The Super Bowl commercial He Gets Us sends a message that even Christians, especially the ones who were behind it, apparently don’t seem to get. One of the financial backers is the family that owns Hobby Lobby which just less than two years ago, ran a fuill-page ad calling for a Christian-run government.
One commercial uses Patsy Cline’s “If I Could See the World (Through the Eyes of a Child)” playing over numerous black and white photos of kids hugging, being friendly, and then ends with a white boy about preschool age and a black boy the same age running to each other to give each other a friendly hug. It has a nice message. Unfortunately, the people behind it don’t practice what they preach.
The second ad, which is 60 seconds showed black and white images of people screaming at each other or getting physical. It’s titled “Love Your Enemies” which is ironic coming from Hobby Lobby which has been sued for discriminating against disabled people and using anti-LGBTQIA policies. I’m not really sure what they mean by love your enemies. Because they don’t. This is the old-fashioned saying, “Love the sinner, not the sin” which turns everything you don’t agree with into a sin.
I liked that they used one image of an irate white woman in a car with a sign that read “Liberty Over Lockdown” because if Christians really did love each other, they would’ve done what they could for their fellow people during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. They felt it more important to get their hair and nails done and to go out to eat in restaurants. Most of the anger and hatred has been perpetrated by the religious right dating back to Jerry Falwell. The conservate base has been spreading this hatred for decades. They are mostly responsible.
Yet, they will argue, it’s the left and the non-Christians which are the problems. And while the blame isn’t one-sided, how do you expect people to act after decades of being treated a certain way? You can only turn the other cheek so many times before you see it isn’t going to stop anything. No one was trying to take prayer out of schools. They were saying their kids shouldn’t be forced. No one should go to a pool party with their fellow sports teammates that turns into a surprise baptism. Books are being removed from schools and creationism is being forced into public education. If this was any other religion doing this, there would be an all-out war by Christian groups.
And don’t fucking deny it.
Christians are using violence, threats and intimidation to get what they want. Think of the audacity of spending $20 million on these mediocre ads that people only liked because it said the trigger word – Jesus. And yet that money could have gone to do more thing Christians like help the needy.
Instead this is probably a tax write-off for Hobby Lobby and other organizations. I’m wondering who are “the people we hate.” I don’t hate conservatives or Christians. I hate hypocrites. Or more I should say, I pity them. They can’t see the errors of their ways and they will always function under the thinking, “I’m always right and you’re always wrong.” And it’s best not to talk to them because they will never love people who think differently but are immediate violent threats.
We’re not always supposed to agree. But these ads are bascially the high school administrator telling us to shake hands with the bully who made things bad with us instigated a fight and is going to to get away with it. The bullies win and the ones who have been victims are treated worse by the system. I don’t need a religious organization to tell me to be a better person. A lot of people are mostly good people. It’s just when they get around certain organizations, they turn bad.
In college, I used to interact with a lot of frat boys and sorority girls in class and on campus as individual students, they always came off as pleasant. But if it was something to do with their Greek organization, they changed. I don’t want to associate with people who behave one way when no one is looking and another way when they face scrutiny by the organization. That’s always been my issue with some religious groups, most of them Christians. It just shows how two-faced they can be.
This is the type of ad from someone who has to make sure everyone around them sees they put a $50 bill in the collection plate at church but won’t give someone 50 cents who’s very thirsty. I don’t need Jesus to “get us.” If we teach children in Sunday School that Jesus loves us, it means that love is unconditional. Saying, “He gets us” is like saying he tolerates us. And for a deity that’s not good.
A bolder commercial would been one that would’ve told people to be nicer to the ones working at restaurants and retail stores on Sundays. It would’ve told people that we’re not all perfect so if we feel we would be better changing or sex later in life, then so be it. A better commercial would’ve told us to love everyone. The reason the two young boys hug each other is they have had it drilled in their head yet that “white people are devils” or that “black people are lazy and thieves.” That comes later.
And religion, especially Christianity, taught people that black people were inferior. It taught people women should be subservient. It taught people that the LGBTQIA community are an abomination. And now, more than every, a lot of people have turned their backs on all forms of religion. This is an attempt to recruit new members. It’s shameful.
Jesus wouldn’t have “gotten” this commercial. I’m sure he probably would whipped the marketing people who thought it was a good idea like he got angry at the money handlers at the temple.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 