Terry H. Schwadron
March 22, 2024
Twice during the Superbowl broadcast, there were commercials promoting Jesus, promoting combining Jesus, home, patriotism, and prayer.
It was a little odd, but, hey, went the reaction, if someone’s got several million dollars to splurge on a message of forgiveness, what’s the harm? Of course, there were voices who suggested that Jesus likely would have used such money to feed people rather than to call a football crowd otherwise bending elbows to bend a knee instead.
Indeed, it was part of a larger marketing push of Christian thought by a Bible app called Hallow and involving actors Mark Wahlberg and Jonathan Roumie, who actually played a streaming series Jesus. A second Superbowl ad for Jesus, featuring the washing of humble feet, was mounted by a group headed by David Green of Hobby Lobby, a recreational business with Christian ideals.
Hallow also had an ad in the middle of one of the Republican presidential debates in the fall to “help folks take a pause, and through prayer, invite Jesus into our hearts, explained Alex Jones, creator of the Hallow app (not the Info Wars conspiracy theorist).
Fast forward this last week, when Fox News hosts asked viewers to bow their heads in prayer during another Hallow-sponsored moment that even weekend host Pete Hegseth seemed a little embarrassed to announce. Co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy added, “This is very ‘Fox and Friends.” Hegseth intoned, “It’s the 5th Sunday of Lent, and our prayer series continues with the reading of prayer from the Hallow app,” Hegseth went on. “We all need it, let’s do it this morning, close your eyes — if you would, bow your head.”
And, thus, they and third host Will Cain did so and straight-faced, went into a religious reading that was just part of the news talk show.
Pushing Christian Thought
It was more than a commercial, more than “product placement.” more than an unquestioning feature story about the Hollow app, which they also have offered. This was Fox News using its “fair and balanced news” or public affairs personnel to promote Christianity — in the name of public understanding. Or in the name of advertising.
I may not be a fan of Fox and Friends, but I at least understand it to be generally about politics and culture, not a pastoral lectern to broadcast religion into my home. What are they thinking at Fox News? What do they consider offensive to an audience, or for that matter to Christian preaching? When did Jesus become a product? Would Fox do this to sell Islam or Buddhism or voodoo?
This is pay-for-pray to an unsuspecting — and apparently uncritical — audience amid a partisan, political push for candidates, Republican candidates, who push for adoption of a “Christian nation” to dominate a pluralistic society.
We’ve seen a host of Republicans, including Donald Trump, talk up Christian values as part of an appeal to white evangelical voters, unafraid of leaving millions out of the mainstream America that they envision. Their Christion nation is one that insists on enacting laws to enforce particular laws and practices that range from anti-abortion and anti-immigration, anti-diversity, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination regulations, public tuition supports for parochial school, support for parental rights to ban books from school libraries and a host of other issues that a returning Jesus might not actually recognize.
None of these Christian beliefs seems to be at odds with the constant promotion and defense for Trump, someone found liable for sexual assault and serious fraud, someone charged with obstruction of justice in holding on to national secrets and basically for fomenting insurrection. Those don’t seem to make the cut as unChristian acts.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has made it clear repeatedly that Bible lessons are his guide to acceptable legislation. Last fall, when his contested election finally succeeded, Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany said, “I really believe he thinks God is leading the way — this will all get figured out,” and fellow host Ainsley Earhardt said of Johnson, “To everyone out there, pray for him as our speaker. Our country really needs some guidance from God right now.” And they apparently did so without an advertising partner.
What About Fox Values?
Just how would Fox editors and management react to hosts stopping their broadcasts to insist that we hug one another to solve loneliness or open the door to a migrant family to offer shelter and food or tell viewers to go to City Hall to wash the feet of city council members.
Or, alternatively, what does Fox tell its staffers about selling products online outside of programming aimed at offering a consumer review.
Having worked at three news organizations during my career, the answer I knew was simple: Don’t do so. Nor would a story promoting a particular religious credo find its way into print or web.
Fox has not explained itself or offered guidance about the relationship with Hallow.
Just for background, Hallow raised $40 million starting in 2021, and has the backing of tech billionaire Peter Thiel and Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio. Memberships go for $70 online, where an onscreen ticker noted the number of prayers “prayed with Hallow,” well over 430 million.
Its religious message videos on Tik Tok have drawn millions of views, as well as questions about an app that charges to pray.
But okay, Fox is a business, and Hallow is a business, and despite any consumer and citizen misgivings, I can always change the channel. Still, the question is why would Fox, the biggest, most successful cable television network, associate its people with Christian humanitarian values, while it also regularly promotes public disinformation, campaign lies, election and governmental denial?
Journalistic ethics aside, in the end, just how Christian is the Fox News’ behavior?
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TerryHSchwadron 