Former HGTV star Chip Gaines has responded to the criticism that he and his wife, Joanna Gaines, have faced over a new reality show featuring a same-sex couple.
Clips of “Back to the Frontier” showing two Texas dads and their twin sons caused a firestorm on social media, fueled by backlash from conservative Christian pastors, organizations and media pundits.
The addition of Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs on the Magnolia Network series, which centers on three American families attempting to live as as 1880s frontiersmen, prompted detractors to claim the Gaines were promoting an anti-biblical lifestyle while they’d built a media empire based on their so-called Christian values.
Magnolia Network
The Hanna-Riggs family on ‘Back to the Frontier.’ (Magnolia Network)
Leading the charge was Reverend Franklin Graham, of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, who called the casting decision “very disappointing.”
“While we are to love people, we should love them enough to tell them the truth of God’s Word,” he tweeted on July 12, two days after the show’s premiere. “His Word is absolute truth. God loves us, and His design for marriage is between one man and one woman. Promoting something that God defines as sin is in itself sin.”
Sports commentator Jon Root piled on in less delicate language, demanding answers.
“Why are you promoting homosexuality as a Christian? Why compromise on the Bible’s clear teachings on this? Why support homosexuals buying kids? Disappointed would be an understatement,” he wrote on X.
Gaines, who previously came under fire for belonging to a church that was against same-sex marriage, confronted the criticism head-on.
In a post on Sunday, he invited fans and supporters to watch “Back to the Frontier” with an open mind.
“Talk, ask [questions], listen.. maybe even learn. Too much to ask of modern American Christian culture. Judge 1st, understand later/never,” the “Fixer Upper” alum tweeted. “It’s a sad Sunday when ‘non believers’ have never been confronted with hate or vitriol until they are introduced to a modern American Christian.”
X / chipgaines
Chip Gaines posted a message to critics on X on Sunday. (X / chipgaines)
Chip and Joanna Gaines co-founded the Magnolia Network with Warner Bros. Discovery, which was promoted as featuring “family-friendly unscripted programming.” Their latest series streams on HBO Max.
