Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
“He gets us”: Fascism with a Happy Face?

“He gets us”: Fascism with a Happy Face?

Last updated on: February 14, 2023 at 8:20 pm by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

“He gets us”: Fascism with a Happy Face? 2023-02-14T20:20:03-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“All the City Was Gathered at His Door”
(“Toute la ville étant à sa porte”)
Jacques Joseph (James) Tissot, d. 1902 (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

If you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday — and there’s really no need to raise your hand or to identify yourself; you know who you are — you very likely saw one or two of the Christian ads that ran during the game from the “He gets us” campaign. The potential audience for the ads was, I’m told, more than one hundred million people.

Important as it is, and as worthy of discussion as it is, I’m not interested here in the appropriateness or inappropriateness of spending twenty million dollars for those ninety seconds of total ad time, nor in whether spending a projected billion dollars on the overall three-year ad campaign is a proper use of funds that might otherwise have been used for the relief of poverty or, right now, to help the victims of the recent terrible earthquake in Türkiye.

I understand. Such dilemmas are always going to be with us, pending the Second Coming. In a world where many are starving and in which children are trafficked as sex slaves, can money justifiably go to such an ad campaign? Or, as critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sometimes like to demand, wouldn’t funds for proselytizing missionaries or for temples be better spent on the poor? Wouldn’t money paid for public art be better employed in more soup kitchens? In such a world, should any money at all go to the local ballet company or art museum? Should people spend time on degrees in eighteenth-century British poetry while others can’t make ends meet? Until hunger is eradicated, can you really justify your new sofa or your upgraded cellphone or your more powerful new computer or your meal out at a nice restaurant? How much is enough? How much is too much? Where should the line be drawn?

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the village of Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. They gave a supper for him there, and Martha waited on the party while Lazarus took his place at table with Jesus. Then Mary took a whole pound of very expensive perfume and anointed Jesus’ feet and then wiped them with her hair. The entire house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot (the man who was going to betray Jesus), burst out, “Why on earth wasn’t this perfume sold? It’s worth thirty pounds, which could have been given to the poor!” (John 12:1-5, J. B. Phillips translation)

This is, actually, an extraordinarily difficult question. It’s one that merits continual reflection. But I bracket it right now. I have another question in mind, a far easier one.

The “He gets us” ad campaign has drawn a great deal of attention, much of it negative. My favorite comment, among those that I’ve seen thus far, comes from the always-entertaining Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This is what she said. This is what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said:

“Something tells me Jesus would *not* spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign.”

I have now, I think, watched all of the ads in the “He gets us” campaign. If I had known nothing of those sponsoring them but had been obliged to guess, I would have pegged them as coming from a politically “progressive” group of Christians. Their messages emphasize inclusion and caring and peace, which, if anything, tend to be favorite themes (if not always favored practices) of the cultural/political Left. and which are (allegedly) alien to the cultural/political Right. The ads dwell, affirmatively, on refugees and teenage mothers and the like.

I cannot, for the life of me, see anything “fascist” about them. And neither, I was pleased to see just this morning, can the British-born conservative political commentator Charles C. W. Cooke (who has, by the way, repeatedly identified himself as an atheist or agnostic): “Apparently ‘Love Your Enemies’ Is Now ‘Fascism’.”

Now, it’s evidently true, as some news outlets have informed us, that there are people among the ad campaign’s backers who have opposed abortion and same-sex marriage. There are people among its backers who are affiliated with theologically and socially conservative churches. Heck, even David Green, the co-founder with Hobby Lobby is involved. (Shudder!) As an article in the Deseret News observes, “Religious leaders, LGBTQ rights activists and even some politicians have questioned the motives of the “He Gets Us” movement in recent weeks.”

But I don’t quite see why the identity or the presumed motives of some of the ad campaign’s backers are relevant. After all, so far as I can tell, none of the ads says anything at all about gay marriage or homosexuality. None of them mentions abortion. None of them refers to any specific sect or denomination of Christianity. The people behind the campaign expressly set out their “agenda” here, And it’s not only non-political, it’s anti-political. I encourage you to read it. I’m happy, in fact — although nobody has bidden me to do so — to endorse it.

If a devoted follower of Bernie Sanders makes a donation to the local dog pound, does that make the dog pound “democratic socialist”? If somebody who endorsed Rick DeSantis for the governorship of Florida donates to a symphony orchestra, is he thereby attempting to spread his version of Republican politics via Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”)? It makes no difference, so far as I can see, whether the backers of the “He gets us” campaign are Protestant or Catholic, Greek Orthodox or Quaker, liberal or socialist or conservative or libertarian. There isn’t the slightest specific whiff of any of those religious traditions or political movements in the ads. Neither is there any specific theology, nor any controversial assertions about atonement or resurrection or virgin birth. Instead, their message is an invitation to the most basic, simple Christianity, with an emphasis on Christ-like behavior and on discipled attitudes toward those around us.

I actually find the ads rather moving, and I encourage you to take a look at them. At least at some of them. They are available here: https://hegetsus.com/en A Spanish version is also available, here.

Uncategorized

ads

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"DP: “But Mr. Sutherland worries about the fact that our time, when we can communicate ..."

Theodore Brandley

Learning more about a region of ..."

"Another class of memories are of individuals who previously lived. Some of these remembered individuals ..."

PlasmaMiasma

Accounts of Premortality?

"Sutherland's lecture sounds interesting. He seems to restate the Washington consensus that trade brings peace ..."

B. Wilson

Learning more about a region of ..."

"In a meeting today, I learned another important reason why accurate (or at least as ..."

the PROBLEM

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: James states that the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE