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."
While I don't know them, I'm fairly confident maintaining their faith will not likely be a problem in Waco TX. HGTV is just going to help them increase their pocketbook and their church donations by driving more people to their retail outlet to show support. As others have pointed out in earlier threads on this subject, HGTV is already overrun with the usual light-in-the-loafers designers/architects. They also have shows that essentially feature the stereotypical urban same-sex high-income couple searching for their second-home to buy/decorate. Keep Chip and Joanna for a little balance!
Jesus, in John 15:18, told us the world will hate us for being with Him because the world hates Him. We see this in this nation with attacks on Christians from evolutionists, the radical LGTB groups, Hollywood celebrities, atheists and many other left wing groups. As Christians we should expect this because Jesus warned us about it. As we approach the last days, the persecution will continue to increase. We must pray for one another. Seeing who these people are that are on this warpath against Christians, it makes me want to be a Christian all the more. These people are so full of hate and most are off their nut. My weakness is I need Jesus to help me love them and pray for them to see the Light.
Thanks...will look up this show now on our Netflix
Excellent points!
Another reason I’m glad I quit watching TV in 2008.
[...]
BuzzFeed is probably at the forefront of discussions surrounding diversity in entertainment. Do their reporters think diversity refers only to skin color? Does ideological diversity count for nothing, especially when it is representative of, again, a sizable chunk of the American public?
Another concern I have with the story is that it validates everything that President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters have been saying about the media: that some journalists — specifically younger ones at popular digital publications — will tell stories in certain deceitful, manipulative ways to take down conservatives. (And really, I can’t for the life of me imagine any other intention of the Gaines story.)
Stories such as this will serve only to reinforce the growing chasm between the media and Trump, which means we are in for four agonizing, tedious years of “gotcha” non-stories like this one.
A few years ago, gay activists decided the best way to win arguments in favor of same-sex marriage was to shut up their opponents. All they had to do was lob a charge of homophobia and the argument was won. Or they tweeted at the companies that employed the “homophobes” until they were fired. Conservatives were bullied on social media and mocked for being ass-backward (and indeed, some of them were and are). But they were never taken seriously.
They were simply dismissed with a snarky RuPaul GIF. At the time, this seemed like a good strategy because, well, Hillary Clinton was a shoo-in for president and because the country was only becoming more and more liberal, and those kinds of hillbillies were being left in the dark.
Enter Trump — the voice of all of the people liberals and activists have been shutting up for the past eight years. It’s no secret that part of Trump’s success is owed to how skillfully he invalidated the media’s authority in the eyes of his conservative followers. The message was very clearly: The media doesn’t like me because I’m conservative, and they don’t like you because you’re conservative, and they’re going to try to ruin all of us, so let’s just ignore them.
And then, like clockwork, BuzzFeed published a story proving him right.
[...]
OMG -- a Bible-Believing Church! How horrible! What next???!!! When is this going to stop -- where will it end????
A lot of HGTV home shows feature faggie `couples’ who are treated with kid gloves by the hosts. Not hard to figure why the Gaystapo came down on this couple.
The perverts are only 2 tenths of 1 percent (.02%) of the population. They suffer from Gender Identity Disorder (GID). Why is it that a small percentage of the population suffering from a mental disorder seems to have such a profound influence on national policy? If you look at the relationship Barry Sotero had with the perverted adults in his family during his chilhood it becomes glaringly apparent why he has a driving obsession with normalizing perversion and the perverted.
So far, the viewers are still watching the show. Tuesday night’s show was highly rated. The news began Monday so it COULD have affected it and has not. Thank God for the Christians who are standing behind this wonderful family.
Yup. They won’t stop.
How about Kieth Ellison’s church? They don’t like gays either
I will pray for them to remain strong.
Something I can’t quite figure out, is that the Gaines are liked because of their warmth and wholesomeness. That’s who they are. Why is it a surprise to anyone that they belong to a Bible believing church, where warmth and wholesomeness is encouraged?
Did this “news” reporter investigate the sermons at the mosque that the Orlando gay night club shooter attended?
“it’s worth looking at the severe, unmoving position Seibert and Antioch take on same-sex marriage.”
Yes- let’s take a look- Woopsie- it’s the same ‘unmovable’ stand that God takes on the issue- Whoda thunk that a church would actually agree with their creator?
That’s why I had to stop watching HGTV.
It shouldn’t be surprising to anybody as you well state.
Evil leftists will do whatever they can to destroy good folks, and especially Christians.
This is part of the spiritual war we’re engaged in daily that Paul talks about in Ephesians 6:12.
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”
Leftists are influenced and controlled by these principalities.
“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.”
Then use Firefox as your browser. It has a Reader View mode that just gives you the article in silence and cuts out all the audio and extra imbedded windows.
Att3nd a church that hangs homosexuals and throws them off bhilding... invite them in by the millions. Go to a church that teaches Christianity...clutch pearls.
Look...the subversive left cares knowing for homosexuals. If the subversives thought it were politically expedient to throw them into incinerators, they would.
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