I’m hesitant to criticize how people spend their own money, but I want to get back to the “He Gets Us” campaign.
I got to be the critic in the New York Times.
Erick Erickson, a conservative talk show host, said he was hesitant to criticize donors but added, “I honestly think the biggest issue is: You want to share Jesus with an unchurched crowd, that amount of money on TV ads is probably not the way to do it.”
Ed Stetzer, a prominent evangelical Christian who advises “He Gets Us,” said he understood concerns that the money for this campaign could be used elsewhere. But “if millions of people are touched and maybe even impacted by this and become more like Christ,” he said, “there’s actually a lot of resources that will flow from their changed hearts.”
Most of the money comes from the Green Family, which owns Hobby Lobby.
If they want to spend their money that way, okay.
But, while I appreciate the sentiment of “if even one person is saved,” that reminds me of the Christian missional organization that used to pay hikers to walk the Appalachian Trail hoping they might encounter hikers curious about Jesus. That was actually a thing.
As an aside, I actually really liked the “Love Your Enemies” ad.
That was well done.
But that single ad could have funded scholarships for a lot of kids to go to Christian schools to get better, Christ-centered educations. It could have gone to feed many hungry people in Christian food banks and soup kitchens, many of which are currently struggling.
If a donor wants to spend his money this way, who are we to say they shouldn’t?
I just think a lot of rich people are rarely challenged on how they could better spend their money to advance the kingdom. After all, they could meet that one hiker on the Appalachian Trial who could become a Christian. So they spend their money on Jesus ads between beer ads hoping an unsaved millennial isn’t watching on a ten-second delay to be able to skip through to the commercials he wants to see or might accidentally see that ad and find it more memorable than the Breaking Bad commercial.
Lastly, it is notable the political left had a meltdown over these ads. As my friend Casey Mattox pointed out:
https://babylonbee.com/news/god-hopeful-the-millions-spent-on-he-gets-us-super-bowl-ad-will-finally-give-him-some-exposure
The Green family - and I suspect the other donors behind the He Gets Us campaign - walk the walk and talk the talk, in addition to being willing to spend millions of dollars on this campaign. I’ve got no issue here.