{"id":20578,"date":"2022-03-16T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T13:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=20578"},"modified":"2022-03-16T09:00:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T13:00:44","slug":"ad-campaign-reveals-an-empathetic-jesus-faith-leaders-gather-virtually-to-end-american-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2022\/03\/ad-campaign-reveals-an-empathetic-jesus-faith-leaders-gather-virtually-to-end-american-homelessness.html","title":{"rendered":"Ad campaign reveals an empathetic Jesus + Faith Leaders gather virtually to end American homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 03\/16\/22<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><iframe title=\"Anxiety\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ialVA4cu2uY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Jesus Gets Us. <\/strong><\/em>That&#8217;s the simple but powerful (and empowering) message of a national ad campaign that officially launched Monday across TV, digital, radio, outdoor, and experiential platforms. A 10-market, multi-million-dollar test over the last few months included ad placement in top prime-time shows and NFL games far exceeded expectations. The first round of ads garnered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/results?search_query=He+Gets+Us\">32-million views on <strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/a> in just 10 weeks and nearly half a million people visited the interactive website <a href=\"https:\/\/hegetsus.com\/\"><strong>HeGetsUs.com<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The above spot called <em><b>Anxiety<\/b><\/em>, for example, shows suffering and anxiety across various walks of life and culminates with a message that reads &#8220;Jesus suffered anxiety too.&#8221; Another ad, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-Eg_yrpjmlY\"><em><b>Wrong<\/b><b>l<\/b><b>y Judged<\/b><\/em><\/a>, follows a group of heavily tattooed youths as they roam the streets &#8211; bring food to the homeless. As the spot points out, like the young people featured in the video spot, Jesus too was wrongly judged. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rUUG3aXWiA0\"><em><b>Dinner Party<\/b><\/em><\/a> seems particularly relevant to our time as the commercial depicts diverse groups of people are invited to a gathering &#8211; but several of the invited guests choose not to attend because they can&#8217;t overcome the things that divide them. The ad suggests that Jesus, the organizer of the dinner party we call life, is heartbroken because He wants His people to let go of judgment and share in the food, drink and compassion He offers us all.<\/p>\n<p>The nationwide effort, backed by a coalition of Christian donors, is a response to nationwide research conducted last year which found that many Americans associate Christianity with judgementalism, discrimination, and hypocrisy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Haven Founder and Chief Creative Officer Bill McKendry<\/strong>, whose company created the spots, says that are &#8220;disrupting misconceptions by pointing out how Jesus identified with the marginalized, how he didn&#8217;t favor the powerful, how he often offended the religious by associating with social outcasts, how he was wholly disinterested in political power as a means of furthering his movement and how he actively challenged systems of oppression even though he knew it would cost him his life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Haven President Jason Vandergound<\/strong> adds &#8220;Maybe the most surprising aspect of this campaign is that it makes no attempt to recruit or convert anyone to a particular denomination or belief&#8230;This initiative is designed simply to remind Americans that, no matter what they believe, no matter what religious beliefs they hold \u2014 or don&#8217;t \u2014 Jesus&#8217; life and experiences can serve as inspiration as they navigate their own situations.&#8221;<br \/>\n___<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-04xlpa\"><span class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-jsgrdq\"><strong>BAHNding together. <\/strong>One of the nation\u2019s oldest advocacy organizations for the those experiencing homelessness, <strong>The National Coalition For The Homeless<\/strong>,\u00a0 is set to host interfaith leaders, families, individuals experiencing homelessness, musicians, artists, and elected officials representing the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith traditions in a national zoom launch of a new campaign aimed at finally ending homelessness once and for all. Called the <strong><em>Bring America Home Now Campaign<\/em><\/strong> <strong>(BAHN)<\/strong>, the <strong>event will be held from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM (ET) in Washington, D.C.\u00a0<\/strong> The c<\/span><span class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-jsgrdq\">ampaign seeks to address the\u00a0 multiple system breakdowns that have contributed to the affordable housing and homelessness crisis. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-04xlpa\"><span class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-jsgrdq\"><strong>NCH Executive Director Donald Whitehead<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/05\/donald-whitehead-tackles-homelessness-from-the-pov-of-having-lived-through-itmovie-preview-respect.html\">who has been interviewed before in this space<\/a> and is one of the chief architects of <em>Bring America Home Now<\/em>, says <\/span><span class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-jsgrdq\"><i>\u201c<\/i>The current tragic homeless crisis for the un-housed has many contributing factors. This includes the Covid-19 pandemic, the spiraling costs of private market housing, low wages for working people, strict eligibility requirements to get into private market housing, employment instability, the <strong>Supreme Court<\/strong>\u2019s recent decision to lift the <strong>CDC<\/strong>\u2019s moratorium on evictions, and the millions of working families and people who lack access to public or non-profit housing. This has caused untold and unnecessary suffering on families with children, working people, veterans, seniors, and the physically and mentally challenged who do not have access to housing in the wealthiest country in the world. We have witnessed a dramatic increase in people living on the streets, in tent cities, in cars, abandoned buildings. People are being turned away from homeless shelters, forced to live in temporary housing situations, or living doubled up with strangers, friends, or family members in conditions that are not conducive to human freedom, dignity, peace of mind, and the ability to become a tax paying member of the economic mainstream.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-04xlpa\"><span class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-jsgrdq\"><strong>Dr. Reverend Rodney Sadler,<\/strong> Associate Professor at<strong> Union Presbyterian Seminary<\/strong> and the Director of the <strong>Union Presbyterian Seminary<\/strong>adds &#8220;<\/span><span class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-jsgrdq\">In the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions, we are commanded by <strong>God<\/strong> to treat people fairly and with compassion. <strong>Psalm 140:12<\/strong> reads &#8216;I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor, and upholds the cause of the needy.&#8217; The time has come for the faith community to work to end homelessness in America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-04xlpa\"><span class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-jsgrdq\"><strong>Interfaith Event Chair Pastor Michelle Bush <\/strong>concurs, declaring &#8220;<\/span><span class=\"yiv1952973144gmail-jsgrdq\">We believe that every human being is a precious commodity to God and should never be without his\/her bare essentials. Housing is a human right\u2014a matter of dignity &amp; self-respect. It is time that the most vulnerable of society are viewed as equals, having the same access to healthy food, good paying jobs, and shelter inside a dwelling that is clean, safe, and habitable.&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<div><strong><em><span class=\"st\">Encourage one another and build each other up &#8211; <\/span><\/em><span class=\"st\">1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 03\/16\/22 Jesus Gets Us. That&#8217;s the simple but powerful (and empowering) message of a national ad campaign that officially launched Monday across TV, digital, radio, outdoor, and experiential platforms. A 10-market, multi-million-dollar test over the last few months included ad placement in top prime-time&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,10,9990,1085,1591,7533,17,19,21,22,4206,5615,1],"tags":[13135,13141,13126,13129,13123,13147,13138,13132,13144],"class_list":["post-20578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advertising","category-christianity","category-current-events","category-fear","category-forgiveness","category-good-works","category-homlessness","category-interfaith-dialogue","category-islam","category-judaism","category-media","category-power-of-prayer","category-social-media","category-uncategorized","tag-bring-america-home-now-campaign-bahn","tag-dr-reverend-rodney-sadler","tag-haven-founder-and-chief-creative-officer-bill-mckendry","tag-haven-president-jason-vandergound","tag-hegetsus-com","tag-interfaith-event-chair-pastor-michelle-bush","tag-nch-executive-director-donald-whitehead","tag-the-national-coalition-for-the-homeless","tag-union-presbyterian-seminary"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ad campaign reveals an empathetic Jesus + Faith Leaders gather virtually to end American homelessness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2022\/03\/ad-campaign-reveals-an-empathetic-jesus-faith-leaders-gather-virtually-to-end-american-homelessness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ad campaign reveals an empathetic Jesus + Faith Leaders gather virtually to end American homelessness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 03\/16\/22 Jesus Gets Us. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20578"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20614,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20578\/revisions\/20614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}