A pastor’s video response to the controversial “He Gets Us” Super Bowl ad has gone viral with an alternative message.
The original, minute-long advert was criticised by many high-profile Evangelicals for seeming to condone some sins over others.
It was played in an ad break during the Super Bowl and featured a slideshow of people washing the feet of others. It was billed as showing “the example that Jesus set while inviting all to explore his teachings so we can all follow his example of confounding, unconditional love.”
The images used caused a backlash amid the inclusion of a priest washing the feet of a homosexual and a young woman’s feet being cleansed outside an abortion clinic.
It featured the message: “Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet. He gets us. All of us.”
Andrew Walker, ethics and public theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, posted on X that the ad communicated “the respectability of certain sins over others in our culture (although I’m not sure the ad even communicated that the respectable sins were sins at all).”
Now Jamie Bambrick (pictured above, inset, on photos of the alternative video) , associate pastor of Hope Church Craigavon in Northern Ireland, has posted a video which has more than two million views in the same style as the original ad.
It features the stories of believers whose strong testimonies show how they turned away from sinful lifestyles.
The alternative slideshow includes former jihadist Mohamad Faridi, former KKK member Mike Burden, former drag queen and prostitute Kevin Whitt, former porn star Brittni De La Mora, former gang leader Sebastian Stakset and former drug addict Jeff Durbin.
It ends with the message: “Jesus doesn’t just get us. He saves us. He transforms us. He cleanses us. He restores us. He forgives us. He heals us. He delivers us. He redeems us. He loves us. Such were some of you.”
Bambrick told the Christian Post: “It’s been a little bit crazy. I’ve not gone viral anywhere near this level before. It’s been good, but incredibly positive and incredibly well-received, which has been a real blessing.”
He said the first ad was based on a misunderstanding that “if the church calls people to repentance, to turn from sin, that is preaching hate, which of course it isn’t. That is an act of love; it’s an act of grace.”
He added: “My experience with most Christians is that we actually love those who are in sin, but we love them enough to want to see them set free from their sin. We love them enough that we want to see them delivered and brought to newness of life in Christ.”
