What was it that the famous Brazilian Catholic bishop said back in the day (Camara, was it?) -- "When I feed the poor, they call me a saint; when I ask
why they are poor, they call me a communist"? There has always been a pretty direct tie between what has been labeled recently in the western world as 'social justice' and the actions of those within the Church (whichever church you happen to belong to; well, okay...mayyyybe not if you're in Fred Phelps' weirdo Independent Baptist cult
) to establish a society such that we can truly attempt to live out what we say when we pray that His will be done "on Earth as it is in heaven". Whether it's examples within the scriptures themselves (e.g., Christ saving the adulterous woman from being stoned) or outside of them (e.g., St. Didymus the Blind inventing a precursor to Braille in 4th century, thereby providing a key milestone in what would now be called "disability rights"), this is not a new thing, and it's certainly not part of some liberal conspiracy to liberalize/demasculinze/LGBT-ize (etc., etc.) Christianity. To be frank, that has already happened (and is not new either), and so that applies to whichever churches to which it applies, all of which were formed before the Superbowl ad was aired.
The only thing I'm seeing in all this hubbub is the further corporatizing of Christianity in America, which also did not start with this ad, and which politically conservative Christians seem to be largely fine with, since big-time donors like the Hobby Lobby people are who pay for the platform to the tune of millions, no doubt aided by your granny's smaller donation from a portion of her social security check. As I said back when I first encountered this ad campaign here on CF (in October of 2022), it's pretty ridiculous to think that what western society needs is more ad men to sell everyone on Jesus. I find that much more offensive than the idea that someone might wash the feet of an LGBT person. My Church, like all the traditional churches, also carries on the ritual foot washing on the appropriate day of our liturgical calendar, and I have never seen it happen that someone was vetted as to their sexuality beforehand. You might say that's because Egyptians are quite conservative in comparison to most westerners (which is true), so it probably wouldn't assumed that anyone there is gay in the first place, but my point is rather that the washing is to emphasize humility and service to everyone who comes together in His name, which seems to be inherently offensive to some people. I find that weird, if we are truly to count ourselves as the worst of sinners (as is the case with regard to the public confessions of the priest made before the congregation in the Coptic Orthodox liturgy). None of this is to say that we ought to all convert our various churches into "LGBT-affirming" ones (again, that's happened already in other churches, so maybe criticism applies to them on the account, but that's a different discussion), but that humility and service don't go out the window according to the sins of whomever comes to us for help (again recall the Lord stopping the stoning of the adulterous woman). Believe it or not, it is entirely possible to maintain traditional Christian morality when it comes to LGBT-identifying people without treating anything that mentions or even hints at their existence like it must mean that those people don't know the "real Jesus". You don't know what anyone does or doesn't hold in their hearts as they struggle through this life the same as the rest of are doing (regardless of how we 'identify'), and while we must never use that fact as an excuse to be 'soft' in terms of theology or praxis in favor of embracing how the TV tells us to be (people coming to church presumably want a real encounter with God, not
The Jesus Experience, Sponsored by Tostitos™), we should also never forget it, because we are all going to be relying on the same mercy from the Just Judge when that day comes.
I guess it's like anything else: Some people read Matthew 10:16 and really focus in on the "be as wise as serpents" part (to the point of sometimes making themselves into fools), while others really focus in on the "as gentle as doves" part (to the point of sometimes making their congregations into prey). I would merely like to suggest that
the reason for either of those things is that we are being sent out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so we need to be much smarter than to fall into either of the traps of celebrating what our Lord has condemned, or of condemning errant people before our Lord has gotten the chance to (cf. the sayings of St. Moses the Ethiopian).
It's like, do we want as many to be saved as will come before the Lord with a contrite heart, or do we want to be "right" on the hot-button political issues of the day as interpreted through the lens of corporate America, which does not care one whit for what anyone holds as holy or inviolable? The answer seems clear to me, but then I didn't even see the ad in question, since I don't have cable and I try to avoid CF rage-bait.