Phoenix has returned to normal — The Goodyear blimp is no longer flying across the sky, the freeways are (somewhat) clearing up and, unfortunately, the light rail is no longer free.
Last weekend, sports fanatics and celebrities packed the town. Golf preps filled up the TPC Scottsdale Stadium to witness the Waste Management Phoenix Open (and also a mullet man streaker running across the green and belly flopping into the pond).
In Glendale, the State Farm Stadium hosted a full house, including hundreds of ultra-rich celebrities, for Super Bowl LVII. Elon Musk tweeted about the Eagles (jinxing them) while sitting alongside Fox propaganda giant Rupert Murdoch. Reoccurring Arizona loser Kari Lake used the big game to stoke racist culture wars, grumpily posing while claiming to be protesting the “Black National Anthem” (aka Lift Every Voice and Sing). At half-time, Lake also grabbed a photo with Proud Boy-friendly Evangelical musician Sean Feucht, who secured tickets alongside far-right megachurch pastor Rob McCoy.
Outside the stadium, Indigenous activists protested the racist caricatures too-commonly depicted in American sports culture. Native protesters decried the Chiefs, their tomahawk logo and the “tomahawk chop” chant. On the live broadcast, Chiefs fans could be seen participating in the racist “tomahawk chop” chant while the back of the NFL helmets ironically read “end racism.”
Throughout the Valley, overpasses and walkways were marked with more protest. Some in solidarity with the Rally Against Native Mascots, other banners condemned Arizona’s abortion restrictions and our deadly police force.
“Fund abortion not police,” read one large banner. Miles away, others read “abortion is normal,” and “fuck abortion bans.” The banners also promoted a website, NoBansAZ, with information on abortion access in Arizona, upcoming bills, and ways to support to local abortion funds and clinics.
Activists with BLM Phoenix Metro and Poder in Action drove a video truck through downtown reading: “Welcome to Arizona. Where being unsheltered is a crime. In town for the big game? Scan to know more.” The QR code brings up a travel advisory warning visitors of the racist and deadly Phoenix police force, highlighting stats and informing readers of their legal rights.
As the big game began, viewers were met with a sanitized video remembrance of former Arizona Cardinal and vocal anti-Iraq invasion Army Ranger Pat Tillman. He “ultimately lost his life in the line of duty,” narrated Kevin Costner as four Pat Tillman Foundation scholars were featured for the honorary coin toss. Missing from the memorial was how Tillman lost his life — as the victim of a so-called “friendly fire” incident followed by a massive military coverup.
The propaganda didn’t end there. For the tenth year in a row, Scientology aired a commercial during the Super Bowl spectacle. Airing before and after the Rihanna halftime show, viewers were also met with ads promoting “He Gets Us.”
The Evangelical marketing strategy is part of a greater $100 million project to advertise Jesus to the younger generation. Last March, the “He Gets Us” campaign began with TV commercials and billboards popping up in major cities across the country. Their two segments during the Super Bowl, at $7 million each, broadcast their message to over 100 million viewers.
“Love Your Enemies” cuts various black and white images to the tune of Human by Rag‘n’Bone Man. Each clip shows some kind of confrontation, the shots are meant to feel reminiscent of the past few years. One image features an angry woman holding a “liberty over lockdown” sign while yelling at a pair of masked nurses. In another a Jacob Chansley-knockoff megaphones in a Black man’s face at a 1776-themed protest.
“Jesus loved the people we hate,” the minute-long video concludes.
The money behind the massive He Gets Us campaign is partially a mystery. The project is a subsidiary of the Christian non-profit The Servant Foundation, also known as The Signatry, but the donor funds remain mostly anonymous. In an interview with Glenn Beck, Hobby Lobby co-founder and Evangelical megadonor David Green took credit for some of the funding.
On their website, He Gets Us defends the anonymity “because the story isn’t about them, and they don’t want the credit. It’s about Jesus.”
Behind the marketing scenes, The Servant Foundation maintains a more bigoted message. As reported by Jacobin, The Servant Foundation has funneled over $50 million into anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) between 2018 to 2020 — $14,663,725 in 2018, $19,029,112 in 2019, and $16,657,150 in 2020.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an Evangelical legal mega giant headquartered out of Scottsdale, AZ. Over the decades, the ADF has been involved in the landmark cases rapidly breaking down the separation of church and state. Infamously, the ADF represented Jack Phillips in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case and Hobby Lobby in their challenge against birth control coverage and the Affordable Care Act. Routinely the Christian legal behemoth works to target abortion access in Arizona and nationwide.
Tracked as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ADF also works to roll back LGBTQ+ civil rights through the courts.
According to SPLC, the ADF “has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad, has contented that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia; and claims that a ‘homosexual agenda’ will destroy Christianity and society.”
ADF’s legal presence in Arizona is vast. Dillon Rosenblatt’s Fourth Estate 48 also recently reported the “In God We Trust” vanity plates even help fund Alliance Defending Freedom.
Records also show The Servant Foundation donated to another anti-LGBTQ+ local conservative group: Turning Point USA. $10,300 in 2020 and 11,000 in 2019. Funnily enough, Turning Point co-founder and CEO Charlie Kirk took issue with the tolerant messaging of He Gets Us.
“The marketing group behind ‘He Gets Us’ has done one of the worst services to Christianity in the modern era. The Green family are decent, wonderful people who have been taken for a ride by these woke tricksters. So sad,” tweeted Kirk.
The full “He Gets Us” campaign has produced over a dozen videos, in both English and Spanish, with some taking a less hateful approach Kirk is used to. Several show examples of modern desperation; one plays clips of people living in poverty with the final message “Jesus struggled to make ends meet too.” Another shows migrants with an narrator reciting the story of Mary and Joseph fleeing Bethlehem with the final message: “Jesus was a refugee.”
Kirk also shared a Revolver article criticizing the ad campaign for “using Jesus to promote illegal migrants.”
New on LCRWnews
Speaking of Charlie Kirk and Alliance Defending Freedom, be sure to check out my newest article with Left Coast Right Watch. “Phoenix Anti-Abortion Fake Clinic Teams Up With Turning Point USA,” goes over Choices Pregnancy Centers of Greater Phoenix and their ties to ADF, Turning Point, and Dream City Church. Unfortunately, speaking again of Charlie Kirk…
No Hate at Barrett
Last month, a group of faculty members at Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University were shocked to learn of a Charlie Kirk/Dennis Prager event being held at the campus. Being sponsored by Barrett, faculty members were uncomfortable with the hate peddlers representing their name. They were also frustrated with ASU failing to notify them of the event, learning about “"Health, Wealth, & Happiness” through social media. In response, 39 of 47 Barrett faculty members chose to distance themselves from the seminar.
In the petition to Barrett dean Tara Williams, the faculty members took issue with their names being associated with the hate rhetoric common with Kirk and Prager:
“Our objections to two of the scheduled speakers at the ‘Health, Wealth and Happiness’ event, however, exceed those previous worries by an order of magnitude. Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk are purveyors of hate who have publicly attacked women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, as well as the institutions of our democracy, including our public institutions of higher education,” read the petition.
Of course, Kirk and Prager responded by crying “canceled” despite the letter’s lack of a call for cancellation. Far-right media rushed to Kirk and Prager’s defense, also criticizing the “woke” and “Marxist” professors for “canceling” the duo. On Prager’s podcast, he called for the professors and faculty to be fired for daring to voice themselves.
Health, Wealth and Happiness went on as scheduled on February 8. Jason White of The State Press pictured a Proud Boy in colors entering the ASU-hosted event.
At the seminar, Prager and Kirk avoided calling for the faculty members to be fired, but still whined about their supposed “cancellation.” Prager also went on his usual misogynistic rants. As the speakers started, a lone protesters inside held up a sign facing the half-full audience: “Health, wealth, and happiness includes queer people.”
Outside, faculty members who signed onto the letter continued their protest. About a dozen held signs picketing the entrance of the event. Multiple protesters held signs decorated with maroon and gold colors of ASU: “No hate at Barrett, period.”
The following days, Kirk would respond again by placing each of the 39 faculty members on his McCarthy-esque “Professor Watchlist.” The Watchlist, along with the Dean’s Watchlist and Education Watchlist, is Turning Point’s way of monitoring educators who don’t toe the right-wing line. Professors are targeted for speaking or teaching about racial issues, LGBTQ+ topics, or pissing off right-wing media. Some are listed for simply being transgender. The Professor’s Watchlist is meant to silence and intimidate professors, adding Barrett faculty to the list helps to continue the threats already being launched against them.