I am not a huge sports fan. American football, in particular, just does not interest me. I have gone to Super Bowl parties in the past and hung out with friends who wanted to watch some particular game, but mostly football just does not excite me. And for no particular reason, I felt a very real sense of disinterest in this year’s big game. But the news of the halftime show and this year’s commercials seem to always dominate my social media feeds the next day. This year was no exception.
The commercials that made it to the top of my feeds every time I signed in this year have been the “He gets us” ads, funded by The Servant Foundation. For the most part, these commercials are rather innocuous. Vague ideas about treating people who think differently than yourself with respect and considering how one can serve others in a manner that is faithful to the teachings of Jesus. One of last year’s ads did seem to carry some rather concerning connotations, which some interpreted as lending support to the January 6 insurrectionists, implying the MAGA crowd were the good guys. But, overall, the commercials are pretty standard, run-of-the-mill ideas that anyone can relate to in some way.
This year’s ads, though, have really upset the conservative white evangelical crowd. Christian podcaster Harrison H. Smith posted this gem on X:
And Matt Walsh had this to say about them:
This is what I want to focus on right now and talk about (I’ll be diving into some other angles on this in the next episode of the podcast, which will drop later today).
I recently read Tim Alberta’s newest book The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. At one point, he recounts a discussion he had with what would normally be called a conservative Evangelical pastor. According to Alberta, he checked off all the boxes, from being pro-life to believing one has to be born again to get into heaven. The pastor told of one Sunday morning, he was preaching a sermon on the Sermon on the Mount, specifically The Beatitudes. Afterward, a parishioner approached him and was upset that he had gone “woke” and wanted to know where he had gotten his liberal talking points. And he talks to another pastor later in the book who tells him that a lot of Jesus’ teachings just do not work and so we do not teach it that way anymore.
Big-name “Christian” influencers are stating much the same thing, and they are not even being quiet about it anymore. Walsh calls Jesus’ teachings “heretical bullshit”. This is where the Evangelical community finds itself. Obviously, not every Evangelical feels this way. To hearken back to Alberta’s book, he interviews a number of pastors and individuals who want to change things and who are hanging on in an attempt to redeem the Evangelical community. But these are the people the world sees and associates with modern American Evangelical Christianity.
They see John MacArthur defending a pedophile and excommunicating his wife from the church because she wants to divorce him.
They see members of the Southern Baptist Convention standing against any kind of checks and balances to protect their own members from being taken advantage of by sexual predators.
They see story after story after story of pastors being arrested for sexual misconduct with minors.
They see supposed Christians saying out loud that the actual teachings of Jesus undermine the spiritual significance of the same Jesus.
What was Jesus doing and saying, though, when he washed his disciples’ feet?
As the story goes, it is just before Passover. Jesus and his disciples are preparing for the feast and Jesus is aware that his time with them is coming to an end. According to the text, Judas has even been prompted by the devil to betray Jesus. But he has not done so yet. And Jesus proceeds to wash his disciples’ feet. All of their feet. Including Judas. Judas being Jesus’ actual enemy. The guy that turns him over to be crucified. And Jesus washes his feet, just as the “He Gets Us” ads claim. “with no ego or hate.” And then Jesus tells them, and us, why he did it. He says, to quote the Bible and Jesus himself,
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:14-15)
The people who wrote these commercials understand the story of Jesus. They have literally stated the words and imagery of the text in these commercials, regardless of the hypocrisy that exists in the same group’s support of Alliance Defending Freedom (which has been deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center). These ads are not heretical bullshit. Unless you want to tell me that the Bible includes some heretical bullshit and Jesus taught heretical bullshit. In that case, call me a heretic as well and I will head straight into the devil’s embrace with open arms.
I never thought I would live in a day when teaching the literal words of Jesus would be the proof of my damnation.
Here’s the actual truth for you. The facts. If you claim to be a Christian, then part of that involves accepting the Bible as the written words of God themself. And that written account includes these very words and actions of Jesus. This Bible, according to you, the Christian, is also without error and is the final authority in basically everything. And you, the Christian, also believe that one is saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. And you also believe that Jesus is God in the flesh. And the Bible is the only true accounting of what he said and did while here on the earth. So who are you to say it does not work or is heretical bullshit?
As Ice Cube said, “You Better check yo self before you wreck yo self”.