The Caravan

I’m not a sports fan; so, I didn’t watch Superbowl 2023. If I had, I’m sure that I would have been impressed with how George Santos saved Kansas City’s bacon in the game’s second half by delivering those crucial touchdowns.

This morning, I went on YouTube to search for the commercials which, for me, are most often the highlights of this sports spectacle. I found several compilations of those commercials, and none of them delivered the Wow! factor of Herding Cats or the older Budweiser Clydesdale commercials. I’d heard that the 2023 commercials would include a commercial for Jesus. Yeah, I know that it sounds a little dissonant.

After a little searching, I found the Superbowl Jesus commercial, its trailer, and a FOX News segment discussing the commercial and public reaction to it. I also did a little background work on the funding of this $20 million ad buy and the 3-year, $1 billion Jesus advertising campaign that is being funded by a group of billionaire families. In my mind’s eye, I can see a caravan of camels passing through the eye of a needle.

The backlash to this rather anodyne Jesus commercial is that its bankroll wreaks of Joel Osteen faux Christianity, Christian Dominionism, and Prosperity Gospel – everything un-Christ-like. Some have objected loudly that the advertising campaign funds could have been used to actually care for the sick, injured, poor, and otherwise unfortunate. Others have been critical that the commercials proclaim that Jesus loves everyone while those behind the ad campaign most likely hate immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, women who want to control their own bodies, and everyone else who is marginalized by today’s Right Wing Christian alliance.

I found the FOX News segment particularly informative. It so beautifully illustrates how the most privileged and powerful religion in our country is so quick to declare its victimhood at the hands of liberals and lefties. As victims, they can identify with the Christ, I suppose.

I think that my caravan of camels will easily pass through the eye of that needle once they have cast off the burdens of modern Christianity. The camels are probably Jewish or Muslim, I think.

Now I have to go make a modest donation to the UNHCR relief efforts for Turkey and Syria’s earthquake relief efforts. I am an atheist humanist, after all.