And then the hosts, fully inspired by God, continued to spread more lies

The newest sponsor of FOX News is… prayer. Or at least the Catholic prayer app Hallow, which led to a bizarre form of advertising for Jesus during Sunday’s episode of FOX & Friends.

“It's the fifth Sunday of Lent, and our prayer series continues with the reading of prayer from the Hallow app,” said co-host Pete Hegseth. “We all need it. Let's do it this morning. Close your eyes. If you would, bow your head…”

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Jesus, today we begin the holy period of Passiontide. In these last two weeks of Lent, help us understand the mystery of your sacrifice and surrender. Make us keenly aware of Your love for us. We ask that you make Yourself known to us. Help us to feel the grace of Your presence.

… Inspire in us the same sacrificial, selfless love… You showed on the cross. O Jesus, we surrender ourselves to you. Take care of everything.

Thank you again to Hallow for this partnership.

Because if there’s one thing Jesus told people about prayer, it’s to do it in public, on TV, so millions of people can watch… (Or, as one commenter put it, “We interrupt the bearing of false witness for a moment of packaged prayer…&rdquo

And then the hosts, fully inspired by God, continued to spread more lies, further poisoning the brains of the most ignorant Americans in the country.

It’s not entirely weird for FOX to do a live-read for a product even though that seems better suited for a conservative podcast. A few years ago, they also aired a three-minute promo for Ark Encounter, the Creationist theme park, as part of a paid advertisement.

What’s troubling about this collaboration is that viewers may not realize when a segment is actually a paid infomercial. While Hegseth mentioned the “partnership” at the end of the segment, the prayer itself appeared to come out of nowhere. Unless you read the chyron and saw the “sponsored by Hallow” bit, you wouldn’t know the network was paid to have the hosts say all this.

It was even more egregious a month ago, on Ash Wednesday, when the same network ran a lengthy segment touting the popularity of Hallow… as part of a paid sponsorship. (Notice the headline, then read the bottom of the chyron.)

Actors Mark Wahlberg and Jonathan Roumie were part of that segment to discuss the app’s Super Bowl ad (which they appeared in) and to push more downloads. They mentioned the company’s name a few times, but unless casual viewers knew what to look for, they would never know this wouldn’t have been on the air had the company not ponied up for it.

And to state the obvious, the segment promoted Jesus and Christianity, not the general idea of prayer.

The New York Times reported last month that Hallow has the backing of plenty of powerful conservatives and that Wahlberg himself has a “significant” financial stake in the company. It’s no wonder they can pay for these promotions since full access to the app doesn’t come cheap:

Hallow raised $40 million in 2021 and counts the tech billionaire Peter Thiel and Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio, among its investors. Full access to the app costs $69.99 a year. An onscreen numerical ticker notes the number of “prayers prayed with Hallow.” In recent days, that figure was heading toward 427 million.

The company’s CEO Alex Jones—a different one, to be clear—constantly cites the numbers of downloads, but it’s disingenuous to brag about how popular your product is when you’re throwing money as far and wide as you can to get mentions of the app in everyone’s faces. If it helps people who want to pray (but need a reminder?), okay, I guess, but there are plenty of free meditation apps that serve the same purpose.

Ultimately, this is a business that found a new way to target religious conservatives willing to fork over money for something they could easily do for free. (Somewhere, there’s a church leader angry he didn’t think of the idea first.) Much like the useless “He Gets Us” campaign, which has a $100 million budget to steer people to churches and also bought Super Bowl ads, the company avoids any mention of politics. But to promote the idea of God without acknowledging the very real threat of Christian Nationalism—since that’s the kind of Christianity they’re pushing—is like a junk food company telling you to “Eat up!” without any mention of how their products will make you sick.

Prayer doesn’t need advertisers. But religion has always been a useful tool for separating gullible people from their cash. Hallow is just taking advantage of that. And they have a perfect vehicle in FOX to get away with it. It’s a partnership made in Hell.