The “He Gets Us” Super Bowl ad has stirred up a lot of discussion, but not necessarily for the reasons the creators intended it to. On Monday, I wrote about how the commercial neglects the need for repentance and thus misses the gospel message, and on Tuesday, Raymond wrote about how the ad encourages passive Christianity.
But the commercial revealed even more about the “He Gets Us” organization and how it’s blurring the truth of the message of Christianity. In the Super Bowl spot, we see scenes of different people washing another person’s feet, a nod to Jesus’ act of washing His disciples’ feet in John 13. The tagline at the end of the ad is “Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet.”
The ad was well done and compelling, but it wasn’t subtle. As I wrote on Monday, “The act of washing feet is inherently humbling — humiliating, even — and in some instances the ad depicts, it's ‘mainstream’ members of society humbling themselves. A cop washes a homeless woman's feet. Someone who looks like a middle-aged Texan washes the feet of what appears to be an illegal immigrant. A woman washes a younger woman's feet outside an abortion clinic. A priest washes the feet of a stereotypically flamboyant young gay man. It's hard to ignore what the ad is trying to get across.”
Others noticed it as well. The Babylon Bee did a parody that claps back hard.
The Babylon Bee’s Joel Berry tweeted:
There’s a reason the “He Gets Us” commercial didn’t show a liberal washing the feet of someone in a MAGA hat, or a BLM protestor washing an officer’s feet. That would’ve been actually subversive.
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) February 12, 2024
Because they were strictly following oppressed v oppressor intersectionality… pic.twitter.com/R1ZS1wkTQ4
“And it’s framed in this devilishly clever way to where anyone mad about the commercial is made to look like they’re ‘preachers of hate,’ angry at the very idea of foot washing,” Berry added in a reply to himself. “A deceptive, nasty, passive-aggressive, but effective tactic.”
Related: The Not-So-Subtle Left-Leaning Message of the 'He Gets Us' Super Bowl Ad
Plenty of people have noticed that the Super Bowl ad missed the need for repentance and emphasized the foot-washing account in John over Jesus’ death and resurrection, which are the most important things He did.
"The four Gospels can be broken down into 3,779 verses. In them, you'll find themes like repentance, discipleship, forgiveness, the kingdom of God, as well as multiple warnings about Hell," wrote apologist Phoenix Hayes on Instagram. "You'll also find exactly 6 verses that describe the 1 time Jesus washed the feet of his 12 disciples."
The problem with “He Gets Us” goes beyond just one ad. Alisa Childers took to the Unshaken Faith podcast to explore more. Her podcasting partner Natasha Crain didn’t appear because she wasn’t feeling well, but Childers brought up what Crain wrote about the whole campaign.
Childers reiterated the biblical account from John 13, and she reminded listeners the “He Gets Us” campaign operates “through the lens of a social justice narrative.” She also refers to a Facebook post and two blog posts that Crain wrote about the ads.
The day of the Super Bowl, Crain wrote a Facebook post discussing what happens when people search for “He Gets Us.” When Crain Googled “He Gets Us” she saw a sponsored link from the group that announced, “Jesus Was Inclusive.”
Crain continues:
So let's say a progressive secularist (the target audience, as I explained in detail in my long post and podcast this week) clicks on "Jesus was inclusive." Inclusive has a very specific meaning from their perspective, and it's usually about accepting all identities/behaviors as equally valid.
Will He Gets Us use their language to entice the click and then share God's truth? Let's see what you think.
They land at a page featuring an article, "Jesus didn't feel welcomed by religious people either."
WOW! So if someone with a progressive lens who likely disdains Christian moral beliefs and the people who share them clicks that inclusive link, the first thing they're shown is a confirmation of their belief that religious people are bad and unwelcoming (and Jesus experienced the same problems with them).
It's hard to fathom how a Christian committed to the historic faith would choose to use this article as the landing page for people clicking that initial link.
Childers riffed off this Facebook post, saying, “Many people have referred to the ‘He Gets Us’ campaign as a type of pre-evangelism; they will readily admit, ‘This isn't like in your face gospel, but we're just trying to get people curious about Jesus.’” This is all well and good, but people who explore Jesus via “He Gets Us” will have to wade through too much progressive muck before they see a true picture of who Jesus was and is.
The “He Gets Us” website is crawling with all sorts of progressive dog-whistle words and phrases, and the About Us page on the site uses phrases straight from the left’s playbook (emphasis added): “Our campaign comprises humble perspectives from a diverse group of Jesus fans and followers with a variety of faith journeys and lived experiences bound by a common desire: to rediscover and share the compelling story of Jesus’ life in a new way.”
Related: 'Woke Jesus' Is Not Jesus at All
In a blog post a few days before the Super Bowl, Crain pointed out that the people behind the campaign “use hashtags with words that have a specific connotation to a progressive audience, even if the campaign isn’t necessarily using them in the same way (on the home page, you see #inclusive #activist #struggle #refugee #justice #outrage #bias #judgment). They also frame their content in terms that are commonly used in progressive social critiques.”
Crain lays out three specific concerns with “He Gets Us.”
- "First, the campaign will likely lead many progressives to conclude that they (still) like Jesus and (still) hate Christians."
- "Second, the campaign will solidify the idea in progressives’ minds that their social justice lens of the world is the lens through which Jesus sees it, too."
- "Third, the campaign can easily be construed to affirm theologically progressive Christianity."
I encourage you to read the details of each reason along with the blog post she wrote in 2022 when “He Gets Us” first emerged. Crain also points out that “He Gets Us” offers several Bible reading plans. Many of them are surface-level, and most of them point toward progressive Christian interpretations of scripture.
Childers pointed out the emphasis that “He Gets Us” places on the “inclusive” nature of Jesus and characterized it as a bait-and-switch tactic.
“You're going to think you're coming to their totally affirming Jesus, and you're going to find out that actually, Jesus excluded quite a bit of people,” she said. “In fact, Jesus is all-inclusive, and His invitation is exclusive when it comes to who accepts that invitation.”
Some people have said that it doesn't matter what "He Gets Us" says as long as it's preaching Jesus. The Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 1 about those who are preaching the gospel out of false motives, and he concludes, "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice." But the assumption there is that those selfish gospel teachers were teaching an accurate gospel.
The truth about “He Gets Us” is that it presents an incomplete and incorrect picture of the gospel. At a time when we are fighting an uphill battle for truth in general, the most important truth of all needs to shine through.
Childers issued that call on the podcast:
It's important as Christians in 2024 right now to know what time it is.Do you know what time it is? It's not time to be vague. It's time to preach the gospel with truth, love, and clarity. “He Gets Us” muddies the waters. Christians, let's know what time it is. Check your watch. It's time to be clear about the gospel.
Amen. The truth matters now more than ever. Let’s not shrink back from it.
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