WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Strength and Dignity: He Gets Us- Christian Ministry On Live TV

Episode Date: March 17, 2024

The He Gets Us as aired on the Superbowl and received much critique as "Christian hate." The ad hints at compromise for many cultural issues. But truth should not be compromised. What is the best and proper way to share the love of Christ? 

Hello and welcome back to Strength and Dignity. This is Michaela Estruth and you're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Well, I'm finally back with a new episode for Strength and Dignity in 2024. Thank you for your patience and for enduring repeat episodes of the show on air as I prepared this episode. So we're going to jump right back into an article from Ms. Magazine discussing a current issue. you on the Super Bowl of last Sunday and specifically an ad in that Super Bowl that this author found great flaw in and wanted to critique in her article. So I don't know how many of you follow Super Bowl, watch the Super Bowl, or even frankly watch the ads because sometimes

those are the most entertaining and sometimes they're frankly insufferable. So this ad, well actually this article by Shoshana Erlich on Ms. Magazine's website, She basically dissects an ad called the He Gets Us campaign, and that was the title of the ad, He Gets Us. And it comes from a Christian group, which this author or Lick calls Christian hate groups. And the title of the Christian hate group is now called Come Near. But it was originally the signatory, if you're familiar with that. Sponsored or supported by Alliance Defending Freedom and also Hobby Lobby or the Green family,

lobby, which I'm sure you all know, is a Christian organization and founded by the Green Family. And they send a lot of support and funding to other Christian organizations. So that's one of Ehrlich's main points is that the funding of this ad undermines any point that is trying to get across. So we'll dive into that in a little bit. But first of all, I want to talk through the ad and then I'll play a little bit of the ad and kind of talk over it to tell you what you can't see, but what is being shown on

screen. So it was called He Gets Us Ad and the play was off of Jesus coming to earth and washing people's feet. And so there were lots of different scenes throughout the ads of people washing another person's feet, typically in a scenario that you might not see these two people together. Like in typical ordinary life, these people likely wouldn't run into each other or want to share similar values or similar perceptions of the world or even run in similar circles. And the point is Jesus gets all of us and he loves all of us. That's the point of the ad. And it's basically an attempt at ministry, but on national television.

So let's play the ad. And I'll talk you through a little bit of what you are hearing but not seeing. So this is a scene of someone washing another person's feet, a police officer washing, obviously someone probably on the street, his feet. There's a scene of a woman washing someone outside of a family clinic. It looks like a scene in the desert. Someone washing a Muslim's feet. A white man and a black man talking together washing each other's feet.

It says Jesus didn't teach hate. He washed feet. He gets us. All of us. Jesus. He gets us.com. Love your neighbor. So that's the ad. And it shows up several times throughout the Super Bowl. And I remember watching this ad and seeing it and kind of laughing to myself during the Super Bowl of, hmm, that's a lot of money that went into that ad. I wonder how impactful. it actually will be and what the motive is behind it. So before delving into the critiques in the Ms. Magazine article, I wanted to just bluntly state my take on it up front is that, in my opinion, ministry is most definitely the most impactful person to person in relationships, building relationships, having conversations face to face, really wrestling with true questions and ideas and presenting the gospel to one

another through relationship because I believe Jesus came for relationship and he came obviously to save us from our sins, but he did so through relationship and he ministered to others through relationship and he preached through relationship. So a ad on national television in the United States to me doesn't seem like it's going to be quite getting the goal maybe that it's hoping for. It's not going to change hearts. It's not going to save souls in the same way that face-to-face relationship will. And it will probably reap a lot of critique as this Ms. Magazine article shows. And like I said at the beginning,

Erlick's main point or main frustration with this, with this ad, is that it is supported by, quote, Christian hate groups. And she cites ADF and then the signatory, which is what the organization was originally under, and then the Green family. And she delves into all of this,

all of these organizations, and she criticizes them for their, the organization. specifically the Greens family their fight against certain abortion policies and trans policies. So one is their critique of the morning after pill and an IUD as as abortive medications that literally kill a embryo, which she doesn't really delve into. She doesn't delve into the arguments, but she says that they're not abortive, that they're preventive. And the point of this episode is not to talk about those means, but we, as we've discussed before, the ending of a fertilized egg is the ending of a life. And so that is abortive.

And that's where the Green family stands. And then she also critiques their effort. She says it was a decade-long process of them trying to prevent trans women from using women's restrooms in their family founded. store, Hobby Lobby. And she says that they eventually lost that effort. But it's really interesting to me because I happen to agree as well that someone who was biologically male should not be using a female restroom. But once she gets past critiquing the Green family, she links ADF the signatory of the

Green family and the Come Near project as Christian hate groups. And she says, quote, the overlapping ties of both groups to extreme right causes at extreme odds with the inclusive and loving message of He Gets Us has given rise to considerable criticism. In one of the most binding critiques, the American Society for Separation of Church and State argued, what's really being sold here is an attempt to suck even more Americans down the rabbit hole of hateful Christian nationalism. So my main point that you'll hear me say throughout this episode is just, Christians, conservatives, but specifically Christians, need to stop playing the defensive game and trying to use other arguments, cultural arguments, cultural linguo, to support their views.

And that's exactly what this ad is doing, is it's taking the love and inclusivity message of liberalism, of our amoralistic society, of our moralism society, of our moral relativism society. and subjective, you do use society, and trying to apply it to a Christian message, saying he gets us, he gets all of us, Jesus, being the he in that situation, and that he came to love, not to hate, all of which can be expressed well, but should not be expressed through this amoralistic, subjective message of our culture, because we're just never going to win that battle. And frankly, Jesus told his disciples that the world will hate them because they hated him first. And Jesus' message is a message of love, but it's not a message of inclusivity, meaning anything goes, because there is a moral standard. And he's very clear about that.

And there is only one way. He says, I am the way, the truth in the life. No one comes to the father except through me. That message, that verse itself is in a way exclusive because it's a way exclusive because if you try to get to the father who any other way, it's not going to work because there's one way. And that's Jesus. But furthermore, so not only did Jesus promise his disciples that they would be hated because the world hated him, but also the world is now today showing that hatred towards

his disciples and accusing them of Christian nationalism, which is another rubber hole, as this author even says. Before we get into Christian nationalism, I want to note. So it's a little bit confusing, especially on a podcast that you're listening to. But I read a quote from this author of this article on Ms. Magazine, her name's Erlich. And she is quoting, quote, the American Society for Separation of Church and State, which really fascinates me, just that title of the separation of church and state, which is something that, which is a common debate amongst Americans and quite honestly taken out of context, that phrase, separation of church and state. But the fact that this society, the American society, is that's its very name, shows you kind of where it's coming from.

Of we don't want the church here. We don't want the church involved in politics, telling us what the moral code is or what is the good life, any of that. And then, therefore, any reference to Christianity to the gospel, to a Christian method, to a standard is automatically lumped into Christian nationalism. And that term, especially within the past couple years, has caused a lot of drawback and even amongst Christians being like, no, no, no, no, we don't mean that. Christian nationalism is not what we're advocating because that's calling people to all adhere to one truth of Christianity. So people fear this term now, even Christians, fear the term Christian nationalism,

because they think that it opposes the inclusive message of our culture, that it is actually adherently exclusive, that it's not accepting, that it's not loving. But as I said before talking about Christian nationalism, this Christianity is not a doesn't fit with our culture of amoralism and self-autonomy. It, they, they can't go together. Um, and so saying that there is one way or that Christianity is true and that people should pursue it is not Christian nationalism at its foundation or at its core. Um, and yet that's what the other side is doing of the, anyone who opposes the Christian

message is saying that ads like that. or promotion for Christianity is all Christian nationalism, just lumping it all into one jar. Okay, so then after she kind of critiques the ads both for their funding and for apparently being Christian nationalist, she delves into one of the ads, the one that I played, and critiques very specific scenes that I was trying to explain. I did not explain all of them.

There wasn't enough time for me to talk over it at all. but the point is that there were several scenes, all of which someone was washing someone's feet and the likelihood of those two people being together was pretty small. So then quoting Erlich, she says, The longer of the two ads, which has been the primary focus of much of the buzz, shows unlike pairing of people in which one is washing the other's feet,

just as Jesus washed the feet of his friends and enemies the night before he died. One pairing is of a white police, officer washing the feet of a black man in a rather foreboding alleyway. Slight comment insert that I would like to say, I can see that for myself, and it's not stark contrast of white and black. You could say that the police officer is white, but also I don't necessarily know if that's the main point, but she has lost on to it. Continuing her quote, another is of an oil worker washing the feet of an environmental protester. as indicated by her clean air now sign.

Another is of a woman washing the feet of a presumably undocumented migrant who has been dropped off by a bus in an unfamiliar neighborhood. So the point of this ad is it's addressing all of these social issues. Immigration, police hate slash racism, environmentalism, all of these. And then abortion, which she doesn't reference in her quote, but she gets to that. Don't you worry. She really gets to that. Yeah, so this ad is trying to address all of these social issues and social conversations by adopting the language and ideas of self-autonomy, of inclusivity and love,

and getting a lot of backlash for it now after the Super Bowl. So her main point is that none of these depictions matter and none of the words in the ad matter because at its core, this organization is funded by what she calls Christian hate groups. Yeah, you just can't win. You can't. Again, Jesus said that his disciples would be hated. You cannot expect her not to trace it back to the funding. And I don't, obviously, I don't believe that these are hate groups at all.

But she, money speaks pretty loudly. And she, that is going to be a key attack for anyone of, well, what are these organizations? support and what do they preach? The message of this ad is not getting across. No one is, no one is fooled by this ad on either side of, I guess you could say the spectrum or the debate. And the whole point of the gospel is that the world doesn't get Jesus. So this ad is saying he gets us, he gets all of us. And yeah, in a way, like Jesus can sympathize with us. And the Bible says, that he endured every trial without sin and that we have a great high priest who has suffered as we have. Yeah, so I guess in those cultural terms, he gets us, he loves us, and he understands our suffering

and our trials, but the world doesn't get him. And that's the main point, is that being Christian alienates you from the world. That's what it's supposed to do. And so, yeah, using, a worldly message to try to pull people into the Christian life is simply counterintuitive and unproductive, in my opinion. Okay, so then this Ehrlich, she gets into the abortion debate a little bit, which of course has to happen on Ms. Magazine's website, just has to. That's why we talk about it so much on this podcast, is because my material comes from Ms. magazine and they want to talk about the abortion debate all the time. And so she, continuing to quote

from her, she says, like other images, this one showcases, as explained on the He Getsus website, humility on the part of both parties, the one willing to wash another's feet and also the one willing to have their feet washed. And she's talking about a woman washing, a woman who's supposed to be a protester who's put down her protesting sign, washing another woman's. feet outside of a family clinic, not an abortion clinic. So the implication is that that woman, the protester, quote unquote, has brought the mother to a family clinic to get her help and then is loving her by washing her feet. But in the article, Erlich says basically, how do you know that she didn't just go and get an abortion anyways? And there's nothing wrong with that. And just

she's very upset about it in the article. And she mocks the humility message that the He Gets Us website is trying to promote. And so, again, not siding with her at all. But while humility is a core, core part of the Christian life and part of the gospel, Christ himself is the ultimate standard of humility. Philippines too says that he humbled himself and became man to suffer and die for us. And so most definitely humility is a key part of the Christian life. But that doesn't mean that it's able to compromise on truth and on the standard of righteousness

and justice and morality. So it's not a cowardly humility, I think is my main point. that is an important message to understand that I think a lot of people, especially Christians today, are afraid to say because they don't want to appear as hateful and they're called hateful and they'd much rather appear as inclusive and loving. But that gets into very dangerous waters very quickly. So now circling this back again to the idea of just strength and dignity in general and the podcast is not only I, this episode has focused a lot on just Christians in general. And obviously my podcast strength and dignity is based off of a Bible verse, Proverbs 31.

And it's focused and directed towards Christian women and what Christian women look like and what models they should be setting for younger women and what attributes and virtues and qualities they should be aspiring to. But one thing I would just really like to hit home is that women can, they have the beautiful. gift of being able to serve and love and in a way be that welcoming, inclusive person that we so desire and that is kind of the underlying message that this ad is trying to get to and then also culture is trying to get to. But to do that in a way of truth and service and humility, through hospitality, through genuine sharing of the truth and of the gospel. through ministry, through service, all of these are qualities of a strong and dignified woman.

And circling back to what I said at the beginning, all of that is through relationship. It's not through a TV ad. And to bring it home, it's not through the standard of Taylor Swift. It's not through the model on TV. The great singer who's dating a football player. that is not the standard of beautiful womanhood that we ought to be aspiring to. Full honesty, I will scream and belt Taylor Swift with my friends at parties or weddings or any of dance nights or anything like that.

There's nothing wrong with that per se. But we should also make sure we're filtering her message and what she's presenting as a beautiful woman for our daughters and for each other just to truly understand that the beauty that the Lord sees and that is will, that children will rise up and call blessed is the humble service, the relationship, the love and the care. And that's something that is seen well in the ad, the washing of feet. Yes, Jesus came to wash feet. And we ought to do the same. Maybe not. literally all the time, but laying down our lives for others in humble service and care, primarily through relationship. So that's all I have for today. Thanks for listening to Strength

and Dignity. This is Michaela Estruth and you're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.