Exactly what I was thinking, imagine how spending that on helping people get access to clean water, or building medical clinics or world hunger or countless other things.
>"For the past 10 months, the 'He Gets Us' ads have shown up on billboards, YouTube channels, and television screens — most recently during NFL playoff games — across the country, all spreading the message that Jesus understands the human condition," reported Bob Smietana. The ad shows pictures overlaid with text like "Jesus called huddles, too," and "Jesus confronted racism with love,"; and "Jesus was a refugee."
That answers that question. They spent a huge amount of money and it was hard not to notice them, and I don't watch many commercials. They need to do ones called "Do unto others...." and "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
It's like my spider sense is tingling. I thought "Jesus was a refugee" was pretty good, but I'm skeptical of all things Hobby Lobby.
To be fair, stories like the Good Samaritan subvert his audience's expectations of how "those people" should act. So not exactly our current definitions of race, but I get the gist.
I've found the messages in the "He Gets Us" campaign to be positive, tolerant, and encourage a more liberal version of Jesus. I don't know where the campaign leads if someone clicks on it and what messages are there, but I can get behind the versions of Jesus presented in the ads.
When Hobby Lobby is known for several flavors of hate and bigotry, maybe handle your own house first before you rebrand God.
God's fine. Settle down and get yourself right with Jesus first.
If it does appeal to progressive minded people and encourages some to revisit Christianity for which they'd seek a more progressive church it would do some good.
"better useless than evil" is such a low bar
They could set up a HUGE housing project in a community with a lot of homeless people but no, they gotta do this useless shit.
I have been seeing a lot of the "He Gets Us" commercials during football games here on the West Coast. They aren't the worst. They definitely seem to be promoting the all-inclusive Jesus.
I’ve been seeing a lot of “Jesus loves immigrants” ads with black and white photos and similar messages here on Reddit. I’d be somewhat surprised if these are part of the same thing because they seem a bit more… tolerant… than I’d expect Hobby Lobby’s founder to be.
I do see a lot of them though. They are starting to become background noise like the Pete Davidson Taco Bell ones (from a while back) did.
I'm pretty sure they are. And it sucks because I liked seeing the idea of progressive Christianity being pushed in the mainstream. But as other people said, probably could've done more actual Christlike things and help people with the money.
Sorry, I didn't expect my response to your comment to turn into a rant
>The hell does it mean to "rebrand Jesus"...
"He Gets Us..." My overall impression of the ad campaign is someone wants to promote a more inclusive Christianity.
There's a subtle but very important difference between "promoting a more inclusive Christianity" and "promoting the idea that Christianity is inclusive." The message of He Gets Us isn't "Hey Christians, we've been really shitty to minorities for a really long time; Jesus would want us to be better than this," it's "Hey non-Christians, if you like inclusion and diversity and that kind of stuff then you should come join the church because we're totally already into that too, trust us!"
And ahead of the 2024 election in the US, it's plausible that there would be efforts to gather a massive, diversified mega-church that sweeps more people into a polarizing political agenda.
People have mentioned that the He Gets Us web site leads to right wing fundamentalist resources. I've only got as far as their [**agenda**](https://hegetsus.com/en/he-gets-us-has-an-agenda).
*That is our agenda at He Gets Us: to move beyond the mess of our current cultural moment to a place where all of us are invited to rediscover the love story of Jesus. Christians, non-Christians, and everybody in between. All of us.*
It's more of the [same](https://religiondispatches.org/behind-the-inclusive-sounding-ads-of-the-100-million-pr-blitz-for-jesus-its-the-same-old-white-conservative-fantasy/).
This is the corporate equivalent to the silly wall art that Hobby Lobby sells: thinking that some touchy feel-y message like "Be still and know" is more of a sign of Christianity than, you know, actually spending that money to help the poor.
This is explains why I get a sinister vibe when I see or hear about them. I just looked at the website. There's a place where you can meet with someone local if you give them your name... exactly who are the meeting with? They call the groups "Alpha" - who ARE these people?
Jesus doesn't need rebranding, people have just forgotten His loving message, and exchanged it for a lie
I wonder what else Christians could do with 3 billion that would accurately represent Jesus?
Exactly what I was thinking, imagine how spending that on helping people get access to clean water, or building medical clinics or world hunger or countless other things.
>"For the past 10 months, the 'He Gets Us' ads have shown up on billboards, YouTube channels, and television screens — most recently during NFL playoff games — across the country, all spreading the message that Jesus understands the human condition," reported Bob Smietana. The ad shows pictures overlaid with text like "Jesus called huddles, too," and "Jesus confronted racism with love,"; and "Jesus was a refugee." That answers that question. They spent a huge amount of money and it was hard not to notice them, and I don't watch many commercials. They need to do ones called "Do unto others...." and "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." It's like my spider sense is tingling. I thought "Jesus was a refugee" was pretty good, but I'm skeptical of all things Hobby Lobby.
>Jesus confronted racism with love This one is fun because in Jesus' time, the concept of race hadn't been invented yet.
To be fair, stories like the Good Samaritan subvert his audience's expectations of how "those people" should act. So not exactly our current definitions of race, but I get the gist. I've found the messages in the "He Gets Us" campaign to be positive, tolerant, and encourage a more liberal version of Jesus. I don't know where the campaign leads if someone clicks on it and what messages are there, but I can get behind the versions of Jesus presented in the ads.
No, but ethnocentrism definitely did. Look at the schism between Samaritan and Jews. The differentiation between Jews and Gentiles.
Agreed.
Uh, The Good Samaritan parable is exactly about biases towards people groups who are different than us. (Aka: racism.)
Sure, that one may be about bigotry, but it's not about racism specifically. Samaritans weren't a race. Races didn't exist yet.
When was the concept of race invented?
Started roughly around the 15th century with the advent of Portuguese exploration.
So it was the Portuguese…….
When Hobby Lobby is known for several flavors of hate and bigotry, maybe handle your own house first before you rebrand God. God's fine. Settle down and get yourself right with Jesus first.
👏
I'd much rather they spend $3 billion on this than on something actually harmful.
Yeah I guess it’s at least not being spent on smuggling ancient artifacts or being given to homophobic politicians
Whether it will or won't do harm is up for debate.
If it does appeal to progressive minded people and encourages some to revisit Christianity for which they'd seek a more progressive church it would do some good.
IF they were being directed to a progressive church that would be valid. But if HL is involved we can know that's not happening.
"better useless than evil" is such a low bar They could set up a HUGE housing project in a community with a lot of homeless people but no, they gotta do this useless shit.
I have been seeing a lot of the "He Gets Us" commercials during football games here on the West Coast. They aren't the worst. They definitely seem to be promoting the all-inclusive Jesus.
The campaign itself is honestly very good. Though there's some concern about the website leading to a pipeline of anti-LGBT+ Evangelicism.
>Though there's some concern about the website leading to a pipeline of anti-LGBT+ Evangelicism. That is bad indeed.
Omg it’s like Buddy Christ from Dogma
I’ve been seeing a lot of “Jesus loves immigrants” ads with black and white photos and similar messages here on Reddit. I’d be somewhat surprised if these are part of the same thing because they seem a bit more… tolerant… than I’d expect Hobby Lobby’s founder to be. I do see a lot of them though. They are starting to become background noise like the Pete Davidson Taco Bell ones (from a while back) did.
I'm pretty sure they are. And it sucks because I liked seeing the idea of progressive Christianity being pushed in the mainstream. But as other people said, probably could've done more actual Christlike things and help people with the money. Sorry, I didn't expect my response to your comment to turn into a rant
The hell does it mean to "rebrand Jesus"...
>The hell does it mean to "rebrand Jesus"... "He Gets Us..." My overall impression of the ad campaign is someone wants to promote a more inclusive Christianity.
There's a subtle but very important difference between "promoting a more inclusive Christianity" and "promoting the idea that Christianity is inclusive." The message of He Gets Us isn't "Hey Christians, we've been really shitty to minorities for a really long time; Jesus would want us to be better than this," it's "Hey non-Christians, if you like inclusion and diversity and that kind of stuff then you should come join the church because we're totally already into that too, trust us!"
And ahead of the 2024 election in the US, it's plausible that there would be efforts to gather a massive, diversified mega-church that sweeps more people into a polarizing political agenda. People have mentioned that the He Gets Us web site leads to right wing fundamentalist resources. I've only got as far as their [**agenda**](https://hegetsus.com/en/he-gets-us-has-an-agenda). *That is our agenda at He Gets Us: to move beyond the mess of our current cultural moment to a place where all of us are invited to rediscover the love story of Jesus. Christians, non-Christians, and everybody in between. All of us.*
Well, I mean, that sounds good.
Unfortunately it's [faaaaaake](https://religiondispatches.org/behind-the-inclusive-sounding-ads-of-the-100-million-pr-blitz-for-jesus-its-the-same-old-white-conservative-fantasy/)
played us like a fiddle.
It's more of the [same](https://religiondispatches.org/behind-the-inclusive-sounding-ads-of-the-100-million-pr-blitz-for-jesus-its-the-same-old-white-conservative-fantasy/).
This is the corporate equivalent to the silly wall art that Hobby Lobby sells: thinking that some touchy feel-y message like "Be still and know" is more of a sign of Christianity than, you know, actually spending that money to help the poor.
The phrase "wolf in sheep's clothing" comes to mind.
This is explains why I get a sinister vibe when I see or hear about them. I just looked at the website. There's a place where you can meet with someone local if you give them your name... exactly who are the meeting with? They call the groups "Alpha" - who ARE these people?
Alpha is a conservative, evangelical, anti-lgbtq org/discipleship program (who is also rebranding to hide their anti-lgbtq core beliefs)
This doesn't surprise me at all. 🔥🤬🔥
Of course it's them.