As Damar Hamlin’s injury and the prayer surrounding it starts to put prayer and Christ back in the public conversation in a good way, this year’s Super Bowl could do even more to get people thinking about Christ again. That’s because the “He Gets Us” advertisement campaign sponsored in part by the family that owns Hobby Lobby will run two ads during the Super Bowl.
The campaign spokesman, Jason Vanderground, told The Associated Press that airing the ads during the Super Bowl, during which they might very well be seen by 100 million Americans is an idea that “fits with our target audience really well. We’re trying to get the message across to people who are spiritually open, but skeptical.”
Fox News Digital, adding context to that statement, noted that “At a time when the U.S. Christian population is down and religion has become a divisive topic, the group hopes to reach as many as possible and help spread the message of Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God.”
Vanderground also said “We think Jesus is a big deal and we want to make a big deal out of it. What better way to do that than to put him in the biggest cultural moment that we have the entire year?”
The ads created by the campaign are, however, far from being what more conservative Christians would like to see. That’s because some of the ads present Jesus as a migrant or refugee, as Fox News Digital reported, saying:
The campaign reportedly highlights the idea that Jesus was a refugee and was unfairly stereotyped in a way akin to other marginalized minority groups in the modern world.
Religion News Service National Reporter Bob Smietana, speaking with NPR, said the focus is attempting to appeal to the LGBTQ community and other groups that previously felt unwelcome in the church.
One commercial depicts a slideshow about migrants fleeing their home to avoid persecution. The ad concludes by revealing the story is actually about Jesus and his mother Mary, and her husband Joseph.
The two ads airing during the Super Bowl, however, will not be those woke ads meant to draw in “marginalized minority groups.” Rather, they’ll be about how children embody and demonstrate the love of Christ and how dealing with one’s anger can help mold you into a better person. So, they are generic messages with a Christian tint that might draw a few people into the church.
Hopefully, however, the ad campaign succeeds in some form, as Christianity is on the rocks in America. NPR, reporting on that, said:
Christianity remains the majority religion in the United States, as it has been since the country’s founding, but it’s on the decline.
A new study from the Pew Research Center shows that America’s Christian majority has been shrinking for years, and if recent trends continue, Christians could make up less than half the U.S. population within a few decades.
The study found that Christians accounted for about 90% of the population 50 years ago, but as of 2020 that figure had slumped to about 64%.
“If recent trends in switching [changing one’s religious affiliation] hold, we projected that Christians could make up between 35% and 46% of the U.S. population in 2070,” said Stephanie Kramer, the senior researcher who led the study.
Here’s one of the ads, called “Outrage”.
By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1
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