"He Gets Us" Super Bowl Ads and AOC
- Steve
- Feb 13, 2023
- 4 min read
Last night during the Super Bowl I saw two ads from this website: https://hegetsus.com/en. I had not heard of this website up till then. The ads were intriguing. I was also very shocked to see an ad with "Jesus" as the focal point during the Super Bowl.
My Initial Reaction
The first commercial was called: Be Childlike. It has an adorable clip of a white and black kid running up and hugging each other, amongst other images of kids helping each other. I thought it was well done. So I immediately went to their website and starting trying to figure out what "type" of Christianity this website was affiliated with.
At the bottom of their website they have this:
After seeing maleable words like "Justice", "Inclusion" and "Activist" I thought to myself: Oh, it's those types of Christians! 😆 (see my last blogpost!) I figured this was a woke-type of Christian who believes in universalism and the like.
It wasn't obvious to me who funded them, as they were very vague about this.
But then a second commerical aired and it was even more appealing to me. It was titled: Love Your Enemies. I gotta say, I love the title. And it's the first line on this Anarcho-Christian flag which I have hanging in my office:
This instruction from Jesus is powerful (Luke 6:27), and is very difficult to put into practice. It goes against our very nature. In any case, the ad showed photos of people arguing over culture war/politics/riots/police type of environments. (I didn't recognize any of the photos, so they were likely created specifically for this ad.) It ended with the text saying "Jesus loved the people we hate / He gets us. All of us. / Jesus / Hegetsus.com/LoveYourEnemies
By now I was really confused! I left well enough alone and waited until today to dig into this a bit more.
Jacobin Article
Then I came across an article from Jacobin's website:
If this organization is being attacked by Jacobin, that's a good sign. They claim that: He Gets Us is a subsidiary of the Servant Foundation, a Kansas-based charity also known as The Signatry that says it “exists to inspire and facilitate revolutionary, biblical generosity.”
I had never heard of them, but Jacobin goes on to say this organization bankrolls efforts to restrict abortion access and that they "allow businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ+ customers."
Oh no! These Christians are against murdering babies and believe in private property rights! The horrors!
The point of the article is to let their readers know: These Christians are far-right extremists and are not part of our cult! They should be avoided at all costs! Ironically, Jacobin is declaring them their enemy. In other words: All that stuff Jesus says about loving your enemies - don't do it! Continue hating them!
That's literally the entire point of the article.
AOC's Tweet
Then AOC tweeted something stupid:
Best Meme:
Need I say more?! What an absolute idiotic tweet. She couldn't tell you what fascism is if her life depended on it. (Neither can your average American) What's even more depressing is that nearly a quarter-million people liked the tweet. The entire point of that video is to attempt to bring people together through Christ.
Also, it cracks me up when non-Christians try to use Jesus as a way to prove their point. Forgive me, but I don't turn to AOC to figure out what Jesus would have done. She has zero credibility on this and her input is meaningless.
Babylon Bee article
Naturally, the Christian-themed satirical site Babylon Bee had to jump in with their headline:
HEAVEN — According to sources, God is really excited about the "He Gets Us" ad campaign that ran during the Super Bowl and is hoping the slick marketing will finally give him some much-needed exposure.
Hahaha, ok that's pretty funny. They continue:
"This is just what we've been missing," said Spokesangel Gabriel in reaction to the ads. "Yes, God created a universe that declares his infinite glory, designed all life, made man in his image, came to earth in flesh to atone for the sins of the world, gave us his written word, and gifted the Holy Spirit to all who believe in him, but he's really been lacking in the PR and marketing department. It looks like the 'He Gets Us' campaign could finally change all that."
Closing Remarks
Sure, the ads did not proclaim the Gospel to the world in a clear articulate way. But if I had only 30-60 seconds to get my point across, and wanted to be as impactful as possible, who knows what I would have come up with. At a minimum, it got people talking about Jesus, instead of a stupid Budweiser or Doritos commercial.
Will anything come of this campaign? Who knows. I'm content with letting people devote their own time and resources as they feel led. If nothing else, I pray the bold message of "Love your enemies" resonates with people, or at least gets them thinking. That is a radical message. (So is the Gospel) In our evolving culture war, everyone is at each others throats. There are no signs of it slowing down as we head into another presidential election in less than 2 years. We need a message of peace, reconciliation and love. Jesus is the answer to all of this.
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