‘He gets us’ Super Bowl ads promoting Christianity have ties to Johnson County nonprofit
Two Super Bowl commercials designed to promote Christianity and humanize Jesus have ties to a Johnson County nonprofit organization. The commercials were part of a campaign called “He Gets Us.”
The first spot, shown at the end of the first quarter, showed black and white images of children being helpful and kind to each other and animals.
A little girl held an umbrella over a kitty. One little boy let another stand on his back to reach a urinal. A Black boy and a white boy shared earbuds on a school bus. A little girl soothed another child leaning over a toilet about to get sick.
Patsy Cline sang, “If I could see the world through the eyes of a child, what a wonderful world this would be.”
Then words appeared on the screen, sending viewers to a website, HeGetsUs.com/bechildlike.
“Jesus didn’t want us to act like adults.
“He gets us. All of us. Jesus.”
A recent CNN report on the campaign described it as spotlighting timely topics, including social justice and artificial intelligence. A theme of the campaign: “Whatever you are facing, Jesus faced it too.”
“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,” CNN described.
It reported the campaign is a subsidiary of The Servant Foundation, also known as the Signatry, which has donated tens of millions to a conservative Christian legal group called Alliance Defending Freedom.
The alliance has reportedly been involved in efforts across the country to limit LGBTQ rights, CNN reported.
KCUR described The Signatry as a wealthy nonprofit in Overland Park.
The campaign is spending $100 million on its media efforts, according to CNN. One of its videos, “The Rebel,” has more than 100 million views on YouTube.
Even before the commercials aired in front of the massive international audience of football’s biggest game, they drew fire on social media. Some of it targeted the people funding the campaign, who reportedly include David Green, the controversial, conservative co-founder of Hobby Lobby.
His company has earned detractors for, among other things, fighting to let companies deny medical coverage for contraception based on religious beliefs.
Some of the campaign’s major donors, and Signatry, “have ties to conservative political aims and far-right ideologies that appear at odds with the campaign’s inclusive messaging,” CNN reported.
In one interview, Green said of the campaign that “we are wanting to say — ‘we’ being a lot of different people — that he gets us.”
“Jesus understands us. He loves who we hate. I think we have to let the public know and create a movement.”
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