Close call: This asteroid just missed Earth's satellites

Zulfikar Abbany

DW
20 hours ago

Asteroid 2023 BU is the closest near-Earth object we have ever encountered. At mere thousands of kilometers above Earth, small space rocks like this one have the potential to threaten vital communications satellites.


Asteroid watchers got their calculations right — we can all relax. The American space agency NASA had made it plain a day before Asteroid 2023 BU was due to fly by Earth: "There is no risk of the asteroid impacting Earth. But even if it did, this small asteroid […] would turn into a fireball and largely disintegrate harmlessly in the atmosphere."

They call it "small," but the asteroid is estimated to be 3.5 to 8.5 meters (11.5 to 28 feet) across. If any of it survives its interaction with the Earth's atmosphere, NASA said "some of the bigger debris [could] potentially [fall] as small meteorites."
What time did the asteroid pass Earth?

Asteroid 2023 BU flew over the southern tip of South America at about 4:29 p.m. PST on Thursday, January 26 (7:29 p.m. EST or 1:29 a.m. CET on Friday, January 27).

How close did the asteroid come to Earth?

The asteroid got as close as 3,600 kilometers (2,200 miles) to our planet's surface. That is "well within" the orbit of geosynchronous satellites, said NASA.

Geosynchronous satellites orbit at about 37,000 km from Earth. So asteroid 2023 BU will fly by these spacecraft as it gets closer to our planet. It is vital that the asteroid does not hit a satellite: Some GEO are used for TV communications, others are weather satellites.

As the asteroid flew by Earth, it veered into what is known as medium-Earth orbit, but it did not get into the low-Earth Orbit zone, which is between 160 and about 2,000 km above Earth's surface. And that's some relief, because that is where most of our communications and Earth observation satellites live these days.

Asteroid 2023 BU is a new discovery

Space science has grown increasingly concerned about planetary defense. That's an area of research, technology and innovation aimed at defending our planet against threats such as this very asteroid.

If a seriously big asteroid were to hit Earth (again… remember the dinosaurs), it would wipe out a city or two, potentially cause devastating tsunamis and/or a massive dust cloud that could smother the planet, inhibit sun rays and block our access to light and life itself. At least that's what some scientists say led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. The sun light got blocked, vegetation failed to grow and the dinosaurs starved to death.

But planetary defense technology, such as NASA's DART mission, aims to track asteroids and, if they ever become a direct threat to life on Earth, to nudge them into a different orbit.

The problem is that scientists have yet to detect every asteroid out there.

VIDEO How can we defend Earth against asteroids?  10:28

An amateur astronomer spotted 2023 BU

We have only known about asteroid 2023 BU since Saturday, January 21 — we've had five days warning. Any future DART-like mission would need more time that that to save us from damnation. It takes time to prepare and launch a rocket with a precisely calculated and programmed probe onboard, eject that probe and successfully impact the asteroid. All that would have to happen far enough away from Earth, because you don't want to create space debris that hits the International Space Station, as has happened in the past.

But credit goes to amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, who discovered the asteroid 2023 BU from an observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea.

And, luckily, there is a process in place for what to do when an asteroid like this is discovered, and it appears to have worked well.

"Within three days, a number of observatories around the world had made dozens of observations, helping astronomers better refine 2023 BU's orbit," said NASA, and the asteroid's approach was announced by the Minor Planet Center — internationally recognized "clearinghouse" for monitoring the movements of small celestial bodies.

Edited by: Carla Bleiker

Editor's note: This article was originally published on January 26, 2023. It was updated on January 27, 2023, to reflect that asteroid 2023 BU had passed by Earth.

Zulfikar Abbany Senior editor fascinated by space, AI, the mind, how science touches people, European perspectives

How does climate change affect El Niño and La Niña cycles?

Ajit Niranjan
DW

A natural shift in Pacific Ocean winds could push global temperatures even higher in 2023, wreaking havoc on weather across the entire world.

If winds slow down over the Pacific Ocean, they will set a chain of events in motion that could see heavy rains batter California, heat waves roast Europe, and droughts kill crops in countries from Brazil to Indonesia.

That is what some scientists expect to happen in 2023, though they caution that they won't know for sure until May. A study published Wednesday, which uses established methods but has not yet been peer-reviewed, estimates the hot weather pattern El Niño has about a 90% chance of returning this year.

"We forecast that it will be a moderate to strong event — over 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7°F)," said Josef Ludescher, a scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and lead author of the study.

Such a shift — coming off the back of three years of the cold weather pattern La Niña — would make heat waves hotter and disrupt weather patterns across the world. Scientists have long struggled to work out what role global warming plays.

"El Niño is responsible for a lot of extremes," said Regina Rodrigues, an oceanographer at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil who was not involved in the study. "Every country, in one way or another, is affected."

Droughts could prove damaging for countries already struggling with rising food prices

Image: FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images

What are El Niño and La Niña and how do they work?

El Niño and La Niña are names for complex wind and temperature patterns in the Pacific Ocean. The winds in the ocean can take one of three phases. One is neutral, where they blow East to West. Another is El Niño, where they slow down or even stop. And then there is La Niña, where they blow stronger.

You can think of the Pacific Ocean, which covers one-third of the Earth, as a bathtub of cold water with a fan near the taps. Twist open the hot tap for a few seconds and turn on the fan, and the breeze will blow a stream of warm water from the tap to the end of the tub. In normal years, this is how winds push heat from South America to Asia.

But, during El Niño, changes in heat and pressure stop the fan from blowing. Hot water sloshes back toward the taps, leaving more warm water in the middle of the tub — or, to move away from the analogy, the ocean and near South America. That makes it more likely to evaporate and form rain clouds in places they are not normally expected.

"All of a sudden, you could get massive amounts of rain near the coast of Peru," said Erin Coughlan de Perez, an author of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and scientist with the Red Cross Climate Center. "It's just unprecedented dumps of water in a place that is usually pretty dry."

The effects of El Niño stretch high above the Pacific Ocean and across the Earth. They alter the path of jet streams — strong winds far above the ground — that travel the planet guiding rains.

"The high clouds poke the atmosphere and trigger [atmospheric] waves," Rodrigues said. "That disrupts the climate everywhere."

How do El Niño and La Niña come about? Time -2:34

Does climate change cause El Niño and La Niña?

El Niño and La Niña are natural phenomena. Scientists don't fully understand what causes them, but they know from coral reefs and tree rings that they have always varied.

There is some evidence that they have gotten stronger — the strongest El Niño events recorded have taken place in the past few decades — but it is unclear if this is just chance.

The IPCC, a scientific body that regularly evaluates peer-reviewed research on climate change, found that there is "low confidence" that global warming has already changed El Niño events. Some computer models show El Niño getting stronger in the future, while others see it getting weaker.

But the IPCC also found the effects of extreme El Niño and La Niña events are likely to hit harder as the planet heats up.

Since warmer air can take up more moisture, the same El Niño event means that more rain falls locally, Ludescher said. The air can hold 7% more water vapor for every 1 C the planet heats. By burning fossil fuels and destroying forests, humanity has heated the planet 1.2 C since the Industrial Revolution.

Heavy rains made stronger by climate change wrought havoc in Germany in 2021

Image: Christof Stache/AFP

Do El Niño and La Niña make climate change worse?

Global surface temperatures rise by about 0.1 C during El Niño years. In La Niña years, they fall by about the same amount. This is because less cold water is pulled up from the deep ocean near Peru during El Niño, leaving more warm water at the surface. This pushes surface temperatures higher.

If El Niño returns in 2023, global average temperatures could pass 1.5 C — the level to which world leaders promised to try to hold global warming by the end of the century.

Still, a spike in temperatures from El Niño would not make humanity less likely to meet its long-term climate targets, which depend on cutting greenhouse gas pollution. But the extra heat, in the short term, would hurt people, plants and animals.

Coral reefs, for instance, are expected to decline 70-90% if global warming passes 1.5 C. Passing that threshold even briefly could have permanent consequences. "Some corals may not survive this. And if they are dead, they don't come back," said Ludescher.


Why do El Niño and La Niña matter?

Many seasonal weather forecasts rely on correctly predicting the phase — and strength — of El Niño and La Niña. The information can help everyone from city planners to farmers.

"This isn't just theoretically interesting: This is useful information," Coughlan de Perez said. For instance, local governments could make early warning plans for heat waves and create systems to protect elderly residents, who are at greater risk of dying.

"This is about us and our preparation and how we survive in a warming world," Coughlan de Perez said.

2022: The year the climate crisis hit home

This year saw intense heat, drought, fires, extreme storms and flooding across the world linked to climate change. A look at the weather events that shaped the year.

Image: Peter Dejong/AP Photo/picture alliance

Europe: Hotter and drier than ever

Europe's summer saw extreme heat and the worst drought in 500 years. More than 500 people died in record heat waves in Spain, with temperatures rising to 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit). In the United Kingdom, the mercury soared to more than 40 degrees Celsius. Parts of the continent were the driest they'd been in more than a millennium, and many regions were forced to ration water.

Image: Thomas Coex/AFP

9 MORE PHOTOS

Ancient Greek play echoes fight to protect Amazon

Activist Kay Sara portrays Antigone in Milo Rau's modern-day tragedy about the Indigenous people's fight for survival.

Ancient Greek poet Sophocles couldn't have possibly imagined that his tragedy "Antigone" would remain topical some 2,400 years after the play was first performed.

"Antigone" tells the story of Creon, a tyrant who wants to stay in power at all costs. Convinced that she is doing the right thing according to the gods, Antigone defies him. The matter does not end well. Creon condemns her to be buried alive, but Antigone evades judgment by committing suicide.

A 21st-century Antigone

Swiss playwright and director Milo Rau has brought the mythical Antigone into the present.

Rau is famous for his political projects. Among others, he staged a play examining the Rwandan genocide, and he focused on the inhumane situation in the southern Italian Matera refugee camp in his film "The New Gospel."

His modern version of "Antigone" deals with the destruction of the Amazon.

Indigenous actress and activist Kay Sara plays the lead role, alongside members of the activist group Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST), which is the largest landless workers' movement in the world.

They are fighting for a reform of Brazil's land ownership system, and for a fairer society.

Rehearsal for 'Antigone in the Amazon'

 Armin Smailovic

The topics explored by the project include greed for profit, the overexploitation of nature, and displacement. Rau and his team had already traveled to the Brazilian state of Para in 2020 to work on "Antigone."

At the time, Jair Bolsonaro had been in office as president for a year. He had already disempowered the governmental protection agency National Indigenous People Foundation, FUNAI, and appointed an environment minister who denied climate change. Bolsonaro also stated that he would welcome the landless workers' movement with "a loaded gun."

This political background inspired Rau to stage a new edition of Sophocles' classic tragedy.

The production was set to premiere in April 2020, on a street in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, where police officers once murdered numerous landless people. The production was also supposed to head to Vienna afterwards. But the coronavirus pandemic shelved those plans.

Instead, Kay Sara gave an impressive speech on the internet: "I would have played Antigone, who rebels against the ruler Creon ... The chorus would have consisted of survivors of a massacre of landless people by the Brazilian government. We would have performed this new Antigone on an occupied road through the Amazon — those forests on fire. It would not have been a play, but a political action. Not an act of art, but an act of resistance: against that state power that is destroying the Amazon."
'The heart of this planet will stop beating'

Kay Sara, who hails from the village of Lauarete, grew up in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas. On her father's side, she belongs to the third clan of the Tariano people, the Clan of Thunder. On her mother's side she is a Tukana. Kay Sara's name means "she who cares for others."

Kay Sara plans to use her voice as an actress to heighten awareness of the plight of the Indigenous peoples in the Amazon

Image: Kay Sara

The Indigenous woman is concerned for her native country. "The forests are burning in the Amazon," she says, adding that the problem is that the world has become accustomed to the knowledge that the forests are burning and the peoples are dying.

"A few years ago, the tributaries of the Amazon river dried up for the first time in living memory. In 10 years, the Amazon ecosystem will tip if we don't act now. The heart of this planet will stop beating."

Sara became an actress so her voice would be heard when she spoke. For centuries, it was always other people, including the colonial rulers, who spoke about the Indigenous people. "It's time for us to tell our story ourselves," she argues.

'All governments were Creon'

People ask her over and over again why she left her village — imagined as an idyll in the forest in the Amazon rainforest. Unfortunately, Sara explains, this image has nothing to do with reality: "It's not such a beautiful, wonderful place. It is a colonized place, marked by violence," she told DW. "It is a place where Indigenous women have been raped, Indigenous people have been massacred and murdered."

The place where Kay Sara feels at home is in the arts. "That's where I'm heard; that's where I become visible," she says. Everyone is used to Native people getting involved in politics, she says, but art has enabled her to communicate with more consideration. "I think people listen more then," she adds.

And now they will listen again, as rehearsals finally start again for "Antigone in the Amazon."

Once, huge trees stood in this very spot

Image: Armin Smailovic

But for the Indigenous peoples in the Amazon, Bolsonaro wasn't the only tyrant, Kay Sara told DW. "We were always oppressed, always below all the other peoples. So for us, all governments were Creon."

The 27-year-old hopes things will improve under Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — even if during his previous term in office from 2003 to 2011, he failed to establish strong policies to protect Indigenous peoples. In fact, there were several deadly conflicts over the lands in the Amazon under his administration.

Kay Sara voted for Lula all the same, because this time around, he promised to work for the environment and for minorities.

She says it's a good sign that the new president has appointed Sonia Guajajara, an environmental and human rights activist from the Guajajara tribe, as minister of Indigenous peoples — a position that didn't previously exist in Brazil.

It's a great step forward, Sara says: "Four years ago, we Indigenous people had no one in this position of power. Now we can continue to have hope."

Kay Sara says she loves the sounds of the rainforest

Image: Kay Sara

As a modern-day Antigone, Kay Sara wants to be part of the process of change and stop the further destruction of the rainforest by profit-hungry politicians and big landowners.

"This madness has to stop. We have to stop being like Creon — let's be like Antigone. Because when lawlessness becomes law, resistance becomes our duty," she says.

The world can learn from Indigenous peoples how to live in harmony with nature, she says. But, she adds, they first have to be willing to do that.

This article was originally written in German.

US to ease blood donation rules for gay men

The US FDA has proposed a new set of blood donation rules which will focus on assessing individual risk of HIV infections, instead of blanket restrictions.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday released a set of draft guidelines which will ease discriminatory restrictions on gay and bisexual men to donate blood.

This includes the three-month abstinence period rule in place if non-heterosexual men wish to donate blood. Instead, all potential donors will answer a detailed questionnaire designed to evaluate if an individual is at risk for HIV.

Men in monogamous sexual relationships with other men will be able to donate blood for the first time since the 1980s. The development is a win for gay rights groups which have long been advocating for such biased policies to be scrapped.

''We feel confident that the safety of the blood supply will be maintained,'' FDA's Peter Marks told reporters.

VIDEO Blood donation debate 02:53

End of a biased era

The FDA banned blood donations from gay and bisexual men in the 1980s — early years of the AIDS epidemic. In 2015, the regulator modified the rule to a one-year abstinence period. It further reduced this to three months in 2020 when the COVID pandemic led to a severe drop in blood donations.

Women who had sex with bisexual men are also required to abstain from blood donation under these rules.

"Current and former blood donation policies made unfounded assumptions about gay and bisexual men and really entangled individuals' identity with their likelihood of having HIV," said Sarah Warbelow of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.

The American Medical Association agreed that such exclusions are now unnecessary because technological advancements allow for easy detection of infectious diseases.

Under the new set of proposed rules, only those who have had multiple gay or bisexual sexual partners in the last three months will be restricted from donating blood. Those taking HIV-prevention drugs will also not be allowed to donate, according to the FDA, since it can delay the detection of the HIV virus.

The new rules are similar to blood donation policies in Canada and the UK.

mk/sri (AP, AFP, Reuters)

LGBTQ People: Germany's long-forgotten victims of the Nazis
Marcel Fürstenau

Gays, lesbians, and other LGBTQ minorities were ignored for decades in the public commemoration of those persecuted and murdered. But the silence is over.

"Now you're a gay pig and you've lost your balls." That was how Otto Giering was taunted by a guard in August 1939 after his forced castration in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Even before his deportation to the concentration camp, the 22-year-old had been convicted twice for homosexual contact and sent to a labor camp.

The harrowing story of the Hamburg-born journeyman tailor can be read in the book "Medicine and Crime," published by the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation, to which the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial and museum belongs.

Otto Giering survived the ordeals, but his health was ruined: "Due to the concentration camp imprisonment he had heart problems, stomach problems, suffered from headaches and migraines," the book recounts.

In 2015, the German Historical Museum and the Gay Museum in Berlin showed photos of prisoners in the Auschwitz extermination camp

Image: imago/epd

Later, his application for compensation was rejected, and he did not come home for days and was reported missing. "The police found him confused and disoriented," the book says.

Otto Giering died in 1976, a few months before his 60th birthday. He was one of an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 gay men who were deported to German concentration camps by the end of the Nazi era in 1945. In Sachsenhausen alone, there were about 1,000, more than in any other concentration camp. Along with Jews, Sinti and Roma, they were those most abused by the guards.

Gay men murdered

Gay men, forced to wear a pink triangle badge on their prisoner clothing, were often put into punishment "commandos" with tougher working conditions. This included work in the so-called "Klinkerwerk" — a subcamp of Sachsenhausen where, among other things, they were forced to manufacture armaments.

Gay men were put into units with tougher working conditions, such as in the clinker works of the Sachsenhausen camp where they were manufacturing armaments

Image: Jürgen Ritter/IMAGO

In 1942, 200 gay people were systematically murdered at this site, and the deaths of more than 600 gay prisoners were recorded in the concentration camp north of Berlin. Although the fate of gay men during the Nazi era had been documented many times, it took decades for marks of public remembrance to appear. There was no plaque commemorating gay victims of the Nazis at the Sachenhausen memorial until after the reunification of Germany in the early 1990s.
Late remembrance and rehabilitation

The first attempts to commemorate gay men persecuted in Sachsenhausen had already been made earlier when the concentration camp lay in East Germany. Memorial spokesman Horst Seferens told DW that members of the West Berlin gay movement laid wreaths with pink ribbons, which were immediately removed by the Ministry for State Security (Stasi).

"In the meantime, this group of victims, which has been represented on the advisory board of our foundation since 1993, is present in many ways in the exhibitions and in the other work of the memorial," Seferens emphasized.

There are several reasons for the late start of official remembrance and moral rehabilitation: On the one hand, this is related to the fact that practiced homosexuality was considered a criminal offense in both German states after 1945, although liberalization began much earlier in East Germany than in West Germany.

LGBTQ victims are now also commemorated in the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial near Weimar

Image: picture alliance / imageBROKER

Seferens, noted differences between East and West in commemorating the victims of the Nazis. "In the GDR, in line with anti-fascist state doctrine, it was the political prisoners who were in focus," he said. And in the Federal Republic, it was the military officers who plotted against Hitler and later the Jewish people who were commemorated, he explained.

"For decades, many other victim groups — those persecuted as "anti-socials," Sinti and Roma and gay people – were excluded from commemorations and denied financial compensation. "This sheds light on continuities of stigmatization and exclusion mechanisms that extend far beyond 1945," said Seferens.

Homosexuality was illegal long before the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, as was set down in paragraph 175 of the Reich Penal Code of 1871, the year the first German Reich was founded. "Unnatural fornication" between men fell under this paragraph, defined as "crimes against morality." The Nazis massively tightened the penal provisions and introduced Paragraph 175a in 1935 prohibiting all "lewd acts" between men.

VIDEO German parliament spotlights Nazis' LGBTQ victims  02:22

Lesbian women were also denounced for their "deviant" sexuality and came under police scrutiny, but in terms of criminal law, they were mostly spared. The situation was different only in Austria, which joined Nazi Germany in 1938, and where there was no legal distinction between male and female homosexuality.

Overall, the fate of lesbian concentration camp inmates is much less researched than that of gay men, as there was no separate inmate category for them. Lesbian women were sent to concentration camps under various labels: As "anti-socials," homeless, prostitutes, or women categorized as having an "immoral lifestyle."

the pressure of persecution was constantly increased, especially on men. Immediately after taking power in 1933, the Nazis shut down all gay and lesbian subculture venues and disbanded the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, founded by Magnus Hirschfeld in 1918.

The Nazis disbanded the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, founded by Magnus Hirschfeld in 1918

Image: Bundesstiftung Magnus Hirschfeld

The Nazis' hatred of Hirschfeld, a pioneer of the gay movement, was only compounded by his Jewish faith. In 1936, the year of the Berlin Olympics, the Nazis founded the "Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion." Gay people in particular were targeted for persecution after the office gathered data on citizens. Around 100,000 investigative proceedings were initiated during the Nazi era, and about 50,000 men were convicted.

Not rehabilitated until 2002

Even after the Nazi regime ended, Paragraph 175 remained in force in both the Federal Republic and the GDR. It was not finally abolished until 1994, four years after reunification, and it took until 2002 for the German Bundestag to rehabilitate those convicted by Nazi judges. Most of them had already died by then.

As it has done every year since 1996, the German Bundestag is commemorating all victims of Nazi rule on January 27, the date of the liberation of Auschwitz. This year's anniversary focuses on the LGBTQ community, exactly 90 years after the Nazis came to power.

This article was originally written in German.


Marcel Fürstenau Author and reporter for politics and contemporary events, with a focus on Germany

JESUS RAISED THE DEAD, VIAGRA CAN TOO

‘He Gets Us’ organizers hope to spend $1 billion to promote Jesus. Will anyone care?

This year’s Super Bowl will feature a $20 million pair of pro-Jesus ads promoting the idea that Jesus ‘gets us,’ part of the larger ‘He Gets Us’ campaign. Organizers hope to spend a billion dollars in the next three years to redeem Jesus’ brand.

He Gets Us social media posts. Courtesy images

January 26, 2023

By 

Bob Smietana

(RNS) — The first time she saw an ad for “He Gets Us,” a national campaign devoted to redeeming the brand of Christianity’s savior, Jennifer Quattlebaum had one thought on her mind.

Show me the money.

A self-described “love more” Christian and ordinary mom who works in marketing, Quattlebaum loved the message of the ad, which promoted the idea that Jesus understands contemporary issues from a grassroots perspective. But she wondered who was paying for the ads and what their agenda was.

“I mean, Jesus gets us,” she said. “But what group is behind them?”

For the past 10 months, the “He Gets Us” ads have shown up on billboards, YouTube channels and television screens — most recently during NFL playoff games — across the country, all spreading the message that Jesus understands the human condition.

The campaign is a project of the Servant Foundation, an Overland Park, Kansas, nonprofit that does business as The Signatry, but the donors backing the campaign have until recently remained anonymous — in early 2022, organizers only told Religion News Service that funding came from “like-minded families who desire to see the Jesus of the Bible represented in today’s culture with the same relevance and impact He had 2000 years ago.” 

But in November, David Green, the billionaire co-founder of Hobby Lobby, told talk show host Glenn Beck that his family was helping fund the ads. Green, who was on the program to discuss his new book on leadership, told Beck that his family and other families would be helping fund an effort to spread the word about Jesus.

“You’re going to see it at the Super Bowl — ‘He gets Us,’” said Green. “We are wanting to say — we being a lot of people — that he gets us. He understands us. He loves who we hate. I think we have to let the public know and create a movement.”

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RELATED:  A $100 million ad campaign wants to fix Jesus’ image. His followers remain a problem.

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Jason Vanderground, president of Haven, a branding firm based in Grand Haven, Michigan, that is working on the “He Gets Us” campaign, confirmed that the Greens are one of the major funders, among a variety of donors and families who have gotten behind it.

Donors to the project are all Christians but come from a range of denominational backgrounds, said Vanderground. 

Organizers have also signed up 20,000 churches to provide volunteers to follow up with anyone who sees the ads and asks for more information. Those churches are not, however, he said, funding the campaign.

A Vegas-themed “He Gets Us” campaign advertisement at Harmon Corner in Las Vegas. Photo courtesy of “He Gets Us”

The Super Bowl ads alone will cost about $20 million, according to organizers, who originally described “He Gets Us” as a $100 million effort. 

“The goal is to invest about a billion dollars over the next three years,” he said. “And that is just the first phase.”

One of the ads that aired during the NFL playoffs was titled “That Day” and tells the story of an innocent man being executed.

“Jesus rejected resentment on the cross,” the ad says. “He gets us. All of us.”

A billion-dollar, three-year campaign would be on a par with advertising budgets for major brands such as Kroger grocery stores, said Lora Harding, associate professor of marketing at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

“This is a really remarkable ad spend for a religious organization or just a nonprofit in general,” said Harding, who worked on the “Open hearts, open minds, open doors” campaign for the United Methodist Church.

Religious-themed ads have been relatively rare at the Super Bowl. The Church of Scientology has run ads in the past, and in 2018 Toyota ran an ad with the message “We’re all one team,” featuring a rabbi, a priest, an imam and a saffron-robed monk headed to a football game, where they sat next to some nuns.

Closer to the “He Gets Us” model was the Christian Broadcasting Network’s $5 million national campaign to promote “The Book,” a repackaged version of The Living Bible translation, with a catchy theme song sung by country legend Glen Campbell.

Lora Harding. Photo by Sam Simpkins/Belmont University

Harding said that despite the cost, advertising at the Super Bowl makes sense for “He Gets Us.” Organizers want to reach a mass audience that is paying attention. Super Bowl ads have become part of the pageantry of the big game.

“There just aren’t ways to reach an attentive, engaged audience that size anymore,” she said.

She also said that the anonymity of the group behind the ads plays to the group’s advantage. It would be easy for viewers to dismiss an ad coming from a faith-based organization or religious group. The “He Gets Us” ads wait until the end to mention Jesus and don’t point to any specific church or denomination.

“That makes it even more powerful, and hits the message home in a really compelling way,” she said. “I think it does make Jesus more relevant to today’s audiences.”

Some viewers, including some evangelical Christians, are skeptical. Author and activist Jennifer Greenberg supports the idea of trying to reach those outside the faith and wants people to understand that Jesus gets them. But that’s not the whole message of Christianity.

“Yes, Jesus can relate to you,” she said. “But what did Jesus come primarily to do? He came to die for our sins.”

Connecting emotionally with Jesus is great, she added. But that won’t save your soul.

“I can look at Buddha or Sarah McLachlan or Obama and I can find things in common with them,” she said. “But that does not mean they are going to save me.”

A “He Gets Us” campaign advertisement in New York’s Times Square. Photo courtesy of “He Gets Us”

Michael Cooper, an author and missiologist, agrees. While Cooper is a fan of the ads, saying they powerfully communicate the human side of Jesus, they leave out his divinity.

“I began to wonder, is this the Jesus I know?” he said.

Cooper and a colleague offer what he called a “constructive critique” of the campaign in an upcoming article for the Journal of the Evangelical Missiological Society. That article calls for clearer messaging about the divine nature of Jesus.

“This wasn’t just a great teacher or preacher who was incarnated,” he said. “This was God himself.”

Ryan Beaty, a former Assemblies of God pastor and current doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma, said he’s been fascinated by the ads and wonders how the country’s political polarization may affect how the ads come across.

His conservative friends, he said, see the ads — such as one depicting Jesus as a refugee — as too political. Other folks who are more liberal see the ads as not going far enough.

Beaty also wonders if people outside the church will find the ads more compelling than true believers.

“People of no faith — or moderate learnings toward faith — will find these more compelling than people who identify with the Christian faith or strongly identify with politics,” he said.

Seth Andrews, a podcaster, author and secular activist based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said the campaign seems to be marketing a version of Jesus that’s more in touch with modern American culture than earlier, more dogmatic versions.

“They are latching on to this touchy-feely, conveniently vague, designer Jesus,” he said.

Jason Vanderground. Courtesy photo

Andrews poses the question of what Jesus would think of the amount of money spent on the ads. Would he prefer that the money be spent on ministering to people’s physical needs or making the world a better place?

“Or would he say, no, go ahead and spend $100 million to tell everybody how great I am?”

While the ads are meant to reach what Vanderground called “spiritually open skeptics,” a secondary audience is Christians, whose reputations have fallen on hard times in recent years.

“We also have this objective of encouraging Christians to follow the example of Jesus in the way that they love and treat each other,” he said.

For her part, Quattlebaum said that in the end, she’s a fan of the ads, because they focus on the main message of Christianity.

“It all goes to Jesus,” she said. “ And if it all goes back to Jesus, it all goes back to love.”

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‘Rosary beads? Yes. But crystals, no.’: Catholic school counselor loses her job

An employee who invited three Wiccan high priestesses to speak to marketing students did not believe that the crystals they handed out nor their religion would cause a stir.

Assorted crystals and precious stones for sale at a store. Photo by Emily Karakis/Unsplash/Creative Commons

January 26, 2023

By 

Heather Greene

(RNS) — For two marketing classes taught at North Catholic High School in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, a career and college counselor at the school invited three owners of a local store to talk about how they run their small business. As part of their visit in December, the store owners offered each student a small crystal.

That’s because the business, Elemental Magick, sells books, jewelry, candles and other items used in various metaphysical practices. The three store owners, married couple Tabitha and Tamara Latshaw and their sister-in-law Kari Latshaw, are all Wiccan high priestesses. 

 “We sell crystals,” said Tabitha Latshaw in a video statement posted to Facebook. “If we sold gum, we would have handed out a pack of gum.”

But after some students complained to North Catholic administrators, according to reports, the counselor, who has not been identified publicly, was questioned, then, in early January, asked to resign.

In an interview with KDKA-TV, Michelle Peduto, a diocesan school administrator, explained that educators at diocesan schools are required to sign a statement saying that their instruction will align with Catholic teachings. Both the visit and the crystals were not a “good fit,” she said. 

“It is because, as we know, our faith is in Jesus Christ and not in objects necessarily,” Peduto said in a separate interview with KDKA. “Rosary beads? Yes. But crystals, no.”

North Catholic, founded in 1939 as a boys school and staffed traditionally by the Marian order, is an anchor of Catholic life in Pittsburgh. Alumni include former CIA Director Michael Hayden and the late owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dan Rooney.

Formerly known as Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School, after the former bishop and archbishop of Washington, D.C., the school removed the cardinal’s name in 2018 at his request after he was criticized for his handling of sexual abuse cases there. 

According to the KDKA-TV report, letters were sent home after the store owners’ appearance in the marketing classes. The letters asked families to “dispose of the crystals” and to cleanse their home by saying a prayer to St. Michael the archangel. The Diocese of Pittsburgh reportedly labeled the employee’s actions “inappropriate” and, in a letter to the former employee, “egregious.” 

Photo by Dan Farrell/Unsplash/Creative Commons

The Latshaws did not know of their friend’s departure from North Catholic until last week when a reporter asked for their reaction. After learning the news, the store owners have used the situation to demonstrate the popularity of crystals across various religions and in society at large.

A recent survey by Springtide Research Institute shows that 44% of Gen Z use crystals and herbs for spiritual connection or entertainment.

“Crystals are everywhere and are exclusive to no religion, including Wicca,” said Tabitha Latshaw in the Facebook statement, pointing out that in the jewelry industry, crystals are more commonly known as semiprecious gemstones. 

The store owners labeled their weekly Sunday crystal sale #Godcreatedthis. “You don’t have to be a witch to use crystals,” Latshaw said in a video statement. “We have people of all walks of faith come in here.”

The Latshaws say they weren’t there to talk about witchcraft or religion of any kind. “We went to North Catholic High School to discuss being entrepreneurs,” Tabitha Latshaw told Religion News Service.

She told KDKA-TV: “God made these. They come from the earth. That’s all I can say.”

The former school employee told the local reporter that she did not believe that the crystals or the owners’ religion would cause a stir. In hindsight, she recognized she should have thought the visit through more carefully, but she was surprised that the situation was not used as an “opportunity for me to grow and develop as a professional and as a Catholic.”

Opinion

For Gen Z, crystals embed spirituality in the planet

They often seem to occupy a place once held by traditional religious beliefs.

Healing crystals on display in a shop. Photo by Hasan Can Devsir/Unsplash/Creative Commons

January 23, 2023

By 

Kevin Singer

(RNS) — Leanna Greenaway used to keep her practices with crystals and herbs to herself. “Back when I was in my 20s, I practiced in a solitary fashion because it was still very much a taboo subject,” she explained.

Now Greenaway, the author of the popular 2019 book, “The Crystal Witch: The Magickal Way to Calm and Heal the Body, Mind, and Spirit,” said young people are reaching out to her in droves. “They’re asking questions about the magical properties of crystals and herbs. This wave of young people were born with a higher consciousness. They’re more focused on the well-being of the planet and more sensitive to the earth’s vibrations,” she said.

Greenaway is backed up by recent data from Springtide Research Institute, which surveys tens of thousands of young people ages 13-25 each year about their spirituality. The 2022 study found that 44% engage with crystals or herbs as a spiritual exercise, with one in five (21%) saying they do so on at least a weekly basis.

The people of Gen Z hear about these practices via a slew of independent spiritual teachers who appear on popular social media apps such as TikTok and Instagram, on which 75% of young people said they spend at least three hours a day, according to Springtide’s survey. They also hear about them from an increasing number of celebrities they admire.

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Crystals and herbs have been associated throughout history with the supernatural and have long been thought to provide humans with healing, vitality and tranquility. Bright crystals like amethyst and rose quartz are thought to aid in creating relationships, while darker stones such as black tourmaline are said to absorb negative energies and toxicity.

Popular herbs such as rosemary are thought to provide protection, while Panax Ginseng “quiets the spirit, particularly (the soul), helps stop palpitations with anxiety and, where necessary, opens the heart and strengthens the resolve,” according to holistic healer Maura Farragher.

For some young people, experimenting with crystals and herbs is akin to a hobby. As one writer put it in 2019, “the route I’ve taken with my personal collection is something closer to casual curation than prescription.” For others, they meet a spiritual need to feel at home in the universe and connected to the “energies” at work around them.

They often seem to fill a gap where traditional religious beliefs, practices and community might have been, as attendance rates at religious services among Gen Z continue to dwindle.

Blake Newborn, a 22-year-old who lives in Pennsylvania, used to go to church, but now he prefers to find spiritual solace in crystals, tarot and the zodiac. “I would prefer these any day over a religious institution. Sometimes I don’t feel like they’re welcoming to certain groups of people,” he adds. Though Newborn identifies as an atheist, he acknowledges the universe as a higher power who accepts him. “My identities clash with the Bible, but not the universe. The universe created you and accepts you for who you are.”

The last time Newborn went to church, he said, “I didn’t feel welcome. There was something inside of me that was like, ‘You don’t really fit in here.’ It may have been that the energies were off with mine.”

When I talked to Newborn, he was wearing a crystal bracelet with a tiger’s eye stone that he believes provides strength. Newborn’s astrology sign is a Leo, and his Zodiac sign is a tiger, bringing the choice of bracelet full-circle. He also had a salt lamp to cleanse the energy of his bedroom, combat negativity, give him a sense of focus and promote calm. 

Newborn’s use of crystals has brought him closer to his aunt, who, though she actively attends church, started practicing with crystals as well. “She feels more connected to that spirituality, and she will talk about it with me, and we will really vibe with one another,” Newborn said.

As Greenaway’s experience attests, New Age spiritual practices were once isolating and individualistic, but with growing numbers of young people engaging in these practices, community has formed around them of late. “Literally everyone I know looks at their Zodiac signs, goes to Tarot card readings and has some type of crystal,” said Newborn, adding, “only a couple of people I know go to church.”

Some demographics within Gen Z are more attuned to these “New Age” practices than others. Young Black Americans (54%) are more likely to try them than American Indians (49%), Latinos (43%), whites (42%) or Asians (35%). Non-binary young people (58%) are more likely to be involved with crystals and herbs than female-identifying (44%) and male-identifying (42%) young people, and non-straight (53%) more than straight young people (39%).

Among faith groups, crystals and herbs are most popular among Orthodox Christians (73%), by those who don’t define their religion by traditional categories (65%) and by Latter-day Saints (64%).

A special focus of Springtide’s 2022 study was how spirituality correlates with flourishing for Gen Z in several areas of life. While 17% of all young people say they’re flourishing a lot in their faith, this number increases for young people who engage spiritually with crystals and herbs weekly (21%) or daily (24%). Similarly, while 24% of all young people say they’re flourishing a lot in their mental and emotional health, this number increases for young people who engage with crystals or herbs weekly (28%) or daily (30%).

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Kevin Singer. Photo courtesy of Springtide

For older generations, the use of these practices may seem strange, and there may be a learning curve. But curiosity about these practices may make the difference in gaining their trust at a formative time in their development.

(Kevin Singer (@kevinsinger0) is head of media and public relations at Springtide Research Institute. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)