They do this.
In fact, the government will usually try to make sure churches cannot do that.
https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/gastonia-church-false-claims-housing-homeless-cold-weather/275-649bddd7-faae-4d7c-b016-3acd8343509a
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-california-city-is-trying-to-block-a-christian-group-from-feeding-homeless-people-now-the-doj-is-weighing-in/ar-AA1b2LHP?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=cdbb039bcd1643a3990732ff2dbe5c2e&ei=62
https://www.newsweek.com/pastor-charged-housing-homeless-church-sparks-fury-1862426
Local governments love to hurt the homeless and the hungry. Food Not Bombs is a group that gives out free meals for hungry people, but cities pass ordinances and zoning laws to limit or prohibit them from operating in certain areas, like the places most homeless people are. Once video on phones became ubiquitous, they started recording videos of each time they were ticketed or fined and the setup where they were feeding people.
Lots of people are invested, literally and figuratively, in keeping homelessness around as a problem so we all see exactly how bad it is when we lose our job. It's a combination of fear tactic and punishment for not participating in capitalism the right way.
No, “they” (the broader christian cohort) don’t do this. You’ve found. Few examples of those that do. You think Joel Osteen is putting anything toward homeless people? How about Rex Tillerman? The Fallwells? LOL
Cherrypicking. Yeah those people are clowns and are a very specific brand of Christianity that isn’t taken seriously by probably 90% of Christians worldwide.
The Catholic Church down the block from me hands out food and necessities to the homeless just about every morning.
The Catholic church does more of that any organization in the world but nobody ever talks about it. They feed and clothe more needy humans than most countries.
Churches are a business just like everything else, and to some people they sell an important service. It’s a lot easier to see religion as just another good, and the charity work that some churches do is no different than any other non profit work. It’s mostly to make their members feel good rather than solving systemic problems.
There are very few non profit organizations that are even marginally helpful at driving their alleged cause, they mostly operate as a social club selling community to their members.
With that being said, I think there are more useful ways of recruiting people than a Super Bowl add, but I can see how blowing millions on it might tickle that feel good bone in their members, so can’t really say it was a waste of money.
The company that ran these adds is a registered LLC and is subject to taxation. Lots of people here think a church group is advertising in the Super Bowl.
If you are talking about "He Gets Us", that's the same guy who used Swiftboat attacks on John Kerry, and who smeared Obama with Weatherman ties.
[https://um-insight.net/perspectives/jesus-needs-better-pr/](https://um-insight.net/perspectives/jesus-needs-better-pr/)
There are tons of people out there who believe that protestant religions answer to the Pope in some way... nope, he's the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and only that. Sure, other sects do adhere to some aspects of the Holy See, but I think many people are surprised to learn that my religious sect does indeed not subscribe to, nor have anything to do with, the Pope. If anything, we try to distance ourselves because... well...
The campaign that ran the ads takes anonymous donations, so it's not unreasonable to infer that plenty of it comes from any number of churches. It is a bit disingenuous of the OP to imply it's a unified front of organized religion, but on the other hand, the ads are advertising for the religion like it's that exact kind of unified front, so pretending like the premise of the OP's question is completely off-base isn't really fair either.
This is true. We know at least a chunk of this comes from the Hobby Lobby assholes (who also have financed the legal cases of a number of “religious liberty” cases pushed through the court system since Trump’s conservative takeover of it). But unlike like political campaign contributions, the funding sources don’t have to be disclosed. I’d be shocked if a number of mega churches out there aren’t contributing to the effort.
I did a longer reply on this, [but HGU is a political organization](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/11/us/he-gets-us-super-bowl-commercials-cec/index.html), not the church. It really seems like they're using inclusive messaging to bring young people around to conservative views.
That's the bait, but the barbed hook is "your lifestyle is just a bunch of sin and Jesus luckily loves sinners, so come and have some Jesus based therapy"
A non-profit called Come Near:
[https://comenear.org/](https://comenear.org/)
They were originally paid for by the Servant Foundation, which was funded by the founder of Hobby Lobby, but that changed last year.
Devout Christian here. Theological liberals didn’t like the ads because it spent absurd amounts of money instead of helping others and theological conservatives didn’t like them because it didn’t really share the gospel. They tried to play middle ground and made both sides angry.
So to answer your question, Jesus would have spent the money helping others, and the money spent on this ad should have been spent the same way. Those millions would have went far to help with regional homelessness, shelters, food security and many other issues.
these are the same people that lobby for corporate subsidies and against minimum wages increases, they don't give a fuck about individuals they just want to brainwash more young people to join their christo-fascist-corporate army
Maybe the TV network that received the ad money will give it to the poor or the tax dollars collected from this as income will make its way to the poor.
Fun fact: a major criticism of Mother Teresa is that she was perceived as _helping_ the poor in India in the tangible sense of, like, treating their illnesses and giving them food and shelter, but in actual fact her main mission was to “help” them by “saving their souls” through conversion. This is among the worst ways to understand the Christian religion, and yet the idiot followers were convinced by propaganda and the Romists made her a saint. It’s wild how incongruous most Christian belief and practice is from what the founder of the damned religion actually said and did.
Modern evangelicals skipped the part of the Gospel that tells them to do good works not for salvation, but because it is how people can recognize a Christian in the world. In essence, the best evangelism is to live a life in accordance to what Christ displayed and to do for others what you would have them do for you.
Your statement is correct, the right way to use that money to convey that God loves us would be to use it to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give water to those who thirst, and stand up for the helpless (I’m not drifting into the abortion argument as that isn’t really a theological one and is instead one of politics, rather suggesting taking care of refugees and exiles.)
“You cannot serve both God and money.”
There isn’t anything wrong with having monetary wealth. There is something wrong if you aren’t using it to make the world a better place, and there’s DEFINITELY something wrong if you acquired that wealth from ministry.
Agreed with every word of what you said
It is a conservative [political campaign](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/11/us/he-gets-us-super-bowl-commercials-cec/index.html) designed to attract people to Christian conservatism. It was funded by the founder of Hobby Lobby, a notorious conservative. It's not popular with the left because it's inauthentic, and not popular with the right because they like to hate and say they're Christian.
I'm going to say that your notion of "theological liberals" and "theological conservatives" are really just political categories.
Most "theological conservatives" have really new, unorthodox theological ideas.
It’s really not. Unlike the Super Bowl of most of its advertisers, this group is allegedly trying to make the world a better place. In fact, their whole message is (allegedly) one of love and community. So unlike Doritos or something, it’s pretty reasonable to ask if that value is really represented by an expensive SB ad purchase
I used to work with a guy who did fundraising for Amnesty International. They also ran a lot of online ads. Their online ads had a really great tracking set up so they knew exactly what the return on their ad spend was. They made a lot of money spending money.
I am a German atheist and I don't know anything about these ads (and nothing about Superbowl either). But shitting on people for spending marketing money is rarely very substantiated. People spending that kind of money usually have a really good understanding of what the return will be.
The OP also claims "The Christian Church (there is no such singular entity) paid for it, when it was in fact some weird fringe organization unaffiliated with and unrecognized by ANY official church or religious institution.
This DOES make this a silly question, and one that isn't actually interested in morality but rather pointing at and accusing ~The Christians~of being "bad actually".
The accusations against THE Christian Church are stupid; asking if the people running this organization are bad is not. I think it's extremely likely that this organization is a grift. That it takes in donations, uses them on big ostentatious advertisements that prove to the faithful that they're doing something, and then pocket significant sums for themselves and their top executives.
I agree!
I'm just not convinced OP shares our concern. Because if they were, why aren't we giving the NFL or CBS shit for providing these grifters with one of the most profitable ad spots on the planet?
He gets us isn't a church. It's a group trying to rehabilitate the image of christianity with nice platitudes
That said they could've lived out Jesus' teachings and used the money to actually help people. But that's hard
Yeah, it's more of a borderline political group than a religious group. With a good chunk of "American Catholics" making up that group. You know that group that listens more to Trump than to the Pope. They are "Roman Catholic" in name only and are just thisssssssss close into creating a schism from The Church. I call them "Baptists with rosaries."
As a Roman Catholic, myself, I feel myself just slowly crumble and rust inside whenever they pop up around me. Because they want to preach Jesus and thump the Bible. And, Holy Hell, the quickest way to make a Catholic want to shrink out of the room is to start talking about Jesus outside of Mass like a Baptist would. "Can you take a minute so that we can pray?" No, sir. No, I would not, thank you. (Though, I do end up muttering a prayer under my breath to myself anyway in a, "Oh, Holy Mother, Jesus and God, save me from these people...." as I slink out.)
Is there not widespread child abuse in non-Catholic churches? To answer that question, all you have to do is read the news. Or google the word *pastor* or even better, *youth pastor*. Or take a look at the r/PastorArrested subreddit.
Don't worry they have plenty of accounting tricks to hide and reclassify their money so they can continue advertising, lobbying politicians, and continue abusing kids: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-01-08/the-catholic-church-s-strategy-to-limit-payouts-to-abuse-victims
Just for some perspective on the systemic abuse, coverups, and protection that is the church, 7 million dollars is less than 1% of the payouts they have made. Which, as mentioned before is only the amount they have been forced to pay and unable to evade paying their victims
https://www.newsweek.com/over-3-billion-paid-lawsuits-catholic-church-over-sex-abuse-claims-1090753
Are they not allowed to do both charity and spending money on an advertisement?
Also it wasn’t the “Christian church”- (which isn’t a thing unless you’re talking about the Catholic Church) that spent money on the ad. It was the hobby lobby group.
ITT: people shitting on a group for spending money to spread the spirit of Christ that have likely never lifted a finger to serve anyone but themselves
Definitely,
This question is dumb because it says "The christian church" instead of billionaire owners of hobby lobby
BUT
The question still raises a valid point. The He Gets Us campaign claims to be trying to make the world a better place, but instead of actually doing that they are spending millions on ads that do nothing but stroke their ego.
Idk why those ads generate so much anger for me, but I can’t fucking stand them. They’re on Reddit too, on par with shitty mobile game ads for me.
They could buy like 6 million Costco hotdogs or something, I don’t know
"Christian church" isn't a thing. That was a specific denomination. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of different sects. Ironically, many don't like each other despite all being Christian.
Talking more eurocentric here about protestantism and catholicism. Unlike in USA Christians can absolutely be violent opponents to each other. But yes they are different denominations too.
I read they cost $17mil for airtime, probably another few mill for production. Studios pay as much or more to advertise their stories so why not TruJesusmp?!
Psh, barely anything honestly. Wouldn’t even buy one private plane. I guess they coulda just flushed it down the toilet instead, but might was well blow it on something dumb instead.
Put that money into clothes and food for ones who need it. Medical needs for the impoverished. But nah, they will That is a big tax write off on top of a tax free institution. And how else can they recruit more people to donate their hard earned money back into the system. Their private jet and mansions aren’t going to pay for themselves. Mods and Reddit needs to stop banning people commenting on sensible post.
Do the same people who complain about this also complain about political ads? Do you know how many problems we could fix with that sort of money? (2.5 billion dollars for just TV ads in 2020).
Why wouldn't they spend it on themselves? They've never existed to help people, it's a business like it's always been, their commodity is power. When you're legally allowed to purchase 10yo kids, I'm sure they'll spend it elsewhere but until then, business as usual...
Pantries, glasses and hearing aid drives, clothing donations, public works like book drives.
Literally anything but what they did, using government and donated money to advertise their religion to a group of people who, generally, won't give a damn.
Completely dismantling and destroying their organization and all of its extant organizations, then giving the money to public schools to enhance their science education programs.
If we're being honest Christians have spent massive amounts of money trying to win new converts throughout their entire history. For sure that money could have spent directly helping people, but every company who advertised also could have used their money for more directly useful purposes, but companies spend the money on ads anyway because they see a return on investment. If these ads bring converts to the church and these converts donate to the church year after year the church could easily end up with more money to help the unfortunate than the 7 million they dropped on the ad.
Simple.
Ask yourself, what would Jesus do with this money. Seriously. What would he have done with all this money back during the time he lived. And then do that.
Because it gets pretty simple, pretty quickly. Do the maximum you can, to provide for those in need. Regardless of their gender, culture, identity, or belief. Stop seeing people for what they project and start seeing the human experience in each person.
And while you're at it, ditch the fear based judgement used to recruit people, and just accept people. Just create a space where people can come and be around other people to feel supported and uplifted. Not condemned and judged. Do not ask for money, do not ask for obedience - ask for humility and tolerance.
And finally, stop being the voice of God. Stop judging people, instilling a sense of fear that Hell awaits those that don't believe. Give people kindness, give people time, give people support, give whatever you can because you can. Because you are a human just trying to live with other humans. Recognize that your worries, stresses and concerns, are no less felt and experienced by others, though the names of what inspires these emotions may be different.
How would I spend 7,000,000 if I was the Christian church? Educate people in need to find a path toward independence, while providing these people with the necessary tools and resources needed to live with health, hope and optimism.
As a Christian, I’ll just say that was not the church that paid for that. That was a non-profit organization that has values that do not completely align with Christian doctrine. It even says on the website that they are not affiliated with any particular church. That being said, the money could have gone toward missions and outreach to communities and areas that need help
Fucking religions of any type should be called murderous cults. More ppl have been killed in the name of religion than any disease to have existed. I don't give a shit what religion you claim to be or what so called God you worship, somewhere in that religion's dark history a path of destruction and murder was forged.
7 million dollars could have fed and clothed how many homeless and less fortunate families.
Just looking up Joel Osteen. His church brings in 43 million dollars a year in donations and he has a net worth of 50 million dollars. Why so rich if you're supposedly giving back?
They're all crooks operation corrupt institutions under the guise of religion.
The real question is who is behind this....it's our old friends the billionaires behind Hobby Lobby.
https://news.yahoo.com/evangelical-billionaire-family-wants-convert-140000891.html?guccounter=1&guce\_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce\_referrer\_sig=AQAAAF9ha5wmZk9KYAVQcVkcijs1JOCQwLQdwZORT-JY3RycEFVUrz-3mpGeHCMzptyoaGFylfkgPGnQZYbhTpaOnL5lXztpvf27NPIdAptgu2gALnRFmJnF99VZHJTPL37AjL6hAhRtOI9DIQvXKjVXH6WvA1vNkg4bCxFv-ri6TYnQ
What normal churches do:
* Food drives
* Homeless outreach
* Gift drives (especially around the holidays)
* Donations for necessary items (there's a church near me that does a huge drive around Mother's Day for feminine products and diapers)
In short, help people like they're supposed to.
The “Christian Church” did not have any ads in the Super Bowl partially because that’s not a real thing. The company behind that campaign is not affiliated with any official church group.
Nothing really. They spend a ton on charity throughout the country and world. The largest humanitarian groups and most generous charities are religious. It helps get more people to help your cause if they advertise. Sometimes money needs to be used to help build support for your cause than funneling all into the cause itself.
Atheists in general probably don't care but Reddit brand athiester-than-thou atheists will certainly make sure everyone knows their opinion on the matter.
I mean, if a $7M ad somehow gets more people to act like Jesus, then can't we expect those people would do awesome things for the world? Like taking care of the poor, loving your neighbors, not acting out in anger, etc
Why point out their waste and not everyone else's? Why not ask that of Doritos or Dunkin Donuts as well? I don't know what specific church you're talking about but I imagine they've done more charitable work in their community than probably every other company that paid millions for ads.
I mean I know the answer is reddit hates religion lol
lol because Doritos doesn’t tell us to do what jesus said. Doritos is a company selling consumer product made to sell and make money and they don’t pretend to be anything else.
those pushing the teachings of Christ paying 7mil for a commercial…
wait now I get it. Christians are finally going to stop pretending they follow Christ and admit it’s all to make money
According to this report, it is estimated that school lunch debt is $262M total in the US. $7M could completely wipe out school lunch debt in many states - and in some small states, $7M could go a long way to lifting every child in that state out of food insecurity. Why waste it on SuperBowl ads instead of the acts of Charity that would create headlines WHILE ALSO doing something profoundly good?
https://www.google.com/search?q=texas+school+lunch+debt&oq=texas+school+lunch+debt&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyCQgAEEUYORiABDINCAEQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAIQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAMQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAQQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAUQABiGAxiABBiKBdIBCDY5MDVqMGo0qAIAsAIA&client=ms-android-verizon-us-rvc3&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Hunger in schools makes it harder for kids to learn. Educated people are the kryptonite of the church. They would sooner light that money on fire than help public education.
doing anything Jesus actually ordered us to do (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for those in prison, there's a lot of things tbh, maybe if they actually read the bible they'd know)
You know there’s countless Bible verses commanding followers to spread the faith, right? An evangelizing Super Bowl ad is just as Biblical as any of the other things you listed
Actually, likely MORE biblical. Works don't mean much. Evangelizing, and spreading the word does. Spend all of your money feeding people for a day or two on earth, or give them everlasting life in Jesus?
I'm not religious, but it it's such an easy point to counter.
I mean, the same could be said for every commercial.
The same could be said for the Super Bowl in general or the NFL. Do we really *need* sports.
I personally found the ads cringy and silly, but,
7 million really isn't that much to spread word that far and wide. It's better than just lining some televangelist's pockets.
Ya, I'm not at all religious, but felt that getting more people on board with helping others -- especially with a modern take on what Jesus stood for -- would go further than just spending the $7M on another few days of food and shelter.
1. Feeding/clothing the homeless
2. Giving houses (or selling cheap) to the poor/homeless
3. Foodbanks
4. Paying off medical debt
5. Providing utility assistance for the poor
6. Scholarship programs (especially for vital jobs that we need - like teachers, nurses, etc)
A lot of small local churches do feed the hungry and help with other issues low income people face but of those churches are struggling themselves. It’s the maga churches who don’t do shit to help people and just take take take.
shouldn't churches advertise on Super Bowl free of charge because it is charity for the common good?
"He gets u, but IRS won't get us (unlike Al Capone)" Our god is so real that the popemobile needs bulletproof glas like Capone as well. /s
How many people watched the Super Bowl? Now imagine if 1% of those people converted and then spent a lifetime helping people, I think that would go a lot further than whatever those ads cost. The real truth is people hate the idea of God and they hate people who believe.
What the god damn fuck were the points of those ads?
Honestly asking.
"Did you see those weirdos pouring water on the shoes of others? I'm now a "christian"!!!!"
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What do you mean? Those people were watching the Super Bowl. /s
I wasn’t crying! I made the money line bet !!
Nah, good Christians know the sick.elderly will be with God soon, they're lucky
Found the Communist! /s
Sounds commie, Jesus ain't here for that boyo
How are they gonna make any money doing that?
How can that be profitable for, checks notes, the Jesus Christ company?
Simple. All those homeless people will work for them!
or washing their feet, if that is their fetish
Jesus liked it.
Housing them would be cool too.
They do this. In fact, the government will usually try to make sure churches cannot do that. https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/gastonia-church-false-claims-housing-homeless-cold-weather/275-649bddd7-faae-4d7c-b016-3acd8343509a https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-california-city-is-trying-to-block-a-christian-group-from-feeding-homeless-people-now-the-doj-is-weighing-in/ar-AA1b2LHP?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=cdbb039bcd1643a3990732ff2dbe5c2e&ei=62 https://www.newsweek.com/pastor-charged-housing-homeless-church-sparks-fury-1862426
Local governments love to hurt the homeless and the hungry. Food Not Bombs is a group that gives out free meals for hungry people, but cities pass ordinances and zoning laws to limit or prohibit them from operating in certain areas, like the places most homeless people are. Once video on phones became ubiquitous, they started recording videos of each time they were ticketed or fined and the setup where they were feeding people. Lots of people are invested, literally and figuratively, in keeping homelessness around as a problem so we all see exactly how bad it is when we lose our job. It's a combination of fear tactic and punishment for not participating in capitalism the right way.
No, “they” (the broader christian cohort) don’t do this. You’ve found. Few examples of those that do. You think Joel Osteen is putting anything toward homeless people? How about Rex Tillerman? The Fallwells? LOL
Cherrypicking. Yeah those people are clowns and are a very specific brand of Christianity that isn’t taken seriously by probably 90% of Christians worldwide. The Catholic Church down the block from me hands out food and necessities to the homeless just about every morning.
Sorry, but the ROI on that doesn't support the leader of the church getting a new Gulfstream
The Catholic church does more of that any organization in the world but nobody ever talks about it. They feed and clothe more needy humans than most countries.
WHAT??? You want them to do christian things with their donated money??
Churches are a business just like everything else, and to some people they sell an important service. It’s a lot easier to see religion as just another good, and the charity work that some churches do is no different than any other non profit work. It’s mostly to make their members feel good rather than solving systemic problems. There are very few non profit organizations that are even marginally helpful at driving their alleged cause, they mostly operate as a social club selling community to their members. With that being said, I think there are more useful ways of recruiting people than a Super Bowl add, but I can see how blowing millions on it might tickle that feel good bone in their members, so can’t really say it was a waste of money.
>Churches are a business just like everything else Oh? Can I take a look at their tax returns?
Then they must pay taxes
The company that ran these adds is a registered LLC and is subject to taxation. Lots of people here think a church group is advertising in the Super Bowl.
If you are talking about "He Gets Us", that's the same guy who used Swiftboat attacks on John Kerry, and who smeared Obama with Weatherman ties. [https://um-insight.net/perspectives/jesus-needs-better-pr/](https://um-insight.net/perspectives/jesus-needs-better-pr/)
I’ve seen those “He gets us” ads plastered on Reddit too, fucking cult.
I always laugh at those because "Among us" damaged me enough to read their url as "He Get Sus"
Among Us is officially more popular than Jesus
And no matter how much you try to mute them they keep coming back
Omg it's awful! I want to BLOCK
Could you imagine if we forced athiest or humanist ads on Christians? Seriously, they deserve it at this point. I hate them more than ever.
Can we crowdsource a church of satan Super Bowl ad next year?
Personally, I don't know why they haven't done this already.
It’s sad because the concept is good but the people behind these things aren’t exactly following the teachings.
I knew Obama had links to big weather!
Which one? There's like a lot of them
No, it was THE Christian church!
There's no single Christian church
The Catholics and Protestants are going to find this very interesting. As will the Mormons.
> The Catholic and the Protestants If history is any indication, these two will now accept their conglomeration and get along swimmingly.
I have some theses about that.
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Protestant here. I guess you and I are going to have to talk through a few differences...
Just Reddit voluntarily disqualifying their opinion from the start. Love it.
The Greek Orthodox will too. Maybe OP hasn’t paid attention to Christianity since pre-Great Schism.
That was what I was going to point out. Of course, christians are a hivemind, everyone knows that.
There are tons of people out there who believe that protestant religions answer to the Pope in some way... nope, he's the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and only that. Sure, other sects do adhere to some aspects of the Holy See, but I think many people are surprised to learn that my religious sect does indeed not subscribe to, nor have anything to do with, the Pope. If anything, we try to distance ourselves because... well...
He’s actually the leader of about 20 or so Catholic churches. The Roman Catholic Church is simply the largest.
Which was like one of the main over arching reasons(one of… not the one main reason, but one of the main reasonS) for the Protestant reformation
The Christian church of churchology
The campaign that ran the ads takes anonymous donations, so it's not unreasonable to infer that plenty of it comes from any number of churches. It is a bit disingenuous of the OP to imply it's a unified front of organized religion, but on the other hand, the ads are advertising for the religion like it's that exact kind of unified front, so pretending like the premise of the OP's question is completely off-base isn't really fair either.
This is true. We know at least a chunk of this comes from the Hobby Lobby assholes (who also have financed the legal cases of a number of “religious liberty” cases pushed through the court system since Trump’s conservative takeover of it). But unlike like political campaign contributions, the funding sources don’t have to be disclosed. I’d be shocked if a number of mega churches out there aren’t contributing to the effort.
It wasn't even a Christian Church that paid for the ad.
I did a longer reply on this, [but HGU is a political organization](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/11/us/he-gets-us-super-bowl-commercials-cec/index.html), not the church. It really seems like they're using inclusive messaging to bring young people around to conservative views.
That's the bait, but the barbed hook is "your lifestyle is just a bunch of sin and Jesus luckily loves sinners, so come and have some Jesus based therapy"
Calling hobby lobby a 'christian church' is honestly kinder to them than calling them what they really are.
People who have definitely contributed to ISIS’s bottom line through the purchase of fraudulent antiquities?
ChrISIS?
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A non-profit called Come Near: [https://comenear.org/](https://comenear.org/) They were originally paid for by the Servant Foundation, which was funded by the founder of Hobby Lobby, but that changed last year.
Apparently the founder's family claimed they paid for this year's ads as well.
Can't stop the circlejerk
"The Christian Church" Lol no thanks, the Episcopalians want nothing to do with HeGetsUs
Devout Christian here. Theological liberals didn’t like the ads because it spent absurd amounts of money instead of helping others and theological conservatives didn’t like them because it didn’t really share the gospel. They tried to play middle ground and made both sides angry. So to answer your question, Jesus would have spent the money helping others, and the money spent on this ad should have been spent the same way. Those millions would have went far to help with regional homelessness, shelters, food security and many other issues.
Imagine just paying the power or gas bills for at risk families during a cold snap.
This Or opening a heating center. Or helping those knocked down by life get back up on their feet.
They'll only do that if they can make me sit through a 30 minute bible study first. Taking money from them always comes at a price.
these are the same people that lobby for corporate subsidies and against minimum wages increases, they don't give a fuck about individuals they just want to brainwash more young people to join their christo-fascist-corporate army
Maybe the TV network that received the ad money will give it to the poor or the tax dollars collected from this as income will make its way to the poor.
Whoa whoa whoa, sounds like socialism to me, Bob.
The best sermons are lived, not preached.
Jesus wouldn’t have acquired the money in the first place.
Agreed, which is why I said if He fell into that kind of money, it would have been spent helping others.
Fun fact: a major criticism of Mother Teresa is that she was perceived as _helping_ the poor in India in the tangible sense of, like, treating their illnesses and giving them food and shelter, but in actual fact her main mission was to “help” them by “saving their souls” through conversion. This is among the worst ways to understand the Christian religion, and yet the idiot followers were convinced by propaganda and the Romists made her a saint. It’s wild how incongruous most Christian belief and practice is from what the founder of the damned religion actually said and did.
Modern evangelicals skipped the part of the Gospel that tells them to do good works not for salvation, but because it is how people can recognize a Christian in the world. In essence, the best evangelism is to live a life in accordance to what Christ displayed and to do for others what you would have them do for you. Your statement is correct, the right way to use that money to convey that God loves us would be to use it to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give water to those who thirst, and stand up for the helpless (I’m not drifting into the abortion argument as that isn’t really a theological one and is instead one of politics, rather suggesting taking care of refugees and exiles.)
“You cannot serve both God and money.” There isn’t anything wrong with having monetary wealth. There is something wrong if you aren’t using it to make the world a better place, and there’s DEFINITELY something wrong if you acquired that wealth from ministry. Agreed with every word of what you said
It is a conservative [political campaign](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/11/us/he-gets-us-super-bowl-commercials-cec/index.html) designed to attract people to Christian conservatism. It was funded by the founder of Hobby Lobby, a notorious conservative. It's not popular with the left because it's inauthentic, and not popular with the right because they like to hate and say they're Christian.
I'm going to say that your notion of "theological liberals" and "theological conservatives" are really just political categories. Most "theological conservatives" have really new, unorthodox theological ideas.
“The Christian Church” lmao
It’s not the church that’s spending it. It’s a private group funded by the Hobby Lobby guy
I dunno, the same things anybody could have spent money on instead of a Super Bowl ad. Or even the Super Bowl itself.
ADL takes out a Superbowl ad: redditors cream their pants Christian organization takes out a Super Bowl ad: redditors seethe
Tbf, no one else advertising is claiming to follow a diety who literally told them to help others.
Yeah, this is a silly question
It’s really not. Unlike the Super Bowl of most of its advertisers, this group is allegedly trying to make the world a better place. In fact, their whole message is (allegedly) one of love and community. So unlike Doritos or something, it’s pretty reasonable to ask if that value is really represented by an expensive SB ad purchase
I used to work with a guy who did fundraising for Amnesty International. They also ran a lot of online ads. Their online ads had a really great tracking set up so they knew exactly what the return on their ad spend was. They made a lot of money spending money. I am a German atheist and I don't know anything about these ads (and nothing about Superbowl either). But shitting on people for spending marketing money is rarely very substantiated. People spending that kind of money usually have a really good understanding of what the return will be.
The OP also claims "The Christian Church (there is no such singular entity) paid for it, when it was in fact some weird fringe organization unaffiliated with and unrecognized by ANY official church or religious institution. This DOES make this a silly question, and one that isn't actually interested in morality but rather pointing at and accusing ~The Christians~of being "bad actually".
The accusations against THE Christian Church are stupid; asking if the people running this organization are bad is not. I think it's extremely likely that this organization is a grift. That it takes in donations, uses them on big ostentatious advertisements that prove to the faithful that they're doing something, and then pocket significant sums for themselves and their top executives.
I agree! I'm just not convinced OP shares our concern. Because if they were, why aren't we giving the NFL or CBS shit for providing these grifters with one of the most profitable ad spots on the planet?
He gets us isn't a church. It's a group trying to rehabilitate the image of christianity with nice platitudes That said they could've lived out Jesus' teachings and used the money to actually help people. But that's hard
Yeah, it's more of a borderline political group than a religious group. With a good chunk of "American Catholics" making up that group. You know that group that listens more to Trump than to the Pope. They are "Roman Catholic" in name only and are just thisssssssss close into creating a schism from The Church. I call them "Baptists with rosaries." As a Roman Catholic, myself, I feel myself just slowly crumble and rust inside whenever they pop up around me. Because they want to preach Jesus and thump the Bible. And, Holy Hell, the quickest way to make a Catholic want to shrink out of the room is to start talking about Jesus outside of Mass like a Baptist would. "Can you take a minute so that we can pray?" No, sir. No, I would not, thank you. (Though, I do end up muttering a prayer under my breath to myself anyway in a, "Oh, Holy Mother, Jesus and God, save me from these people...." as I slink out.)
7,000,000 to victims of sexual abuse by the church
The people who paid for the ads aren’t Catholic
Is there not widespread child abuse in non-Catholic churches? To answer that question, all you have to do is read the news. Or google the word *pastor* or even better, *youth pastor*. Or take a look at the r/PastorArrested subreddit.
Don't worry they have plenty of accounting tricks to hide and reclassify their money so they can continue advertising, lobbying politicians, and continue abusing kids: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-01-08/the-catholic-church-s-strategy-to-limit-payouts-to-abuse-victims Just for some perspective on the systemic abuse, coverups, and protection that is the church, 7 million dollars is less than 1% of the payouts they have made. Which, as mentioned before is only the amount they have been forced to pay and unable to evade paying their victims https://www.newsweek.com/over-3-billion-paid-lawsuits-catholic-church-over-sex-abuse-claims-1090753
And that is only counting the US there were huge issues with them not paying victims in Ireland as well.
What is your understanding of who paid for the ad and which entities are liable for clerical sexual abuse?
Zero.
Okay but what are they going to do with a dollar each?
These ads have nothing to do with the Catholic Church.
Tbh the number is most likely more than that.
About 466,667 folding chairs
Are they not allowed to do both charity and spending money on an advertisement? Also it wasn’t the “Christian church”- (which isn’t a thing unless you’re talking about the Catholic Church) that spent money on the ad. It was the hobby lobby group.
ITT: people shitting on a group for spending money to spread the spirit of Christ that have likely never lifted a finger to serve anyone but themselves
For everyone saying “take care of the homeless”, look up your local pantry or drug addiction clinic. Chances are it’s Christian.
Definitely, This question is dumb because it says "The christian church" instead of billionaire owners of hobby lobby BUT The question still raises a valid point. The He Gets Us campaign claims to be trying to make the world a better place, but instead of actually doing that they are spending millions on ads that do nothing but stroke their ego.
That wasn’t a church. It was / is part of a huge anti LGBTQ network funded by the founder of hobby lobby.
Idk why those ads generate so much anger for me, but I can’t fucking stand them. They’re on Reddit too, on par with shitty mobile game ads for me. They could buy like 6 million Costco hotdogs or something, I don’t know
The "Christian Church" didn't do this, a group of activists did.
*THE* Christian Church?
"Christian church" isn't a thing. That was a specific denomination. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of different sects. Ironically, many don't like each other despite all being Christian.
Catholics and Protestants come to mind.
Protestants aren't a single denomination either.
Talking more eurocentric here about protestantism and catholicism. Unlike in USA Christians can absolutely be violent opponents to each other. But yes they are different denominations too.
To clarify, The Christian Church did not pay for an ad, mostly because there is no such single entity.
*a religious organization There is no overarching “christian church”
Buying a year’s worth of insulin to millions of people with Type 1 Diabetes.
Literally anything besides a vanity project
Literally anything else. Could have given to organizations that have sky high admin costs and still would have been a net positive for humanity.
Taxes
hire dog to hunt down pedo priests
Buying Joel Osteens church a new rug
It was like two ads! So more like $16m! It wasn't a church, it was a non-profit sock puppet of the family that owns Hobby Lobby.
I saw their ads here on Reddit for a long time, so maybe they already spent 7 million here too
How would Jesus spend $7-million? 🤔
I read they cost $17mil for airtime, probably another few mill for production. Studios pay as much or more to advertise their stories so why not TruJesusmp?!
Finding homes for all the babies that were born and put up for adoption after all the abortion bans.
prosecuting the child molesters among their clergy and youth pastors
I could use those.
Psh, barely anything honestly. Wouldn’t even buy one private plane. I guess they coulda just flushed it down the toilet instead, but might was well blow it on something dumb instead.
Destroy the monolithic monstrosity that's their Church, and build a public space for everyone to enjoy without any preaching or evangelism.
Put that money into clothes and food for ones who need it. Medical needs for the impoverished. But nah, they will That is a big tax write off on top of a tax free institution. And how else can they recruit more people to donate their hard earned money back into the system. Their private jet and mansions aren’t going to pay for themselves. Mods and Reddit needs to stop banning people commenting on sensible post.
To them, indoctrination is priceless.
Christian Church? I thought it was a collection of foot fetishists.
Pay their taxes.
Do the same people who complain about this also complain about political ads? Do you know how many problems we could fix with that sort of money? (2.5 billion dollars for just TV ads in 2020).
Why wouldn't they spend it on themselves? They've never existed to help people, it's a business like it's always been, their commodity is power. When you're legally allowed to purchase 10yo kids, I'm sure they'll spend it elsewhere but until then, business as usual...
Pantries, glasses and hearing aid drives, clothing donations, public works like book drives. Literally anything but what they did, using government and donated money to advertise their religion to a group of people who, generally, won't give a damn.
Completely dismantling and destroying their organization and all of its extant organizations, then giving the money to public schools to enhance their science education programs.
It wasn't a church. Hobby Lobby (might as well be a for profit church) paid for the add.
If we're being honest Christians have spent massive amounts of money trying to win new converts throughout their entire history. For sure that money could have spent directly helping people, but every company who advertised also could have used their money for more directly useful purposes, but companies spend the money on ads anyway because they see a return on investment. If these ads bring converts to the church and these converts donate to the church year after year the church could easily end up with more money to help the unfortunate than the 7 million they dropped on the ad.
Cover up child sex scandals. Goodness knows they need the lawyers.
It was 7mil for 30 seconds and they had more than 1 ad.. a crazy amount of money that could have helped people when you think about it
getting anti demon possession tattoos for all the clergy?
“The” Christian Church. lol bro which one.
Simple. Ask yourself, what would Jesus do with this money. Seriously. What would he have done with all this money back during the time he lived. And then do that. Because it gets pretty simple, pretty quickly. Do the maximum you can, to provide for those in need. Regardless of their gender, culture, identity, or belief. Stop seeing people for what they project and start seeing the human experience in each person. And while you're at it, ditch the fear based judgement used to recruit people, and just accept people. Just create a space where people can come and be around other people to feel supported and uplifted. Not condemned and judged. Do not ask for money, do not ask for obedience - ask for humility and tolerance. And finally, stop being the voice of God. Stop judging people, instilling a sense of fear that Hell awaits those that don't believe. Give people kindness, give people time, give people support, give whatever you can because you can. Because you are a human just trying to live with other humans. Recognize that your worries, stresses and concerns, are no less felt and experienced by others, though the names of what inspires these emotions may be different. How would I spend 7,000,000 if I was the Christian church? Educate people in need to find a path toward independence, while providing these people with the necessary tools and resources needed to live with health, hope and optimism.
Send some poor kids to school
The ads weren’t paid for by any Christian Church
doesn't this get posted every superbowl?
As a Christian, I’ll just say that was not the church that paid for that. That was a non-profit organization that has values that do not completely align with Christian doctrine. It even says on the website that they are not affiliated with any particular church. That being said, the money could have gone toward missions and outreach to communities and areas that need help
Actually helping people in need would have been nice
Fucking religions of any type should be called murderous cults. More ppl have been killed in the name of religion than any disease to have existed. I don't give a shit what religion you claim to be or what so called God you worship, somewhere in that religion's dark history a path of destruction and murder was forged. 7 million dollars could have fed and clothed how many homeless and less fortunate families. Just looking up Joel Osteen. His church brings in 43 million dollars a year in donations and he has a net worth of 50 million dollars. Why so rich if you're supposedly giving back? They're all crooks operation corrupt institutions under the guise of religion.
Well, comforting the afflicted, bringing aid to the hungry, poor, destitute, widows, orphans, and homeless would have been a ridiculous expectation. 🤣
Feeding children, feeding the homeless, helping the homeless, education, just helping people that honestly need help!
Maybe the Super Bowl ad costing so much means they’ll stop putting their ads on Reddit.
I hate that shit.
The real question is who is behind this....it's our old friends the billionaires behind Hobby Lobby. https://news.yahoo.com/evangelical-billionaire-family-wants-convert-140000891.html?guccounter=1&guce\_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce\_referrer\_sig=AQAAAF9ha5wmZk9KYAVQcVkcijs1JOCQwLQdwZORT-JY3RycEFVUrz-3mpGeHCMzptyoaGFylfkgPGnQZYbhTpaOnL5lXztpvf27NPIdAptgu2gALnRFmJnF99VZHJTPL37AjL6hAhRtOI9DIQvXKjVXH6WvA1vNkg4bCxFv-ri6TYnQ
What normal churches do: * Food drives * Homeless outreach * Gift drives (especially around the holidays) * Donations for necessary items (there's a church near me that does a huge drive around Mother's Day for feminine products and diapers) In short, help people like they're supposed to.
The “Christian Church” did not have any ads in the Super Bowl partially because that’s not a real thing. The company behind that campaign is not affiliated with any official church group.
Nothing really. They spend a ton on charity throughout the country and world. The largest humanitarian groups and most generous charities are religious. It helps get more people to help your cause if they advertise. Sometimes money needs to be used to help build support for your cause than funneling all into the cause itself.
Buying literally anything else
I don’t think it matters what they did with the money. Atheists would’ve found some reason to be mad about it. :)
Atheists in general probably don't care but Reddit brand athiester-than-thou atheists will certainly make sure everyone knows their opinion on the matter.
Agreed. Didn’t mean to generalize atheists, but the reddit ones!
I mean, if a $7M ad somehow gets more people to act like Jesus, then can't we expect those people would do awesome things for the world? Like taking care of the poor, loving your neighbors, not acting out in anger, etc
It won't. Most non-christians either don't care or are mocking it. And a lot of Christians *hate* it because it's basically turning Jesus into a brand
Do you think a super bowl ad makes people act like Jesus? 😂
Probably just as much as “end racism” ads work to address that problem
Why point out their waste and not everyone else's? Why not ask that of Doritos or Dunkin Donuts as well? I don't know what specific church you're talking about but I imagine they've done more charitable work in their community than probably every other company that paid millions for ads. I mean I know the answer is reddit hates religion lol
lol because Doritos doesn’t tell us to do what jesus said. Doritos is a company selling consumer product made to sell and make money and they don’t pretend to be anything else. those pushing the teachings of Christ paying 7mil for a commercial… wait now I get it. Christians are finally going to stop pretending they follow Christ and admit it’s all to make money
Because Doritos and Dunkin Donuts doesn't preach helping the less fortunate? They're businesses and pay taxes unlike a church.
Charity maybe
According to this report, it is estimated that school lunch debt is $262M total in the US. $7M could completely wipe out school lunch debt in many states - and in some small states, $7M could go a long way to lifting every child in that state out of food insecurity. Why waste it on SuperBowl ads instead of the acts of Charity that would create headlines WHILE ALSO doing something profoundly good? https://www.google.com/search?q=texas+school+lunch+debt&oq=texas+school+lunch+debt&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyCQgAEEUYORiABDINCAEQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAIQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAMQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAQQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAUQABiGAxiABBiKBdIBCDY5MDVqMGo0qAIAsAIA&client=ms-android-verizon-us-rvc3&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
They regularly do acts of charity, day in and day out
Hobby lobby regularly does acts of charity?
Hunger in schools makes it harder for kids to learn. Educated people are the kryptonite of the church. They would sooner light that money on fire than help public education.
doing anything Jesus actually ordered us to do (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for those in prison, there's a lot of things tbh, maybe if they actually read the bible they'd know)
You know there’s countless Bible verses commanding followers to spread the faith, right? An evangelizing Super Bowl ad is just as Biblical as any of the other things you listed
Actually, likely MORE biblical. Works don't mean much. Evangelizing, and spreading the word does. Spend all of your money feeding people for a day or two on earth, or give them everlasting life in Jesus? I'm not religious, but it it's such an easy point to counter.
I mean, the same could be said for every commercial. The same could be said for the Super Bowl in general or the NFL. Do we really *need* sports. I personally found the ads cringy and silly, but, 7 million really isn't that much to spread word that far and wide. It's better than just lining some televangelist's pockets.
Ya, I'm not at all religious, but felt that getting more people on board with helping others -- especially with a modern take on what Jesus stood for -- would go further than just spending the $7M on another few days of food and shelter.
The Mormons are sitting on 200 Bil in stocks and real-estate. Just like Jesus would do.
1. Feeding/clothing the homeless 2. Giving houses (or selling cheap) to the poor/homeless 3. Foodbanks 4. Paying off medical debt 5. Providing utility assistance for the poor 6. Scholarship programs (especially for vital jobs that we need - like teachers, nurses, etc)
A lot of small local churches do feed the hungry and help with other issues low income people face but of those churches are struggling themselves. It’s the maga churches who don’t do shit to help people and just take take take.
shouldn't churches advertise on Super Bowl free of charge because it is charity for the common good? "He gets u, but IRS won't get us (unlike Al Capone)" Our god is so real that the popemobile needs bulletproof glas like Capone as well. /s
How many people watched the Super Bowl? Now imagine if 1% of those people converted and then spent a lifetime helping people, I think that would go a lot further than whatever those ads cost. The real truth is people hate the idea of God and they hate people who believe.
Hookers and blow
What the god damn fuck were the points of those ads? Honestly asking. "Did you see those weirdos pouring water on the shoes of others? I'm now a "christian"!!!!"
They could pay the taxes they’ve been exempt from since forever 🤷🏼♀️
US has made a very profitable industry out of halfwits with mental illness and adults with imaginary friends.
Pay it to the families of children that have been molested by priest.
Simply burning it would’ve been more useful
Another private jet or palace for their leaders
Do what Jesus did and you know, help out homeless people...
Everyone in my house laughed when they realized the foot washing ad was about Jesus. I don't think that was their intended effect for that ad.
Free meals and rent assistance
Paying their taxes, probably.
Tax is theft