If you watched the Super Bowl last Sunday — which apparently about 123.4 million Americans did — you couldn’t have missed the two “He Gets Us” ads about Jesus that were part of the program. I certainly didn’t find anything objectionable in the ads. If someone wants to spend that much money promoting Jesus, have at it. It’s a free country.

A number of memes and social media commentaries suggested that if the sponsors of these ads were to spend that much money actually feeding the poor, housing people, or taking care of migrants, they could get a lot more done that is actually in the nature of what Jesus preached. Perhaps. But it’s still a free country.

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The campaign is apparently designed to appeal to younger people with a social media kind of vibe, and to provide allusions to present-day social movements, with an emphasis on values such as inclusion, compassion, and radical forgiveness.

Some of the concern is because the campaign has historically been funded by the Servant Foundation, which itself has historically been funded the National Christian Foundation, which itself has historically been funded by David Green, the Hobby Lobby guy, and which has given a lot of money to the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has historically sought to outlaw abortion, curtail LGTBQ rights, and promote other right-wing causes.

Follow the money, baby.

The “He Gets Us” campaign has recently split from the Servant Foundation and is under new leadership. What does that mean?

Beats the Hell out of me.

I don’t know who the new leadership team is. 

The He Gets Us Homepage has a relatively prominent place where people can sign up for their mailing list. Are they just trying to augment their mailing list so that they can provide propaganda to a large segment of impressionable young people?

Maybe.

It’s obviously important for us to keep our eyes open. These days it’s harder and harder to follow the money and discern people’s agendas, as the money is hidden in a virtual set of Matryoshka dolls of 501(c)(3) corporations.