Some progressives find He Gets Us suspect because of its financial backing, mostly from anonymous donors but also from David Green, founder of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores. In 2014, Mr. Green won a U.S. Supreme Court case allowing companies like his own, with strong religious ties, to refuse to cover contraception in workers’ health plans.

“Something tells me Jesus would not spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in February.

At the same time, some conservative Christians have voiced skepticism of the project’s focus on Jesus’ humanity and his social message, rather than on his divinity and call to conversion.