Sunday night, millions of Americans turned on their televisions to participate in the quasi-religious celebration of the 58th Super Bowl. While everyone’s eyes were focused on another Chiefs game against the 49ers or Taylor Swift’s antics, the National Football League subjected everyone to the infamous liberal “He Gets Us” commercials.
The “He Gets Us” ads created a massive uproar on Christian Twitter. Many criticized the ad as a watered-down version of Christianity, while others defended the campaign’s emphasis on mercy and charity. While the latter view is accurate in many areas, “He gets us” ads resemble not the spirit of Christianity but the spirit of the Antichrist. It is a false Christianity that perverts the faith by replacing mercy and conformism with tolerance.
It would be wrong of me not to address the positive points of the ad first. The ad correctly highlighted our duty to imitate Christ by reaching out to vulnerable members of society. The foot washing montage is precisely how we should treat our fellow human beings. Our goal should be to emulate the love that Christ showed his disciples. The charity we show toward others must align with the second greatest commandment: “to love your neighbor as yourself.” Christ did not come to call the righteous, as he declared, but to bring sinners to repentance. But the campaign appears to misinterpret the second half of the sentence and leaves out the call to repentance.
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It is in this perversion that the problems of the campaign arise. Christianity is not a religion where our only obligation is to be kind to one another. Far from there. Christianity is a religion that calls for total self-annihilation and complete conformity to Christ. It is not a religion of good morality alone; it involves a radical change in the individual. Christ told his disciples in Matthew 16, “If anyone would follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
“He Gets Us” Commercials do not display true Christianity but rather regime-approved Christianity. Of course, Christianity can exist as long as it only emphasizes tolerance and kindness. It’s a Christianity that’s like your left-wing aunt saying, “Jesus just wanted us to be vaguely nice to each other.” » Jesus wanted us to love each other like him, and we should. But loving someone does not imply vague kindness or tolerance. Saint Pius
Catholic doctrine teaches us that charity‘The first duty of man is not the tolerance of erroneous opinions, however sincere they may be, nor a theoretical or practical indifference towards error or vice into which our brothers or sisters have fallen, but in zeal for their intellectual and moral improvement, no less than in zeal for their material well-being.
The “He Gets Us” ad shows the problem with American Christianity. Instead of promoting the true message of the Gospel, liberal evangelical groups would somewhat misrepresent Jesus as a “Christ affirmation.” There is no call for repentance or conformity but only acceptance. When advertising shows the washing of feet, it neglects the fact that Christ washed the feet of his disciples so that they could follow him to his passion. Foot washing is an act that prepares us to imitate Christ and take up our cross. But, according to the folks at “He Gets Us,” they would much rather use this act to promote a distorted message of Christ’s mercy.
One could argue that this message is a great way to get left-wing atheists interested in Christianity. By showing all the left castes of oppressed individuals washing their feet, it can serve as a means of evangelization. I’m not one to doubt how God works through brokenness, and if this message has been successful in bringing people to faith, then I will be the first to celebrate it. However, the view of Christianity is different from what Christianity is supposed to be.
Without forgetting that “He Gets Us” develops its messages with the contribution of atheists. You can read on their website:
Our work represents the contribution of Christians who believe that Jesus is the son of God as well as many others who, although not Christians, share a deep admiration for the man Jesus was, and we are deeply inspired and curious to explore its history.
The organization could be given the benefit of the doubt if it created these ads in good faith.
The “He Understands Us” program is not intended to bring people to Christianity. It is about promoting a Christianity consistent with the spirit of the Antichrist. Christianity becomes weak, mutilated and submissive to the liberal regime in power. It is a Christianity that calls for tolerance and not repentance. This is precisely the type of Christianity that many popes feared the faith would become.
Every faithful Christian should reject “He gets us” ads. There are a million ways to create effective Christian advertising that speaks to people; just watch the Hallow app’s Super Bowl commercial. We must adequately promote the Gospel of Christ to rebuild our Christian society.
Christianity is a religion of dying to self and serving God. It is not just a religion of vague niceness and gentleness. It is time to reject the perverted message and spread the true Gospel of Jesus.
