The increasingly ubiquitous Christian commercials proclaiming that Jesus “Gets Us” first aired during the 2022-2023 NFL playoffs and Super Bowl LVII are now popping up on Billboards and cable television networks. The ads even made an appearance at the Grammy’s and during the NCAA March Madness games last year, and they will surely be in the line-up at this year’s Super Bowl. Attempting to portray a kinder and gentler Christianity in which all are welcome — including sinners who may or may not have repented of their sins — the ads seem to infuriate some Catholics and conservative Christians. One pastor posted on X that the ads are part of a psyop to trick Christians into thinking Jesus is fine with sin and apostasy.  Another pastor posted that the ads were “at best, moralistic therapeutic deism … At worst, it is gnostic heresy that posits Jesus as a divine social worker.” Some Catholic commentators have been even more strident in rejecting the “He Gets Us” message. One Catholic critic claimed that the ads are about “promoting a Christianity that is in line with the spirit of the Antichrist.”  From that Catholic writer’s perspective, “Christianity becomes weak, maimed, and subservient to the liberal regime in power.  It is a Christianity that calls for tolerance not repentance.” This is a common response from conservative critics.  And, in some ways, it is understandable because many of the ads have a kind of liberal slant with the message that Jesus loves those who get abortions or who are part of the LGBTQ community.  And although it is true that Jesus is love, the ads cannot quite capture the needed nuance.  In one of the ads, an older woman is kneeling down to wash the feet of a younger woman outside an abortion clinic. Later, in that same ad, a Catholic priest is kneeling at the feet of a man who removes his roller skates to have his feet washed.  The roller-skating feet-washing vignette is praised by Youtube’s “Rainbow Marketing” as “preaching inclusivity and love … it includes all kinds of people, including queer ones.  This is a strong message of acceptance and inclusion, even if you are not religious.” Although we are never assured in any of the ads that Jesus loved faithful Catholics and other Christians, that is not the point of the ad campaign.   The ads are designed to reach people who have come to believe that Jesus could not possibly love them.  They may have engaged in sinful behaviors in the past or are continuing to engage in these behaviors and they have begun to believe that Jesus had given up on them. That is the intention of the funders and the creators of the “He Gets Us” campaign.  Jason Vanderground, president of BrandHaven, the marketing firm that created the ads, and a spokesperson for the campaign, told a reporter for Newsweek that funding for the campaign “comes from a diverse group of individuals and entities with a common goal of sharing Jesus’ story authentically … He Gets Us is the perfect example of that vision to see the Jesus of the Bible represented in today’s culture with the same relevance and impact he had 2,000 years ago to provide hope and comfort to people facing their own daily challenges.” The ads are designed to reach these people — the people who are lost — those who may have given up on Jesus because they may think that Jesus no longer hears them. While many of the donors to “He Gets Us” are anonymous, David Green, the pro-life Christian co-founder of Hobby Lobby is among the most generous donors to the campaign.  Directly funded by the Signatry, a donor-advised fund sponsor, this fund was created in 2020 for the purpose of “connecting God’s wealth with God’s workers.” The vision of the Signatry is “to write the last check to the last missionary to be sent out to the last unreached people group so the last person can hear the gospel.” The campaign has also partnered with several evangelical organizations such as Christianity Today, YouVersion, the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, and Relevant magazine. Beyond criticisms from conservatives, the left has also found fault with the “He Gets Us” campaign because it is being supported and funded by conservative Christians, especially those with connections to pro-life initiatives. For example, David Green’s Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. successfully sued the United States government over a provision in the Affordable Care Act that required companies with more than 50 employees to provide comprehensive health coverage including contraception, or pay a fine.  David Green objected based on his Christian faith to providing health care coverage for certain types of contraception. In 2014, the United States Supreme Court sided with Hobby Lobby by ruling that the Obama administration must exempt closely held firms like Hobby Lobby from the rule requiring large companies to pay for their employees’ birth control. Responding to this, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to X to mock the “He Gets Us” campaign by posting: “Something tells me that Jesus would not spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign.” It is difficult to understand how anyone could look at these ads and see a fascist message.  The campaign is clear in its intention to try and bring the Jesus of the Bible — the Son of God — into our culture.  The ads are intended to move people to seek out answers by visiting the campaign’s website. Once there, they can watch additional videos, read biblical excerpts, and even get “free gear.”  Tee shirts and a hat are mailed to seekers for free. The “He Gets Us” site also encourages visitors to: read about Jesus in the Bible and are given five different Bible readings; they are also encouraged to connect with someone by filling out an online form; and to “text for prayer or positivity” by texting “prayer” to the number listed on the website and receive a text from a volunteer from the campaign. This is called evangelism — taking people where they are and walking with them to help them find the light.  None of this is “fascism.” None of this could ever be construed as “the work of the anti-Christ.” Even though faithful Christians may be put off by the evangelical message of supporting the apparently unrepentant sinner, or supporting those who are very different from us, we must acknowledge that we do not know what is in the heart of the young woman having her feet washed at the abortion clinic. The message of love in the “He Gets Us” ads can reach those who are lost or who are seeking some comfort from a loving Jesus in a world that appears to have rejected them. READ MORE from Anne Hendershott: Working-Class Whites Anxiously Losing Ground When Grandparents Are Called to Parent Abortion Isn’t Funny The post Super Bowl Ad: We Know “He Gets Us” but Others May Not appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.