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The Christian group He Gets Us spent approximately $20 million to air two commercials during the Super Bowl that promoted the Christian faith and Jesus. As RedState’s Nick Arama reported, New York Democrat representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez predictably criticized the ads, tweeting, “Something tells me Jesus would *not* spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign.”
Imagine the gall to say that you know what Jesus would or would not do, and that he’d call his own teachings “fascism.”
He Gets Us responded Monday, but instead of issuing blistering statements against AOC, they took the high road:
“Our research shows that many people’s only exposure to Jesus is through Christians who reflect him imperfectly, and too often in ways that create a distorted or incomplete picture of his radical compassion and love for others,” He Gets Us spokesperson Jason Vanderground told Fox News Digital when asked to respond to ongoing attacks. “We believe it’s more important now than ever for the real, authentic Jesus to be represented in the public marketplace as he is in the Bible.”
Since my earlier reply, I watched the ads. Seems to me that if @AOC thinks the message "Love your enemies" is fascist, that tells us more about her than the He Gets Us group. 1/2
— Michael Isenberg (@TheMikeIsenberg) February 13, 2023
The first ad, “Be Childlike,” ran for 30 seconds and features a Patsy Cline song playing over a montage of children playing, hugging, and being kind to each other. Then a graphic comes up saying, “Jesus didn’t want us to act like adults.”
Jesus didn’t want us to act like adults. #HeGetsUshttps://t.co/83st2vLhmy pic.twitter.com/ScC6wmOj7S
— HeGetsUs (@HeGetsUs) February 13, 2023
A perfectly sweet commercial; there wasn’t anything remotely offensive about it. Vanderground explains the meaning:
“On multiple occasions, Jesus used the term ‘childlike’ to refer to a humble and trusting attitude,” said Vanderground, referring to the ad. “Christians often refer to their faith as childlike, being humble enough to place one’s trust in a power greater than self.”
The second spot ran for 60 seconds and was titled “Love Your Enemies.” This one was not as sweet, as it showed black-and-white photographs of people arguing and fighting. (Amazing photography, by the way.) In the end, a graphic said simply, “Jesus loved the people you hate.” The message is clear: “…forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
In other words, practice forgiveness.
“Love Your Enemies” was the second most-engaging spot during the Super Bowl broadcast, according to EDO, which measures such things. Vanderground could have pointed out that AOC is one of the most divisive and intelligence-challenged members of congress, but instead chose to explain the group’s goals with the ads:
“Instead of responding to divisiveness in anger or avoiding conflict altogether, Jesus demonstrated how we can and should show confounding love and respect to one another,” said Vanderground. “The goal is that the two commercials will not only inspire those who may be skeptical of Christianity to ask questions and learn more about Jesus, but also encourage Christians to live out their faith even better and exhibit the same confounding love and forgiveness Jesus modeled.”
When I search AOC’s Twitter account, I do find not posts from her about Rihanna’s halftime crotch grab (and subsequent antics), nor do I see anything about Sam Smith’s satanic performance at the Grammys earlier this month. Those two managed to offend all sorts of people, but AOC would rather save her fire for Christianity.
There was simply nothing offensive about either of these ads, and AOC appears to be simply triggered by two words: “Jesus” and “Christianity.” (What she found “fascist” is beyond me.)
Many Christians feel like they are under attack by the Democrat party, and in this case, they’re right.
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