by New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter during the Super Bowl to criticize two of the ads run during the game by religious conservatives.
The “He Gets Us” campaign promotes the ideas of Jesus and Christianity. The campaign bought two spots during Sunday night’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles — part of a $100 million media investment, according to CNN.
The campaign launched last year and spans TV, billboards and social media. Ads portray Jesus as an immigrant, a refugee, a champion of women’s rights and as someone who fights racial injustice and corruption in politics.
The campaign website includes content about AI and social justice, among other things.
“Whatever you are facing, Jesus faced it too”, says the advertising campaign.
“Something tells me Jesus would *not* spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign,” said Ocasio-Cortez. wrote on Sunday night.
A campaign video titled The rebel has been viewed more than 88 million times since it was published 11 months ago. The number of searches for “he catches us” has increased on Google since the beginning of the year, noted CNN.
NFL games often include religious symbols and gestures such as prayers on the field.
But some people, particularly young people and religious skeptics, have identified some red flags in the campaign’s reach.
While the campaign’s message seems to try to be inclusive, its holding company and major donors are connected to right-wing political causes that don’t connect with what the campaign is intended to be.
The campaign is linked to laws that restrict women’s reproductive rights, as well as the rights of LGBT+ individuals.
Public information and content on the campaign’s own website reveal the campaign’s roots, which is a subsidiary of The Servant Foundation, which has donated tens of millions of dollars to the right-wing Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, according to the left-wing organization Tilted Publication. Jacobin.
The alliance is part of efforts to limit LGBT+ rights to overturn non-discrimination legislation on the Supreme Court.
Hobby Lobby founder David Green, a major donor to the campaign, told right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck last November that “we’re saying – ‘we’ being a lot of different people – that he understands us.” .
He added that Jesus “understands us. He loves who we hate. I think we have to let the public know and create a movement”.
The campaign’s website states that “funding for He Gets Us comes from a diverse group of individuals and entities with a common goal to share the story of Jesus authentically.”
“Most of the people who run He Gets Us, including our donors, choose to remain anonymous because the story isn’t about them and they don’t want the credit,” he adds.
Campaign spokesperson Jason Vanderground told CNN that The Servant Foundation has a fund that “brings donors together to provide joint support to organizations, ensuring that organizations can operate without donors affecting specific messages.”
“Funding for the campaign comes from a diverse group of individuals and entities with a common goal to authentically share the story of Jesus,” he added.
The campaign’s website states that “we are not ‘left’ or ‘right’ or a political organization of any kind”.
“We are also not affiliated with any particular church or denomination,” it states, but CNN notes that it has connections to evangelical Christianity.
The campaign has a publicity website for churches and marketers who want to work with the campaign.
“He Gets Us has chosen not to have our own separate statement of beliefs,” he says. “Each participating church/ministry will normally have its own language. Meanwhile, we generally recognize the Lausanne Covenant as reflecting the spirit and intent of that movement, and churches that partner with He Gets Us explorers affirm the Lausanne Covenant.”
This portion does not appear to appear on the general website intended for public consumption, notes CNN. The alliance is an important document and the Lausanne movement was started by Billy Graham, a prominent evangelical figure who died in 2018 aged 99.
When asked by CNN if the campaign supports LGBT+ Christians, Vanderground said “the debate on LGBTQ+ issues is a great example of how the real Jesus is often lost, neglected or distorted in debates on political and social issues.”
“Our focus is on helping people see and consider Jesus as he is shown in the Bible… He welcomes us and loves us, and that includes people on all sides of these issues,” he added.
“A lot of times when people look at Christianity, they unfortunately see it as much more hypocritical, judgmental and discriminatory,” he added.
“We are trying to unify the American people around the confusing love and forgiveness” of Jesus, he said.
The Independent reached out to The Servant Foundation for comment.
Pastor and biblical scholar Dr. Kevin Young told CNN that “young people are digital natives who understand the difference between astute marketing and authenticity.”
“Megachurches, mega-events and mega-marketing spend are seen as money that could have been used to fund community programs and advocacy for the oppressed – such as refugees, LGBTQ+ individuals and abortion rights – and the poor,” he added.
“Young people want a church that puts shoe leather on its faith and does something for those in danger; those whom the church itself has wronged,” he noted.
“Jesus doesn’t have an image problem, but Christians and their churches do,” said Dr. Young to the agency. “These campaigns end up being public relations for the wrong problem. Young people are smart. One of your main problems with evangelicalism and the modern church in America is the amount of money spent on itself.”
