A Grand Haven company behind the ‘He Gets Us’ ad campaign is spending millions of dollars on two ads that will air during the Super Bowl.
Haven previewed the ads at an event Wednesday night in Grand Rapids.
According to the campaign’s website, ‘He Gets Us’ is a movement to “reintroduce people to the Jesus of the Bible.”
Organizers say they want to unify the American people around Jesus and his teachings.
You may have already seen some of their ads that have run during national sporting events, promoting messages like “Jesus was wrongly judged” and “Jesus welcomed all to the table.”
“When you think about being in front of 115 million people — it’s like you’re here tonight, we’re talking because of the Super Bowl — and so all of our audiences are so excited about knowing that Jesus is going to be in the Super Bowl, it creates so much energy,” Jason Vanderground, the president of Haven, said. “The Super Bowl is literally a kickoff thing for people. It’s not like you’re reaching the finish line and going, ‘We’re in the Super Bowl, that’s it, great, let’s pack up and go home.’ It’s the start of something and that’s what we want people to know about.”
It’s unclear exactly how much the group spent on the ad buy, but estimates show a 30 second ad spot went for $7 million this year.
Oh these people? They're operated by a Kansas financial oranganization called the Signatary, which is a tax-exempt religious charity that makes $750 million per year. They're the financial arm of the Servant Foundation, which is a horrifying evangelical nonprofit founded and operated by ghouls. One of the main donation sources is the Green family, and if that sounds familiar it's because they run the store Hobby Lobby, the one that keeps getting in the news for weird evangelical things. In 2019 the Signatary donated $19 million to the "Alliance Defending Freedom" which is an anti-LGBTQ hate group who goes around the country writing abortion restriction policy for state legislatures. They also gave $8 million to the the Creation Museum in Kentucky, a museum about the Earth being 6000 years old and humans coexisting with dinosaurs.
So I'm pretty sure the main purpose of this campaign is the same as any other non-profit religious thing in America, it's a way to shuffle money around and avoid taxes. It also works as a vector for propaganda.
I actually do have experience with these people, since they ran a chatroom on their website where you'd talk with "volunteers". They were also available on Facebook, so I've talked with them a bunch. There were usually two types of people who'd talk to me: either someone really really trained in lawyer speak and would weasel out of any specific questions about how Jesus disproved of rich people, or the ones who were less trained and would openly spout off transphobia and homophobia. One time I got a guy to say Jesus would support the struggle of black people, but not BLM specifically because they're too violent and political. Yeah ok.
content warning: transphobia, bigotry, etc: Talking to them directly instantly reveals they're just evangelicals trying their best to parrot what they think young liberals are interested in, except it's the most paper-thin mask imaginable because they couldn't keep their mouths shut. In the chats I had with them they would tell me things like Jesus loves trans people and wants them to get "cured" or that Jesus only meant greedy rich people when he said the eye of the needle thing. One time I backed one of these people into a corner, asking specifically which kind of activists Jesus would approve of, since he had already rejected that Jesus would support antifa, labor unions, BLM, or feminist marches, and this guy...this guy tells me Jesus would be in favor of anti-abortion activists and people disrupting drag queen events. He didn't say it like that though, he said "activists who protect children" and when I asked for specifics, then he said those who'd protect the unborn or young children from predators in libraries.
Even if their chat service weren't disgusting enough, take a look at this, their board of directors.. First off, yeah sure Christ would approve of anything involving his name being associated with a "board of directors" that's 7 white guys. Second, look at these guys and their CVs:
We got a tax consultant at Deloitte, we got a vice president from Commerce Bank, a director at a capital investment firm, the CEO of the retail chain Tractor Supply (which had $12.73 billion in revenue in 2021). Just the most evil selection of utter slime people possible and if there is a loving god they will spend eternity in a pit of lava.
There's no hate like Christian love :wholesome:
Building off what @axont is saying... if you're not familiar with Evangelical Christianity (the dominant form of Protestantism in the US), basically they take two different approaches to proselytizing.
Tell it like it is. Be open about what they think it means to be a Christian. This means you tell folks they are wretched sinners in the hands of an angry God. If you do not repent of your sins - and being gay or trans is definitely a sin - then you will spend an eternity in a state of conscious torment in hell. The people and churches who do this are truly horrible people, but they are honest about what they believe.
The "seeker sensitive" approach. This means minimizing and misdirecting anything that appears unpalatable to non-believers. Sometimes you gotta really know what to look out for and what weasel words they use. They will say LGBTQ folks are welcome in their church and they want them to come and "experience Jesus" or some shit. Sounds accepting right? Nope! What they really mean is they will allow someone like that to enter the church... but then they will hear a message (eventually) that God thinks being gay is a sin, and you have to not be that if you want to be saved. Or ask these people if non-Christian people go to hell. They'll just spout weasel words like "we don't know what happens to those who do not accept Christ". What they mean is, we don't know the specific details of what hell is like. Maybe it's more psychological torture than physical. The point is, they absolutely believe there is a "bad place" and you're going there, they just couch it in wording that makes it more ambiguous sounding than it is.
So this campaign leans hard into approach #2. They are targeting vulnerable, non-religious young people who may be going through some shit and in desperation, reach out to this campaign. They will get told all sorts of things that sound nice superficially but hide true beliefs and intentions. The idea is to get people into churches and slow boil them in Christian doctrine.
Just wonderful people Evangelicals are...
Evangelicals are simply disturbing to me in a way I can't put into words. They're obsessed with trying to overthrow all secular culture. Like the evangelicals I went to high school with would wear a t-shirt with the Tide detergent logo except it would say "Jesus: Tough on Sin." They have their own secluded culture, movies, books, diets, and it's all presented with the idea they're separate and superior to the non-believing masses, who are all festering in insidious sin.
They have a warped perception of how many people are non-believers too. My high school classmates all thought Christianity was a small religion worldwide and was under constant threat of being forgotten. Even though we lived in America and every single president has been a Christian and the only religious buildings in my hometown were the 40 different evangelical churches for the sub 1000 population.
They're disturbing because consider their two main premises: 1) All of mankind is a vile, unlovable mass of sinning monsters who don't deserve to be saved, yet we're being granted mercy anyway by a domineering and vengeful god if we beg enough and 2) Christianity is on the verge of extinction, which will plunge all of humanity into eternal doom. You'd think with those two things at the forefront of their minds they'd have better art and music, like you'd think it would be really grim and introspective, but everything they create is dogshit. Their hymns are all sappy and smiley, their movies are cloyingly sweet, the way they talk too is they're simply pleased with themselves and happy to be alive. At least the Catholics have made some cool buildings and some of their organ music is pretty fire.
I once had an evangelical pastor tell me that if you have family who dies without becoming a Christian, they go to hell forever, but you won't miss them in Heaven or regret it because there's no pain in heaven and also you'll have a fuller understanding of justice. You'll simply agree they need to burn forever once you get to heaven, and he added "even if it's your spouse." And he explained all of this with a gentle soft voice, a smile, and the deadest doll-like eyes I've ever seen on a human.
I'd wear that t-shirt ngl
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The rednecks with the fucking assault rifles, I'm sure, is what he meant.
He Get Sus.
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