“Christ may ‘get us.’ But as long as the campaign emphasizes teaching the unsaved, un-(foot)-washed masses about the love of the divine, instead of demonstrating true empathy for all, it will always backfire.” Aja Romano, a culture reporter for Vox.com

Aja Romano’s commentary on the “He Gets Us” Super Bowl ad published on 2/15/24 on Vox.com under the title, Those evangelical Christian Super Bowl ads — and the backlash to them — explained, seems to be coming from a jaded perspective.

What she may not know is that there are churches today who practice foot washing. Typically, participants are paired and take turns washing each other’s feet, so the “un-(foot)-washed masses” is… us, today’s Christian. By extending the service to others in this campaign is to symbolically extend to them exactly the same thing we do for each other.

She says that the goal of the campaign was not what it seems because they’re trying to condemn intrinsic parts of the identities and experiences of the people whose feet are being washed. She says that the campaign ends up having a disjointed, chaotic dartboard effect that raises far more questions than it provides answers. That is an observation of someone that seems to have gotten lost in the weeds of minor critiques and is missing an important part of the ad campaign.

In most of the foot washing depictions, the one washing the feet (the police officer, the abortion protester, the cheerleader, the white suburban women, etc.) is supposed to be the “type” of person who looks on the “type” of person whose feet are being washed in disdain. They are the Christian, establishment, “normal” citizens being called out by…. themselves (the He Gets Us folks) regarding the attitudes and the lack of empathy and love that has been shown toward people who look different and have had different life experiences from their own.

Washing feet, again, practiced by some churches today, is a humbling experience that calls all your attitudes and motives into question and leaves you somber to reflect on your shortcomings. For the “He Gets Us” people to depict themselves as such in this ad is to first acknowledge what they themselves lack in love and, next, to call Christians to follow Christ in His attitude of love and service toward others, not just their own but, people who are different in many ways than they are.

To view the motive of the people behind the campaign as somehow being anything short of a real attempt to demonstrate true empathy is coming from a cynical place arrived at by having seen too much of what is wrong with Christianity. That is an indictment of all of us.