It’s becoming a Super Bowl tradition: He Gets Us, the billion-dollar effort to overhaul the public image of Jesus, the Son of God, will be back on the airwaves during Super Bowl LIX. Greg Miller, a representative for Come Near, the nonprofit charity that manages He Gets Us, confirmed to Rolling Stone the news, first reported by AdAge, that the organization will again share the gospel this Super Bowl Sunday, as the Kansas City Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles.
“The nonprofit startup Come Near, which acquired the He Gets Us project in 2024, is convinced investing to raise the public conversation about Jesus has merit in culture today,” Miller says. This year’s ad, he notes, is an invitation for viewers “to explore the contrast between greatness as our society defines it and what Jesus said and showed greatness is, and what that might mean for all of us.”
Each year, when a multi-million-dollar advertisement for God’s undying love comes on TV, sandwiched between spots for Doritos and Pepsi and Old Spice, it prompts questions, like: Who is paying for this? Answer: Come Near, the aforementioned nonprofit, which has close ties to the billionaire family behind the arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby. Beyond their wide selection of fabrics and notions, Hobby Lobby is known for convincing the Supreme Court to weaken a provision of the Affordable Care Act that mandated employers provide birth control coverage for their employees. (Oh, and the whole looted-Sumerian-antiquities thing.)
Why are they doing it? Per Come Near’s FAQ: “To share His transformative message with a broad audience and invit[e] those who believe and those who don’t to consider the authentic Jesus.” So, are they affiliated with a church? That question is a little more complicated. While Come Near says it’s “not affiliated with any specific church,” and He Gets Us insists it is “not a back to church campaign,” Come Near has an IRS tax designation that is only granted to churches (as well as conventions or associations of churches).
That tax designation is somewhat controversial: Unlike most charities, churches do not have to file public tax returns. That means Come Near does not have to disclose how much money it’s raising, whom it’s paying and how much, or what it’s spending on advertising.
Miller tells Rolling Stone: “Come Near is not a church nor affiliated or governed by any specific church or religious denomination. It does, as an organization whose purpose is religious in nature, operate as a ministry with a goal to raise the public conversation about Jesus. Many of the ways in which Come Near intends to pursue that mission is by working with large and growing numbers of faith leaders, advisors, religious partners, and churches on different projects.”
Some critics take issue generally with the way that nonprofits have used the IRS church designation to avoid basic transparency requirements.
“We think it is a bad idea for an organization that is not a church, to say it’s a church in order to avoid transparency and disclosure issues,” says Warren C. Smith of Ministry Watch, an evangelical nonprofit that advocates for transparency.
“If you look back at the original law that made these disclosure exemptions possible,” Smith continues, “they were clearly intended for denominations — for, you know, Christian denominations, like for the Methodist Church, or for the Episcopal Church, or the Presbyterian Church. The ‘association of churches’ [designation] was clearly designed for denominations. It was not designed for Christian ministries who do not operate within the transparency and accountability structures of a denomination.”
What we do know about Come Near is that it has close ties to the billionaire family that founded Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby’s CEO, David Green, has previously helped fund the He Gets Us campaign. As Rolling Stone reported last year, Green’s son, Mart — Hobby Lobby’s Ministry Investment Officer — serves on the board of Come Near, according to corporate records. Rob Hoskins, who leads OneHope, an evangelical ministry supported by the Green family, is also on the board. Come Near’s CEO is Ken Calwell, who previously led the pizza chain Papa Murphy’s.
While the He Gets Us campaign is best-known for its Super Bowl ads — last year’s spot, featuring people washing each other’s feet, went viral — the sprawling PR effort is everywhere: the MLB World Series, the NBA and NHL playoffs, and on top of a NASCAR racecar; there was an ad during the Grammys this week.
Before it was acquired by Come Near, He Gets Us operated as a subsidiary of the Servant Foundation, a Kansas-based charity and a major funder of the Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF is a conservative Christian litigation shop that has led court fights to ban the abortion pill, bar hospitals from performing emergency abortion care, and allow businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ+ customers. Come Near seems intent on putting distance between their advertising campaign and the high-profile legal crusades of both ADF and Hobby Lobby, the latter of which lost a decade-long fight to block a trans employee from using the bathroom of her gender identity.
According to Come Near’s FAQ, He Gets Us’ message is addressed to everyone, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation: “Jesus loves gay people and Jesus loves trans people. The LGBTQ+ community, like all people, is invited to explore the story of Jesus and consider his example of unconditional love, grace, and forgiveness of others. No matter who you are, YOU are invited to explore the story of Jesus and consider what it means for your life.”
That kind of messaging — much like its inclusive ad about how “Jesus was a refugee” — has enraged some right-wingers.
“These illegal aliens blocking traffic in California just proves that those @HeGetsUs commercials are absolute trash propaganda,” one X user wrote Sunday. Last month, another X user posted: “I am sick of all the woke and theologically sloppy He Gets Us commercials.”
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