Many are criticizing the “He Gets Us” Super Bowl ads that will appear during tonight’s Super Bowl because they are funded by the deep pockets of Hobby Lobby and use Jesus as a “brand.” But Liz Featherstone, writing at the socialist magazine Jacobin, has a different perspective.
Here is a taste of her piece “The Jesus of Tonight’s Super Bowl Ads Can’t Be Found in Right-Wing Churches“:
The Servant Foundation’s research shows that people like Jesus but mistrust Christianity. Young people especially reject the politics and divisiveness associated with evangelicalism. But the “He Gets Us” campaign, while beautifully conceived and executed, seems unlikely to change that. After all, people already have positive feelings about Jesus — and have no compelling reason to rethink organized Christianity or its right-wing politics.
Churches are losing membership among young Americans. Religion has rapidly declined in popularity in recent years: in 2018 and 2019 Pew Research surveys found only 65 percent of Americans identifying as Christians, a drop of 12 percent over the previous decade. Frequency of church attendance has also dropped steadily, while the number of Americans with no religious affiliation has dramatically increased.
Values play a big part in this drift. While evangelical leaders lean politically right, often very far right, Gen Z is strongly empathetic to the needs of the most marginalized and favors government action in solving societal problems. Millennials and Gen Z are racially and ethnically diverse, up against serious financial challenges, and are concerned about racial and economic justice; they take a positive view of gay marriage and view immigration far more positively than older Americans do. These values are incongruent with the far-right Christianity that has dominated the culture for decades. It’s no surprise that young people aren’t interested in the homophobic, economically punitive, and patriarchal Christianity of Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott and megachurches.
In striking black-and-white ads that evoke twentieth century social-realist photography, “He Gets Us” emphasizes that Jesus was just like us. His precarious economic circumstances are explained over a photo montage of contemporary American poverty. Jesus’s family’s experiences as refugees who had to leave their homeland to find safety are narrated over footage of Latin American immigrants fleeing violence to come to the United States. The ads rightly emphasize the timelessness of these Biblical lessons, sometimes with amusing anachronism: Jesus is described as an “influencer” who got “canceled” for speaking his truth. (You thought your bad takes were poorly received — at least you weren’t crucified!). Other “He Gets Us” ads have emphasized Jesus’s message of forgiveness and love, as well as his desire to overcome bitter social divisions and bring people together.
Read the rest here.
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