If you watched the Super Bowl last Sunday, or other high-profile sporting events over the last few months, you probably saw one of the commercials from the “He Gets Us” project.
The ads focus on solidly traditional and inclusive Christian themes: loving others, confronting injustice, empathy and outreach to the poor and needy, the place of faith in a climate of political, social, and cultural divisiveness. The pieces are artfully and professionally made, and are squarely nondenominational, emphasizing Jesus’ message and teaching and its relevance in today’s world.
The campaign is arresting, portraying the pivotal figure of Christianity as an immigrant, a refugee, a radical, an activist for women’s rights and a bulwark against racial injustice and political corruption. The project organizers specifically state that the campaign is not about getting people to “go to church.” Here’s how they put it:
He Gets Us simply invites all to consider the story of a man who created a radical love movement that continues to impact the world thousands of years later. There are many churches and Christian groups that can help people who are spiritually open to understand more about who Jesus was and why his words and life are relevant today.
Whether you consider yourself a Christian, a believer in another faith, a spiritual explorer, or not religious or spiritual in any way, we invite you to hear about Jesus and be inspired by his example.
I guess it’s not surprising that these ads have sparked controvers. What is a little surprising is that some of the criticism has come from progressive Christian groups that you might think would be squarely behind the message of the campaign. But it’s not the message they object to, but the messengers, and the astronomical amount of money — $100 million — spent on the campaign.
Some of the campaign’s major donors, and its holding company, have ties to conservative political aims and far-right ideologies that appear at odds with the campaign’s inclusive messaging.
The chain of influence behind “He Gets Us” can be followed through public records and information on the campaign’s own site. The campaign is a subsidiary of The Servant Foundation, also known as the Signatry.
According to research compiled by Jacobin, a left-leaning news outlet, The Servant Foundation has donated tens of millions to the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group. The ADF has been involved in several legislative pushes to curtail LGBTQ rights and quash non-discrimination legislation in the Supreme Court.
We’ll talk about this ad campaign, and the issues it raises, in our conversation this evening. Have you seen any of the He Gets Us ads? If so, what did you think of them? Does the fact that the campaign is funded by conservative donors, including the founder of Hobby Lobby, and organizations bother you? In other words, do the messengers undermine the message? Finally, what do you think of the price tag? The campaign, so far, amounts to $100 million in media messaging, with as much as $1 billion in future spending promised by the organizers. Would that money be better spent not on TV ads, billboards, and website, but in directly funding the mission and outreach that the ads tout?
Join us for the discussion tonight, starting at 7pm, at Casa Real in downtown Oxford.