Esquire, cryptocurrency where he covers politics and sports. He also hosts Useful Context, a video series.

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