He washed my feet, but he still hates LGBTQ people, right?

The folks behind "He Gets Us" aren't quite what they'd like us to believe

How did the story of a man who taught and practiced unconditional love, peace, and kindness; who spent his life defending the poor and the marginalized; a man who even forgave his killers while they executed him unjustly — whose life inspired a radical movement that is still impacting the world thousands of years later — how did this man’s story become associated with hatred and oppression for so many people? And how might we all rediscover the promise of the love his story represents? Those are the questions at the heart of He Gets Us.

• HeGetsUs.com

If you watched Super Bowl LVIII, you saw the minute-long commercial that featured various scenes of people washing the feet of others. Featuring a soundtrack with a soulful cover of INXS’ 1988 “Never Tear Us Apart,” we saw several scenes of people selflessly pouring water over the feet of the tired and worn out.

It was meant to reflect the story of Jesus Christ washing the feet of His disciples on the night before He was crucified. If you watch the ad, you see the act of feet washing presented as an act of humility by the giver and the receiver.

Anyone watching the ad absent any context might think that the people behind it are serious about trying to convert people to an honest, kind, and compassionate brand of Christianity. But is that truly the case? Who’s behind He Gets Us, the group behind the one-minute ad in the first half of the Super Bowl and the 15-second ad in the second half?

It turns out there’s much more to the story than the people behind He Gets Us might want us to know. Not that anyone has to dig too hard or too deep to find out, though.

(CNN) — In between star-studded advertisements and a whole lot of football, this year’s Super Bowl watchers are being taken to church.

“He Gets Us,” a campaign to promote Jesus and Christianity, is running two ads during the game as part of a staggering $100 million media investment. To many, the spots will be nothing new: “He Gets Us” content has been peppering TV screens, billboards and social media feeds since a national launch in 2022.

The campaign is arresting, portraying the pivotal figure of Christianity as an immigrant, a refugee, a radical, an activist for women’s rights and a bulwark against racial injustice and political corruption. The “He Gets Us” website features content about of-the-moment topics, like artificial intelligence and social justice.

“Whatever you are facing, Jesus faced it too,” the campaign claims.

It’s getting noticed. One of the campaign’s videos, titled “The Rebel,” has netted 122 million views on YouTube in 11 months. Google searches for “He Gets Us” have spiked since the beginning of the year.

The campaign is a natural fit with the NFL, whose games have long contained symbols of religion. Players often pray on the field and point to the heavens after touchdowns.

As with most sports, players publicly pray on the field pre- and post-game. In interviews after the game, we’re frequently treated to players beginning with variations of “I give all the glory to God,” as if the Almighty helped guide his team to victory.

(Interestingly, you never hear anyone blame God for their defeats. ‘We prayed hard, our fans prayed hard, but damned if God ignored our prayers and left us hanging….’ Yeah, I’m still waiting for that one.)

So, where did the money for the ads from He Gets Us come from?

[T]he price of running a commercial during the game is enormous. A 30-second ad is estimated to cost about $7 million for Super Bowl 58, on top of the money it takes to create what are often elaborate commercials designed to grab headlines.

Viewers who watched Super Bowl 57 took note of a commercial with this tagline: "He Gets Us." This year, the ad campaign will have two separate commercials run during the CBS broadcast.

What are the "He Gets Us" commercials all about? Here's what you need to know about who's behind the ads and what message the campaign is trying to convey.

This year, new charity organization Come Near is leading the "He Gets Us" ad campaign. The group is led by CEO Ken Calwell, though not many other details are known about the organization still in its infancy.

And the reason for the new organization? It might just be that the organization that was previously the public face behind He Gets Us was too politically toxic.

That represents a change from last year, when the ads were funded by the Servant Foundation. The campaign received criticism due to its connection to the Servant Foundation, which reportedly donated millions of dollars to a nonprofit fighting against abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights.

Among the donors behind the campaign is the family of billionaire Hobby Lobby co-founder David Green, whose son is a board member at Come Near.

The initiative is "backed by more than $100 million," according to AdWeek. It's unusual to see a Super Bowl commercial that doesn't directly tie to buying a product, which is one reason the "He Gets Us" ads received so much attention during Super Bowl 57. 

Ah, the Servant Foundation…best known for being the charitable arm of Hobby Lobby, which, as mentioned above, is virulently anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ. Precisely what Jesus would do, yeah?

So perhaps it was time to restructure and put a new organization in charge of funding He Gets Us, one that would put some distance between the Servant Foundation’s ideological and theological toxicity and their desire- however legitimate or not- to bring people to Christ.

The problem a group like He Gets Us will inevitably run up against, especially with a non-profit with a lousy reputation like the Servant Foundation behind it, is how do you convert young people who are suspicious of your motives?

How do you break down barriers when so many equate Christian groups with hate groups? Let’s face it; there are a lot of so-called “Christians” out there far more concerned with keeping people out than inviting them in. They believe the Kingdom of Heaven is open to White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals; all others need not apply.

When terms like “Christofascism” and “American Taliban” can be accurately applied to those who claim to worship the Prince of Peace, how can people believe those trying to convert them? How can they trust that the faith they’re being presented with isn’t a front for hating those not like them?

“Our goal is to really show that Jesus loved and cared for anyone and everyone,” He Gets Us campaign spokesperson Greg Miller told The Associated Press on Monday. He said the campaign’s website received 715,000 views in the previous 24 hours.

Critics have noted the campaign’s welcoming and progressive messages seem at odds with some of its Christian funders, who have also supported anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion causes.

Last year’s ads were overseen by the Servant Foundation, also a donor to Alliance Defending Freedom, a prominent conservative legal organization that helped overturn Roe v. Wade — the ruling establishing a nationwide right to abortion — and has represented clients challenging same-sex marriage and transgender rights.

Not exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from a group modeling the love and compassion of Jesus Christ, eh? And you’d be right…because the Servant Foundation represents an arch-Conservative political and theological worldview that has often has little to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Those who work for and support the Servant Foundation are often primarily concerned with politics and who and how others love than getting and keeping their own houses in order. It’s a mean-spirited, homophobic, and racist theology that’s neither accepting nor loving.

The family behind Hobby Lobby also contributed to “He Gets Us.” They previously won a Supreme Court case challenging requirements to cover some birth control for employees on anti-abortion grounds.

The “He Gets Us” campaign is now under a new charitable organization, Come Near, meaning the Servant Foundation is no longer overseeing it. The nonprofit says it is “committed to sharing the life and love of Jesus in thought-provoking new ways.”

That’s all well and good…if that’s what they legitimately mean. If you look at the He Gets Us website, upon which no expense was spared, much effort and creativity were expended to make it colorful, eye-catching, and unique. It tells a story in a well-done and professional manner.

But when you consider the amount of money expended on the website and the $14 million spent to air the commercials (not including production expenses), it’s hard not to ask this question:

Why spend all that money trying to save souls on national television when it could’ve arguably been more effectively used to feed, clothe, and house those in need? Think of the people who could’ve been helped with those millions. Instead, most of that money will go to CBS executives and stockholders.

Besides the vast amounts of money spent on the ads, there are other questions about the Servant Foundation that raise suspicions about its methods and motives.

The Servant Foundation has plunged millions of dollars into its “He Gets Us” ads, which paint Jesus as an “influencer” who was “cancelled” for standing up for his beliefs. The controversial adverts were shown at the Super Bowl for the second year running and have been plastered across billboards in the United States over the last year.

But analysis of financial accounts by openDemocracy shows over the last five years the Servant Foundation has also grown to become the main identifiable source of funding for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), described as an anti-LGBTIQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)—an allegation it denies.

In total Servant gave the group $65.9 million from 2018 to 2021—an average of more than $16 million a year. As a result, ADF’s grant income rose from $55 million in 2017 to $96.8 million in 2021.

Of course, no Christian organization wants to be openly pushing hatred and bigotry, and the Servant Foundation is no exception. But, when one of your primary benefactors is the family behind Hobby Lobby, known for its extremely Conservative and intolerant flavor of Christianity, there’s only so much you can do to camouflage your true colors.

The Servant Foundation was set up in Kansas by evangelical lawyer Bill High. Its partnership with the NCF included the NCF performing “accounting and other back-room tasks” for Servant. High ended the relationship in 2017, reportedly to offer lower fees to clients, and also changed Servant’s public-facing name to The Signatry.

Servant made headlines with its Super Bowl ads, which were part of the $300 million He Gets Us campaign hoping to fuel conservative evangelical goals.

Who is the Servant Foundation serving?

Hobby Lobby, co-founded by David Green, has confirmed that he’s helped fund He Gets Us. The Green family, worth an estimated $15.2 billion, has long operated its stores on what it calls “biblical principles.” The family and Hobby Lobby fought and won a battle against the federal government at the Supreme Court over the Affordable Care Act’s abortion care mandate.

The family and Hobby Lobby cited “their sincere religious objections to facilitating the provision of abortifacients.” Their victory led to a 2014 ruling that privately-held corporations don’t have to comply with the mandate if the owners express sincerely held religious objections.

Hobby Lobby also waged- and lost- an 11-year fight to keep a transgender employee from using a women’s restroom at a store in Illinois. That's precisely what Jesus would’ve done, eh??

Eleven years? To keep a transgender employee from using a women’s restroom? Seriously? How petty and harsh is that? And these folks call themselves “Christians?”

The motivation behind the He Gets Us campaign, according to Green, is a desire to reshape public perception of Christians: "What we're known as, as Christians, we're known as haters," he said in a podcast interview last year. "We're beginning to be known as haters - we hate this group, we hate that group. But we're not. We are people that have the very, very best love story ever written, and we need to tell that love story. So, our idea is, let's tell the story. As a Christian, you should love everybody. Jesus loved everybody."….

During an interview last year, Green explained why He Gets Us decided to advertise during the Super Bowl, the most expensive TV event of the year. 

"We really feel that we need, as a group of Christians, to tell 350 million people that He cares about you and He gets you," he said.

Jesus may have loved everybody, but the Green family and Hobby Lobby certainly haven’t proven that they do. Quite the opposite, in point of fact.

Of course, a group of Christians are free to spend their money as they choose, but I can’t help but wonder if those multiple millions couldn’t have been put to much better use than two television commercials lasting 75 seconds.

Then again, even rich people make ill-advised financial decisions, no?

I think what’s clear about He Gets Us is that it’s a PR campaign intended to whitewash the reality that the Green family and Hobby Lobby are well-known for being hateful Christians. That’s unfortunate, but it’s the truth they’ve created for themselves.

As for the millions they spent on the 75 seconds worth of commercials, they could’ve fed, clothed, housed, and perhaps even provided medical care to thousands of people in need. Then again, that would be “SOCIALISM!!!” wouldn’t it?

As any good, God-fearing, White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexual patriot knows, Jesus Christ doesn’t traffic in “SOCIALISM!!!” That only encourages dependency on getting something for nothing.

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