I’m not entirely wild about all of those “He gets us” ads that are running on television at the moment, but I must confess to being completely and utterly baffled by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that the one that ran during the Super Bowl was “fascist.”
Here’s the ad:
https://youtu.be/f5x1RyJOwP8
And here’s what Ocasio-Cortez said about it:
“Something tells me Jesus would *not* spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign.”
Which . . . what? The ad, titled “Love Your Enemies,” was a minute long, and it showed nothing other than a bunch of black-and-white images of people arguing with each other, shouting at each other, and protesting in different directions. Having done that, it said: “Jesus loved the people we hate.” Then it ended.
Quite obviously, this was a reference to Matthew 5:43-47:
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Here’s what the group that is behind the ads says about that one on their YouTube page:
We see conflict all around us. We align ourselves on different sides of the fight in battles of politics, religion, justice, and too often, we let that conflict morph from a dignified defense of something good into a dehumanizing attack on the people we don’t agree with. It’s tearing us apart.
But Jesus offered us an alternative as an example — and his solution wasn’t to grow apathetic and avoid the conflict altogether. He showed us something else entirely, a third way. His response to the ever-increasing volume of hate and conflict was love. Not just any love — confounding, sacrificial, selfless love. You see, Jesus still stood up for what he believed in. He defended the defenseless, spoke up on behalf of the voiceless, even flipped a few tables, but in everything he did, he first moved with love toward the people he disagreed with. What if we tried to love our enemies the way Jesus loved his? How would it change the tenor of our conflicts and our conversations?
There is nothing “fascist” about this. Indeed, the opposite is true: it’s extremely pluralist. If anything is “fascist,” it’s the alternative approach, which is resolving to hate your enemies because you just know deep down that they are wrong and you are right.
As it happens, there are no “fascists” depicted in the video (and if AOC believes that her domestic political critics count, then she’s even loopier than I thought). But, you know what? Even if there were some fascists shown in the video, it would still work as an advertisement for Jesus. I am not religious, but I am well-versed enough in Christianity to know that there is no exception in Christianity for the worst people in the world. “Love your enemies” includes Hitler. It includes Stalin. Heck, as was movingly demonstrated back in 2015 by the families of the victims of the Charleston AME church massacre, it includes white supremacist mass-killers:
The relatives of people slain inside the historic African American church in Charleston, S.C., earlier this week were able to speak directly to the accused gunman Friday at his first court appearance.
One by one, those who chose to speak at a bond hearing did not turn to anger. Instead, while he remained impassive, they offered him forgiveness and said they were praying for his soul, even as they described the pain of their losses.
“I forgive you,” Nadine Collier, the daughter of 70-year-old Ethel Lance, said at the hearing, her voice breaking with emotion. “You took something very precious from me. I will never talk to her again. I will never, ever hold her again. But I forgive you. And have mercy on your soul.”
Or, as the makers of the video might have put it:
His response to the ever-increasing volume of hate and conflict was love. Not just any love — confounding, sacrificial, selfless love.
That’s “fascism” now? Our political class may have ears to hear, but . . .