Fixer Upper” hosts Chip and Joanna Gaines
The Benham Brothers
Posted on 12/01/2016 9:21:05 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Chip and Joanna Gaines, stars of HGTV's No. 1 series "Fixer Upper," are being lambasted by secular media this week for attending a church that espouses the traditional view of marriage and sexual morality.
Buzzfeed and Cosmopolitan magazine reported this week that the Gaines family are members of Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas, where Pastor Jimmy Seibert has preached that the practice of homosexuality is a sin, and urged Christians not to adopt the Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage after it ruled that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide in July 2015.
Cosmo called the Gaines' church attendance a "startling revelation that has left many wondering where Chip and Jo stand."
Equally alarmed, Buzzfeed reported that while the Gaines' have a wide variety of fans, "in the absence of a response from them or their representatives, it's worth looking at the severe, unmoving position Seibert and Antioch take on same-sex marriage."
David Benham said in an interview with The Christian Post on Wednesday that the attack on the Gaines is "a typical example of the thought-mafia on another witch hunt searching to devour anyone who would disagree with their thoughts on human sexuality or on marriage.
In 2014, twin brothers David and Jason Benham were in the middle of filming an HGTV house-flipping television series of their own when they were told it would be cancelled in light of their past public expression of Christian beliefs on homosexuality, abortion and no-fault divorce.
"The first phone call that Jason and I took after we got fired by HGTV was from Chip Gaines who told us that he was sick and tired of watching what was happening to his country and how people are just sitting back and doing nothing," Benham said.
"The Gaines are like millions of other Americans," he added. "They are not anti anything. They're pro-Jesus and they're pro-Bible because they know what God's best is for human flourishing."
As soon as the Benham brothers saw the articles from Buzzfeed and Cosmopolitan, they took to Facebook to voice support for their friends.
David Benham told CP that he believes if media outlets are not successful at shaming the Gaines or Seibert, they will go after HGTV's advertisers or any other person with whom the Gaines are associated who might share their stance, but that the Gaines themselves will stay strong.
Samuel James, a communications specialist with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commision of the Southern Baptist Convention, listed several questions he has for Buzzfeed and its "expose" on the Gaines family and Bible-believing Christians in an op-ed published in CP on Wednesday. James told CP in a phone interview that he suspects the media is engaging in some "journalistic virtue-signaling to try to get people worked up about a belief that Buzzfeed doesn't agree with politically or morally."
The other possiblity, and it is a generous interpretation, he added, "is that Buzzfeed really doesn't believe that its readership knows about these beliefs. They don't know that the belief that same-sex marriage is immoral is actually preached in thousands upon thousands of churches across the nation."
On sexuality issues, "what we have had in the absence of a national conversation is basically the muscle of the cultural elite, an enforcement of a new moral code on the country that has happened in the place of a dialogue," he said.
That journalists feign shock that they heard a Christian pastor say these things indicates that the United States is in a cultural moment where the expectation is that if one holds viewpoints the elites deem unacceptable, saying them publicly will mean punishment, James added.
Such overt displays show that a movement is afoot where even one's friendships and connections are evidence of guilt and reveals "a ruthlessness to our cultural moment that needs to be talked about more openly," James said.
Baptist theologian and Midwestern Seminary professor Owen Strachan concurs, noting in a Wednesday post on the seminary's Center for Public Theology website that indeed Americans "are in a strange moment as a nation."
"The Muslim attacker at Ohio State is defended by public leaders for his religious views while an evangelical couple that builds houses for single mothers is under fire for believing what billions of people hold. This is wrong, and unfair, and citizens should oppose this illogic as it picks up speed," Strachan said.
"America should not be a nation friendly to only one group, one point-of-view. America should welcome people of all creeds and faiths and views. Many agree, and so I predict that this attack on the Gaines family will backfire," Strachan said. "As we have seen politically in recent days, there is tremendous — and justified — opposition to the cultural policing of people whose views run counter to the mainstream media. Many of us want to live in a culture where we can disagree like adults, and where many views compete for cultural adoption."
Fixer Upper” hosts Chip and Joanna Gaines
The Benham Brothers
After reading Buzzfeed’s “expose” on the evangelical teachings of the church that evangelicals Chip and Joanna Gaines attend, I have a few questions for Buzzfeed, Kate Aurthur (the writer of the piece), and for publications that do this kind of thing:
1. How many evangelical Christians do you personally know? How many evangelical Christians are employed by your company? If the answer to either of these questions is “None,” why do you believe that is?
2. Why, in your opinion, would your readers want to know what the pastor of the Gaines family preaches about sexuality? Based on what you know of your readership, how are your consumers likely to respond to a piece like this?
3. As a journalist, what is your hope for this piece? Would you hope that it results in the Gaines losing their show? Publicly disowning their pastor? Receiving a public outcry? If none of these, what?
4. Which do you consider more journalistically noteworthy: The belief that all who do not worship Jesus Christ will eventually be in hell, or the belief that sex is meant only for a man and a woman in marriage? If the first, why is that not the story here? If the second, why is this teaching more significant than the first?
5. Do you believe that people who have the same religious convictions as Jim Seibert are capable of having genuine friendships with those who disagree with them?
6. As the piece notes, many people, including LGBT Americans, watch Fixer Upper. Why do you think this is?
7. Does this piece necessarily reflect an editorial position of Buzzfeed? If not, should HGTV feel like they are being represented by the religious beliefs of the Gaines?
8. Would Buzzfeed (or Cosmopolitan) be willing to publish a perspective on this story by a person such as Wesley Hill or Eve Tushnet? If not, why not?
9. Would Buzzfeed fire a staffer for expressing beliefs similar to Jim Seibert? Would Buzzfeed fire a staffer not for expressing such beliefs, but upon discovering the staffer attended a religious gathering that taught them? In your opinion, does being wrong on LGBT issues make one a bad person?
10. If Chip Gaines, Joanna Gaines, Jim Seibert, or another evangelical Christian asked you why they or their family and friends should trust what they read reported in Buzzfeed, what would you say?
TRUMP has shown us how to FIGHT EVIL and EVIL this is!!!
A story about nothing.
Real believers are going to be getting hit from all sides now that the enemy is down for a bit.
I pray the Gaines’ remain firm in their faith!
If the TV personalities were muslims where they preached killing homosexuals instead of just loving the sinner it would be fine.
Soft-pedaling your beliefs increasingly gets you no-where. You may as well go bold.
If the SJWs are going after everyone who goes to a church that is against same-sex marriage, they are going to be quite busy, and will be making a lot of enemies.
“Jimmy Seibert has preached that the practice of homosexuality is a sin...”
Yeah? It is.
They don’t know that the belief that same-sex marriage is immoral is actually preached in thousands upon thousands of churches across the nation.”
= = =
Oops, I’ll be they don’t know that this is also written in The BIBLE !!!!
Maybe they will start reading it to discover MORE intolerances.
I dare them to read it.
PS I recall a Soviet agent sent to Russian Christian churches to monitor them. He got saved.
HGTV was co-opted by the LGBTQWERTY crowd years ago.
I guess the vociferous proponents if “Diversity” cannot tolerate even a few Christians, especially Bible believing Christians.
(How am I doing? I managed TWO of their buzzwords in one short sentence. Give em a dose of their own medicine...not that they’ll take it.)
Their method is to threaten the sponsors of the program with a boycott by the lbgt group. I think it is time to get organized and threaten a boycott of any idiotic sponsor that give in to their demand.
I enjoy their show. They’re both talented people, clearly love one another and care very much that their customers get as close to a perfect house for them within their budget as humanly possible. Leave them alone, they’re decent people.
It’s a fagwa I tell ya.
Was going to read, but I HATE websites that start playing music or any audio when you load them. If I want to hear audio ill watch TV or turn on the stereo. I surf the web in silence and like it that way.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of against you because of me.” — Matthew 5:11
... or when suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous poofters ... I might add.
They may be the next Phil Robertson[s]. Since Duck Dynasty is ending, they won’t have Phil as a whipping boy any longer. The media has to find a new victim. Though, i believe every encounter they had with Phil, they came out second best. Ask Cracker Barrel how them removing Duck Dynasty merchandise from their shelves work out for them?
What impresses me is, this isn’t one of those gold-plated house shows, they’re often working with people who have very small budgets, dealing with serious fixer-upper houses on the cheap. I’ve yet to see one turn out anything but beautiful, no matter how limited they were on cost.
I’m Catholic. My church ostebsibly has the same view.
there are almost 70 million Catholics in the USA.
Are we all to be ostracized?
Chip and Joanna Gaines. I love those guys and their show. You can see those two have a great chemistry.
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