JOY REID: Let’s talk about the other odd ad. Because this is the other ad that had people like, “Wait a minute. Is Jesus on FeetFinder? Let me play a little bit of it. Um, He Gets Us. That’s the ad. Here it is.
AD MUSIC: …You were there/ Two worlds collided/ And they could never tear us apart/ We could live/ For a thousand years…
REID: I know that there was a Jesus ad last Super Bowl, but that time it was sort of by an anti-LGBTQ group. This is different funders, so it’s not- it’s the same kind of thing…but, what did you make of that?
JOHN FUGELSANG: Look. First off, it’s great that Jesus raised my favorite INXS song from the dead. So, thank you for that. That was lovely. I’m of a very mixed mind on it, Joy. I thought it was a beautiful ad, to be honest with you. The whole message of it is an attack on Christian nationalism. Or Christian fascism. Or fundamentalism. Whatever you want to call it. It doesn't present this fictional American, warrior caucasian Jesus. It shows that Jesus is a life of compassion and love. And service and humility. I mean, I’m watching the ad and I was thinking this is designed to make MAGA heads explode. There were (unint) concerns, though, which is: well, OK but if you care this much and you get what Jesus was about, couldn't that $12 million have been used to take care of the poor? Jesus did tell off his own followers for spending money on ointment instead of helping them. And it’s the funders you bring up, Joy. Because when I learned who the funders were, it’s a lot of these groups that are deeply anti-gay. Anti-LGBT. And, to me, homophobia is the opposite of Jesus’ teachings. Homophobia is incompatible with the Gospels.