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Fiction. So far.
It started as a lark. Nobody thought it would take off. We certainly didn’t think so. But, as everyone knows, the line between parody and reality has been disappearing. So it goes.
It was just a YouTube video. A quickie. Parody of those mysterious and expensive evangelical commercials that use the tag line: He Gets Us.
Only the tag line for this “commercial” was: We’ve Got You. It said to step away from the Church and find the morality from within. You are good — not out of obedience to Him, or because you fear His wrath. You are good because that’s who you are. That’s who WE are. YOU are one of US.
Like all good parody, it was done straight — no exaggeration, no heavy-handed telegraphing of the message. Not really funny. But it got 20 million impressions that first week.
And evangelicals were furious. We were poaching their territory.
So, Mary and I (yes, that’s her name) decided to make it a series. She’s the real talent — she’s always been a frustrated filmmaker. I indulge her and we have fun together making them. We never intended or expected to be trendsetters. We just like doing what we’ve been doing.
So, the next few commercials quoted or paraphrased Jesus — which made it very tricky for the evangelicals to attack them. They wanted…