Last month, The Dissenter reported on the newly-proposed partnership between the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board (NAMB) and a heretical “evangelism” ministry called He Gets Us. He Gets Us, as we demonstrated, is not only a gay-affirming ministry that will help you find a pro-LGBTQ church, but it also preaches a false gospel of inclusivism. He Gets Us is essentially a PR campaign for Jesus that attempts to make Jesus more palatable to the world.

NAMB, which is led by Kevin Ezell, has a historical pattern of partnering with organizations without doing his due diligence. For example, NAMB is still in partnership with a major megachurch in Florida that is regularly baptizing openly practicing and unrepentant homosexuals to plant churches. NAMB also regularly plants churches with women pastors in opposition to the SBC’s statement of faith.

Thankfully, after that was exposed and brought to light, Ezell decided to sever official ties with He Gets Us and move on. However, this only begs the question: what on earth would make Ezell want to partner with such an insidious organization, to begin with?

The Southern Baptist Convention, which is unfortunately led by hundreds of men just like Kevin Ezell—gullible to embrace secular movements while demonstrating zero discernment—has been enthralled with social justice propaganda since it was normalized in the denomination through Russell Moore’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). Through sinister players like Moore, many Southern Baptist pastors and leaders have now bought into much of the political left’s social propaganda.

And this is exactly why He Gets Us is so appealing to many mainstream Evangelicals like Kevin Ezell—He Gets Us is nothing more than a left-wing propaganda movement designed to brainwash Christians and move the church’s stance on social issues away from a biblical worldview. This ad below from He Gets Us, which is set to be played during the Superbowl this year, is a perfect illustration. By cloaking the birth of Jesus into a false narrative that “Jesus was a refugee,” He Gets Us cleverly makes an emotional appeal to Christians by comparing it to the thousands of illegal aliens flooding our borders daily.

Not that this idea hasn’t been clearly refuted already, but apparently it needs to be continually restated: Jesus was NOT a refugee.

The label “refugee” has a distinct meaning in the modern world referring only to individuals who are compelled to flee their homes due to war, persecution, or natural disasters and lack the support of their government. This definition, however, does not accurately describe the situation of the Jesus and His family as portrayed in the New Testament.

First, this journey to Egypt was a calculated effort to avoid King Herod’s evil plans and was made possible by the Lord’s provision through generous gifts from the magi—a testament to God’s sovereignty.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph and Mary went to Egypt to evade King Herod’s attempt to kill the infant Jesus. Their move was not due to any troubles in their hometown of Nazareth, but rather because of a specific danger to Jesus’ life. Once the threat was neutralized, they returned to Nazareth.

Moreover, the term “refugee” conveys the image of living in a foreign country without the rights or protection of citizenship. The story of Jesus and His family’s move to Egypt cannot be considered a modern-day “refugee” scenario as they never left the Roman Empire, merely relocated within its boundaries from one location to another.

Additionally, Joseph was a carpenter and had in-demand skills, so it’s possible that he and his family lived in Egypt as guests or temporary residents with some level of protection and provision.

Thus, while it is accurate to say that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were compelled to leave their home in Nazareth and temporarily reside in Egypt, it is incorrect to call them refugees in the current sense of the word, and completely false to run open-borders propaganda aimed at Christians by pointing to this New Testament story.

He Gets Us claims to be evangelistic in an attempt to reach the lost by telling the truth about who Jesus is. But that’s just a deceptive tactic to disguise its real motives. Through false means and false advertisement, He Gets Us lures unsuspecting Christians to the left through its Christian-cloaked political propaganda. Don’t fall for it. Be discerning.