Big Jesus centered “ad” airing tonight. CNN has the drop.
The chain of influence behind “He Gets Us” can be followed through public records and information on the campaign’s own site. The campaign is a subsidiary of The Servant Foundation, also known as the Signatry.
According to research compiled by Jacobin, a left-leaning news outlet, The Servant Foundation has donated tens of millions to the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group. The ADF has been involved in several legislative pushes to curtail LGBTQ rights and quash non-discrimination legislation in the Supreme Court.
I appreciate that they acknowledge Jacobin to be left-leaning. But no details on the “quash[ing of] non-discrimination legislation.” Maybe the taking on of Biden’s— and Obama’s— attempts to force doctors to perform abortions? Keep it vague or folks will ask more questions.
Hobby Lobby co-founder David Green claims to be a big contributor to the campaign’s multi-million-dollar coffers. Hobby Lobby has famously been at the center of several legal controversies, including the support of anti-LGBTQ legislation and a successful years-long legal fight that eventually led to the Supreme Court allowing companies to deny medical coverage for contraception on the basis of religious beliefs.
What contraception? Right, not contraception— contra- meaning before, thus meaning medicine that prevents conceiving— but medicine that specifically ends pregnancy— abortion. Because Obamacare forced private business to pay for such medicine without care for religious objection.
While “He Gets Us” says it is not intended to be connected to any particular Christian ideology, it has theological ties to evangelical practices as well as financial ones. In general, Christian evangelism is closely tied to conservatism and is an extremely influential force in American politics.
“He Gets Us has chosen to not have our own separate statement of beliefs. Each participating church/ministry will typically have its own language. Meanwhile, we generally recognize the Lausanne Covenant as reflective of the spirit and intent of this movement and churches that partner with explorers from He Gets Us affirm the Lausanne Covenant.” […] The 1974 Lausanne Covenant is an important unifying document in evangelical Christian churches, while the Lausanne movement itself was started by the prominent evangelical Christian leader Billy Graham. Documents and decisions that have come out of the movement’s summits have decried the “idolatry of disordered sexuality” and focused heavily on the impact of the devil and sin on national cultures.
Wait? So this ad is supported by evangelicals and evangelicals are historically, including Billy Graham, conservative about sex? And this means that this ad has no actual desire to unify and stop devisiveness? Yeah, that is what CNN wants you to believe.
Yeah, we evangelicals do believe that certain things are sinful. But so does CNN. Standing against abortion? Look at the quote above. They clearly believe that is inheritantly wrong without argument. Christians not providing cakes for ceremonies they disagree with? They clearly think that is wrong.
See everyone has a sense of right and wrong. Everyone has things they hold dogmatically. Yes, us evangelicals admit to doing so. No just admit, it is foundational. But we disagree with things and yet still serve. We disagree and we still feed, shelter, clothe those that are in need. We go into communities of cannibals and show them love. We enter hospitals during plagues and pray with people that have been left for dead. And why? Because our Lord said to.
Yes, we may disagree, but we love. Yes, we may think you are living in sin, but we love.
Folks like CNN point out the toothpick in the eye of those that say “love your neighbor, cross the divide, end echo chambers, and make community,” while ignoring the log in their own. They call for us to be banished from society in the name of tolerance. They rally the troops that call the employers of Christians and demand their firing.
And then they say that we are the divisive ones.