After several days reflection, I’m going to weigh in on the “He Gets Us” Super Bowl ad debate.
And I’m going to turn this debate slightly, and suggest the following insight:
If you want to understand what it’s like to be a progressive Christian in today’s world, just listen to reactions on all sides of this debate.
Eric Folkerth
Because, in a real sense, the debate on all sides of these ads mirrors the “rock and a hard place” we progressive Christians find ourselves in every … single … day.
I’m not going to do media criticism of the ads themselves, nor of the messages inherent in which actors plays what roles, nor even slam the funders of these ads. Plenty of commentators are doing all these exceedingly well.
Nothing I could say would add substantively to those well-reasoned and true critiques.
A thought experiment
I’m going to ask you to engage in a little thought experiment: Assume that somewhere beyond our world of “Team Red” and “Team Blue,” we can agree that the basic premise of the ads is the basic message of Jesus. Bah, bah, bah … again, no critique of the actors, the scenes, the funders … anything.
Just the message. A message that says: “Jesus wants us to love everybody, serve everybody, wash the feet of everybody.” As we say in the progressive church, “Jesus called us to servant ministry.”
Beyond all images, music, textual script of these ads, this is unquestionably the message of Jesus behind the ads.
Now, look at the reaction to the ads:
Reaction on the Left:
- “These ads are manipulating the message of Jesus.”
- “These ads are paid for by ultra-right-wing fundamentalists.”
- “The people who produced these ads don’t even believe in their message.”
- “The white-centric characters in these ads reenforce white supremacy, as white Christian nationalism does.”
- “These ads are a ‘bait and switch,’ trying to lure people to Christianity, only to lower a hammer of judgment later.”
How am I doing? Does that generally cover the basic critiques from the Left?
Now, don’t judge those critiques. Simply listen to them. I happen to agree with every single one of them, actually. (Which means: I’ve just done what I said I wouldn’t do, and offer media critique.)
Whatever you think of these critiques, just listen to them, and hear them.
Because, friends, these are the exact same critiques many on the Left also lodge at any or all of us who still profess any Christian faith.
“If you want to know what we in progressive Christianity have to deal with every day, listen to the critiques of these ads.”
Much of the Left sees no difference between “evangelicalism” and “Christianity.” They see those two words as equivalent. They are deeply unaware there are Mainline Protestants, liberal Catholics, Orthodox and more — that there are many Christians who reject the label of “fundamentalist” or “evangelical.”
What I am saying is this: If you want to know what we in progressive Christianity have to deal with every day, listen to the critiques of these ads.
Because in just the same way liberal critics of the ads assume all Christianity is damaged beyond all repair because of fundamentalism, so too many liberal critics also paint progressive Christians with the same broad brush.
In both cases — one, the true message of Jesus in the ads, the other our existence as progressive Christian institutions — we are not “seen” because the debate never moves beyond either the critique of evangelicalism or the critique of the advertisement.
This is the irony I see, every day.
He Gets Us ad from the Super Bowl
Critiquing evangelicals
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: Critiquing evangelicals is like shooting fish in a barrel. They are so corrupted and damaged that it’s hard not to score a broad point.
But then what?
After you cede just how damaging and damaged they are, what do you do with Jesus’ actual message about loving everybody, serving everybody, washing everybody’s feet?
It’s very easy to criticize evangelicals. They make it too easy.
“I realized the easy potshots at evangelicals still didn’t help me answer my own questions about human existence.”
But then what? In my own life, I realized the easy potshots at evangelicals still didn’t help me answer my own questions about human existence, or how I am supposed to live.
I’m still face-to-face with “What will I do about loving, serving, welcoming all?”
Sure, the messengers are hypocrites. Go ahead and call them evil and manipulative if you want. But there’s always a “then what?”
Reaction on the Right
Now, let’s turn this around. Some of the far Right — they’re watching these ads, and they don’t like them either! It’s true.
They say:
- “Jesus is too weak in these ads.”
- “These ads are too political.”
- “These ads just justify ‘living in sin.’”
- “Jesus wouldn’t welcome everyone, there are limits and the Bible tells us so.”
Just Google “evangelical reaction to He Gets Us” and you’ll quickly run into exactly these kinds of statements.
“The far Right doesn’t like these ads … because they no longer believe in this message of Jesus.”
My point is: The far Right doesn’t like these ads. Not because of hypocrisy among the funders, but because they no longer believe in this message of Jesus.
This is the disturbing trend in evangelical churches regarding Jesus’ Gospel stories.
It has been documented that preachers have preached on Jesus’ Beatitudes, such as “Blessed are the meek,” and afterward, members have come up to their preachers, saying “Where did you get such liberal talking points?”
And the preacher replies, “These are just the actual words of Jesus.”
And the church member says, “Well, that stuff just doesn’t work anymore.”
This is where we are.
Much of the evangelical world really does not believe in the message of Jesus any more.
They believe in a Christian nationalist God that is not really good religion — or good politics — but a dangerous and lethal hybrid breeding ground for tyrants and bullies.
This is what folks outside progressive Christianity need to understand: If you naively believe people who come to church are always eager to hear and live out the words of Jesus, think again.
Within a disturbing number of churches, far too many are also rejecting Jesus’ words — just as much as folks on the far Left are, but for every different reasons.
They think the gospel of Jesus is too weak, too accepting, too loving. (Yes. It does make your head explode.)
Offending Left and Right
What does it mean when the right and the left both criticize these ads? That probably, somewhere buried in the debate, or hidden inside the images of these ads, are some real words of Jesus we’d all rather ignore by arguing about how bad the ads are instead.
“What does it mean when the right and the left both criticize these ads?”
If I had written the ads? If they’d asked me about the most honest tag line they could have chosen? I’d have said this: “Jesus gets us, but almost none of us gets him.”
And so, I guess I’m trying to say: If you want to understand what it’s like to live every day in a progressive Christian space, listen to the criticisms of these ads, coming both from “Team Blue” and “Team Red.”
Somewhere back behind the shouting about the hypocrisies of the Christian Right, the undeniably true critiques of the Left, and the shouting of the Christian Right — somewhere beyond all this is a gospel message of love, grace, justice and mercy we progressive Christians feel called to.
And this is exactly the kind of “rock and hard place” we live in … every … single day.
It’s a small sliver of reality that makes up our calling, our life, our vision and purpose. It’s our faith, and it’s a crazy beautiful little neighborhood to live in.
Eric Folkerth serves as senior pastor at Kessler Park United Methodist Church in Dallas. Follow his writing here.
Related articles:
Perhaps ‘He Gets Us’ better than we thought | Opinion by Terry Austin
He Gets Us, Part 1: The men and money behind the movement | Analysis by Kristen Thomason
‘He Gets Us’ is feeding information to data analysts and, ultimately, conservative political groups | Analysis by Kristen Thomason
The difference between ‘He Gets Us’ and the Asbury revival | Opinion by Jim Trammell