The Missed Opportunity of "He Gets Us"

Hey everybody, Ken at Charlie Kirk Show. The man behind the alternative, he gets us advertisement. A great conversation. He is joining us from Northern Ireland.

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That's why we are here. Go to noblegoldinvestments.com. It's where I buy all of my gold. Go to noblegoldinvestments.com. During the Super Bowl, you probably saw the He Gets Us advertisement and it has now been one of the most talked about religious topics in quite some time this week.

Probably been seen well over 200 million times. The He Gets Us is primarily funded by certain members of the Green family. It is celebrated by some of the younger children in the Green family. They're associated with Russell Moore and they want a different version of Christianity. They think Christianity has become too mean and turns people off and they believe in a theological approach that Jesus is kind of your bro. That Jesus won't tell you to stop sinning.

He'll put his arm around you and say, just keep doing what you're doing because I get you. That is effectively the theological and messaging disposition that part of the Green family is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars behind. There is so much wrong with that advertisement. Joining us now is Jamie Bambrick, creator of the alternative He Gets Us advertisement. Jamie, welcome to the program. Jamie, talk about your reaction when you saw that advertisement.

Thank you so much for having me on. My initial reaction was that it was terrible. I'm actually a big NFL fan.

People can probably tell from my accent that I'm not American, I'm Northern Irish. But I saw it and was, like many Christians, and I would say all Bible-believing Christians at least should be, was really frustrated by it because there's a few problems with it. One is that it's a it's a misportrayal of the gospel where it is, as you said, it's like Jesus, all he wants to do is put his arm around us and functionally support us in our sin, which is not the gospel. But then also, furthermore, there's there's a slight element in it of slander towards Bible-believing Christians because the culmination of it, for those that maybe are listening and didn't see it, is that it says Jesus didn't preach hate.

He washed feet. And the implication is that anybody who does something other than that, anybody who perhaps while serving because we should all serve and love people. And of course we do. But there's also an element where we should say, no, this is wrong. You need to turn from your sin.

You need to come to faith in Jesus Christ. That that would be considered hate. And of course, it's not hate.

Biblically, that is actually an act of love, at least if it's done done in the right way and done with a genuine sense of concern for the other person's soul and eternal well-being. So, yeah, that just that that that started me thinking about it. And then I ended up having a conversation. I've been praying actually for for an idea.

I run a small channel. I've been praying about getting an idea for it for a video and a friend of mine on Twitter, a guy called Josh Dawes, had said, I'll be great if someone made a better version of this. And I just felt like it was, you know, something I was like, I could do something better than that. Got the idea of putting together then something that would be more edifying and hopefully more true to the biblical gospel.

So, yeah, that was the kind of the long story made short as to why I did it. What's fascinating, I've watched the ad a couple of times now and I didn't necessarily catch this the first time I saw it, is that it's not geared at the lost. And that's what's so perplexing is that you buy an advertisement in front of one hundred twenty three million people at a Super Bowl. And they say that we need to we need to reach the lost.

We need to reach the lost. But it's as if the advertisement was actually to criticize Christians. That was actually what that was. So so why use a Super Bowl ad to kind of criticize other Christians, essentially to say that we didn't you know, Jesus didn't preach hate. And also to kind of tell the world who thinks that Jesus is hate is, oh, no, don't worry. You know, we're not going to tell you that you're wrong in your sin. Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

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I got angry when I saw your ad because I said what could have been how great it could have been to show that people are not all yet they could be. And that is the difference between the two ads that he gets us is that, well, he's going to come down to your broken state and almost affirm where you are. He gets you, bro. He gets that you're a meth addict. He gets that you're giving kids chemical castration. He gets that you're an abortionist. You say, no, no, no, no. You could be better. You could become a you could become a new person. As the scripture said, it's completely different. Yours is hopeful and optimistic and is the gospel.

Theirs is like heavy and almost like written with guilt. And that is completely different. Like, yeah, he gets you, dude. I don't. First of all, Jesus doesn't get me.

He saves me. Big difference. Tell us about your approach there, your creative approach.

Sure. Yeah, I mean, so what I wanted to do was I wanted to make it close to the original in terms of the concept because I wanted I wanted to show what you actually said there, which is this is what could have been this is what should have been. And this is the message that that Christians should be getting out there in place of the one that they did.

So obviously, stylistically, it's similar. But but as you said, it's containing a message that actually speaks of what God can do in someone's life, because I think this conception that Christians that are, let's say, conservative, let's say, Bible believing, whatever it might be, that we hate people that are not like us. I think that's fundamentally untrue. We actually love those who are different to us, but we love them. And hopefully we love them at least in a reflection of the way that Jesus loves them, which is we love them.

We also want to see them leave behind their sinful lifestyle and come into the beautiful restoration and goodness that Jesus has for them. So you see all those images of here's what life was like before and here's where God has brought them now. And yeah, so I mean, you said you said I get the credit for it.

Ultimately, this is there was a very simple thing to make. So the credit goes to what God has actually done. I think that's the more appealing thing about this is that these are true stories of what God can do in people's lives.

And for me, that's the exciting thing. So, Jamie, one of the things I want you to talk about for a second, and I want to play a piece of tape that proves this, is the power of creating an alternative. The fact that you created an alternative advertisement really made He Gets Us Look Bad. And I know that meaning in a way that I think was very powerful because it's one thing for us to criticize the ad. It's another thing to say, no, no, we're not against running ads during the Super Bowl. We're not against trying to bring people to Jesus. It's just you guys swung and miss.

And by the way, just so you know, I have tried my best to talk to the He Gets Us people. They are so prideful when it comes to this. They will not receive criticism. They say that it's working.

They say it's wonderful and that your heart is hard if you don't love their advertisement. Jamie, what's your response to that? Yeah, I think firstly, God can do wonderful things through things that are not good, right? God can bring good out of evil.

Romans 8.28. Right, absolutely. So if an advert gets out there and brings the name of Jesus to millions and millions of people, of course, God can use that to perhaps stir an interest in Christianity, come to church, read their Bible, whatever it may be. Right.

So that's that's possible. The issue is that the content of their advertisement as it was, as any reasonable person would have viewed it, will actually, typically speaking, make the ground harder for most Christians to believe because they're saying what a lot of people's misconception is of the church, which is that if we call you to turn from sin and come to faith in Jesus Christ, that we're preaching hate. So the gospel of the original advert is not the saving gospel. It is a different gospel. And therefore, even if God manages through his great wisdom and power to redirect things in someone's life, because it's a lot of people, it might even be a lot of people's lives. The fact is that you actually need to and you would be much better spent your time and money, your 14 million dollars or whatever it may have been, I've heard different numbers reported, would have been much better spent conveying a gospel that could save and conveying the true message. Because, yes, you might get even a tiny bit of fruit from this and we praise God for all of it. But nonetheless, there could have been so much more. It could have been so much more. And, you know, God will use all things for those who love him towards his good. That is the promise of Romans 828.

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relieffactor.com. We also have to ask, you know, is this the wisest deployment? And is this the message? Is this the best theological message? And it's funny, you know, they say Jesus didn't preach hate. But I see in those pictures a lot of people that do preach hate. I mean, they showed an abortionist.

They showed protesters. And remember, in John 8, which is very quoted by the Wokey Christian people, it's fine, they say, let the first among you cast the first stone. They forget the second part of John 8. When Jesus says to the woman he just saved, sin no more.

You got to stop sinning. That's a pretty important kicker that you have to change your ways, that I'm going to transform you. But what I love about your message is that it shows these happy people of all sorts of different backgrounds that were probably not as joyful before they found Jesus. And it shows that it can transform them.

And so where does this bro-y, he-gets-us thing come from? And I'm afraid it comes from an approach of people that do not want to be challenged on their sinful ways, that they know what's best, that they want a God that affirms their drug use, their addiction, their whatever lifestyle, and that if you dare question it, the only explanation is hateful, as if there's not a spectrum of so much other things before hateful. And the most loving thing you can do when you encounter an error is to correct it.

And if you find an error, you want to correct it. And when you find a mistake, do you affirm that mistake, or do you try and give people the proper way that they might live a better and deeper life? Jamie from Northern Ireland, Jamie Bambrick, creator of the alternative he-gets-us had, where does that come from, Jamie? That kind of bro-y theology, it's growing, it has momentum, where does that come from? Yeah, I think there's a few things, without getting into too much detail on it, there's a, someone talked about Christianity functioning in the neutral world, which we've moved out of, where Christianity was, let's say from the late 90s through to about maybe 10 years ago.

Christianity, we live in a postmodern world, Christianity can be good for you, but not necessarily good for me, but we're open to all kind of ideas. And in that world, I think it made a lot of sense for people, and people probably find it evangelistically effective to say, what we're going to do in order to reach people is we're just going to show that we're nice, we're going to show that this works for us, and then hopefully they'll pick up a little bit of that. We've now shifted, we've shifted societally across the Western world, so America included, Northern Ireland included, everywhere in the West, to the negative world, where it is viewed as a negative thing to be a Christian, it's not just a neutral thing, it's negative.

And in that, we actually need to have the confidence that being well received is not the most important thing. Jesus was not well received in his message. The apostles were not well received in their message. They paid an enormous price. Jesus Christ was crucified.

His apostles, all but one of them, were murdered for their faith. And we need to get back to that, because I think this idea that if we're just nice enough, and if we just show that we're always as nice as we can be, that people will come to the faith, that is, at the very least an outdated idea, it was always incorrect, but it certainly is not working anymore. And I think you see this even with, I don't want to go on too long, but I think you see this with the reaction of the left to this, because they've not really appreciated it either in many ways. And I think the reason is, they know they're being pandered to. They know that this is not a true belief of what we, or a true portrayal of what we actually believe.

They know that this is sucking up. And they would, I think they'd rather if it was upfront, and I think it could be upfront in a way that is also hopeful and not just condemnation. Yes, there's sin, but there's grace, but there's forgiveness, but there's transformation. That is a better message. Yeah, we both said it at the same time. Do not conform to the ways of this world, but instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

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Promo code charlie. Okay, so I want to play this piece of tape here because I want to try to give an example of a moment where I, based on what I've received from Andrew and the team, they said I embodied your message more than the he gets us. So just by context, I went on this program called Whatever. Our audience is now aware of it because I've walked them through it.

A lot of porn people were there, people that participate in the actual act of having sex on camera, including a young lady next to me. The he gets us approach would have me turning to the porn person by the name of Molly and would have said, you know, Molly, I get you. I get that you film yourself having sex and I'm not here to condemn you. I just want to know that Jesus gets you. Yet Jesus is right there with a thumbs up of approval when you're having sex with a man on camera and that Jesus is not going to judge you that you're live streaming yourself having the most intimate holy thing two human beings can do. That's the he gets us approach.

That is the approach that the Green family is underwriting. There's a different way to handle it where you still can be loving and truthful. And I think we hit this chord based on response I've received.

Play cut 120, please. I have sympathy for you. I do. You're trying to cope with the suppression of your soul. And filming yourself having sex with other men and filming it is not the highest and best use of the talents that God gave you.

It's not. I think that is a talent God gave me. Well, it's not the highest and best use and it's not a talent because, as I said, in my belief, that should be saved in a sacred domain. We're not going to agree on that. But I hope you change course. I think you'll be happier and more joyful and I pray you don't have to suffer too much to realize that. Well, in my belief, this is my most happy and joyful.

Jamie, your reaction. Yeah, I think I think you conveyed very well there what the heart of Christians should be towards those who are stuck in sin. Because the Bible describes living in sin as slavery. It describes it as something that is that is destructive to the human soul. And yes, that girl, you know, she may have she may believe that she's happy. There may be even temporary happiness involved with that lifestyle.

Maybe there's there's some fame and popularity and whatever it might be that comes with that. But long term, that will take a toll on her soul. And that is the very thing that we as believers want to see people rescued from in this life. And then obviously eternal salvation as part of that as well. So no, I think that that is the kind of way it is a very good example in a brief way of conveying to someone who does not believe. And it's not really interested in believing perhaps that no, we do care about you, but we care about you enough to say the difficult thing.

We care enough to say that you need to actually lay this down in order to receive something better that God has for you. Jamie, let's kind of summarize this all together. Just talk about the work you do. Northern Ireland is not exactly known as the Bible Belt of the planet. Tell us about your life.

What do you do? Yes. So I'm going to associate pastor here. Northern Ireland actually is reasonably reasonably Christian for the UK. It would almost be sort of slightly equivalent to the Bible Belt, perhaps of the United Kingdom.

We would be less Christian than perhaps the southern states would be. But there's a there's a fairly strong evangelical presence here. And also we have many practicing and believing Catholics as well as people across the spectrum. But yeah, so so I'm an associate pastor of the church just outside of Belfast.

And then about a year ago, I started making some YouTube videos and then started to post them over on Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it, really dealing with cultural issues from a Christian perspective. I think that that's an essential area for the church to engage in. In my experience, it's the number one reason why people are turning away from the faith or not coming to the faith is really these days. It is those cultural issues. It's the issues of sexuality.

It's the issues of of the sins of our day, as opposed to say more, let's say theological, philosophical questions. Obviously, you have some of those as well. So started doing that.

I had a small channel that had the occasional video do well, but it's really taken off over the last couple of days, which has been really encouraging to see. So, yeah, it's a heart of mine. And ultimately I want to I mean, I'm a homeboy. I'm a Northern Irish man.

Plan to stay here. I want to see Northern Ireland impacted. But I think part of the way we do that is being part of the wider Christian sphere, speaking to these things that are happening in the global scale. And I've been encouraged just that the response locally has actually been really, really good and hoping to to use that for the glory of God here in Northern Ireland. Yeah.

How can people support you and follow everything you're doing? Thank you. That's kind of you to ask.

Yeah. Just search for my name. I'll try and say it.

American American League. Jamie Bambrick. I think Jimmy people get confused with the accent.

Think I'm saying Jimmy. Search that on YouTube. Search for that on Twitter as well. I have a little picture on there.

People want to want to give anything towards it. That's that's super appreciated. Not required, of course.

But just yes. Subscribe. Follow the stuff if you like it. And yeah, I hope it blesses people. Very good. Jamie, God bless you. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us as always. Freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com. Thanks so much for listening and God bless.