HGTV On The Air Homophobes with a Pastor and Church of Also Homophobes

The HGTV "Fixer Upper" couple, Chip and Joanna Gaines, made headlines this week, after Buzzfeed published an article about the couple's church. The article accused Pastor Jimmy Seibert's church and possibly the HGTV personalities that attend it of being anti-gay. USA TODAY 

                                                                                            After the furor over HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines' membership in a church whose pastor who says that anyone who defines marriage as something other than one man and woman is wrong, the home-improvement network issued a statement in which it stands firm on its commitment to inclusive programming.

“We don’t discriminate against members of the LGBT community in any of our shows,” the network said.  “HGTV is proud to have a crystal clear, consistent record of including people from all walks of life in its series.”

On Wednesday, Buzzfeed published a story headlined, "Chip And Joanna Gaines’ Church Is Firmly Against Same-Sex Marriage." It expanded on an October piece from Curbed.com on the couple's hit show, Fixer Upper, in which Christian author Kate Henderson pondered what would happen if a gay couple applied to be on the program.

"My hope would be, if they are given that situation, they will just love on [the gay couple], but I would imagine that very conservative Christians in their audience might have a problem with that," she said. (USA TODAY searched the episode descriptions for the first three seasons and the Nov. 29 Season 4 premiere of Fixer Upper and found none that featured LGBT clients.)

The Gaineses, who reside in Waco, Texas, attend Antioch Community Church and are claimed as "dear friends" by their pastor, Jimmy Seibert, who, after the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, told his congregation that homosexuality is a sin.

"Why is it so important that we're clear on marriage — one man, one woman in a covenant — why is that such a big deal? Because it mirrors Christ and the church ... Paul said, 'When you defame marriage, you defame Jesus. You defame the picture of the glory of God on the Earth. Why is our marriage so important? Because when we do it well, it shows a picture of Jesus and his bride to the whole world. This is a clear biblical admonition. So if someone were to say marriage is defined in a different way, let me just say it this way, they are wrong." 

Seibert has also spoken in defense of the controversial practice of conversion therapy.

Although they have written about their faith in their memoir The Magnolia Story, neither of the Gaines nor their representatives have made it exactly clear what their own beliefs are on homosexuality or gay marriage.

The Gaines controversy comes two years after HGTV abandoned Flip It Forward, a series it was developing with brothers David and Jason Benham, following a Right Wing Watch report that David had protested at LGBT events and same-sex weddings, mosques and abortion clinics.

The brothers are the sons of Flip Benham, the leader of Operation Save America, the militant anti-abortion group formerly known as Operation Rescue. In 2011, a North Carolina jury found the elder Benham guilty of stalking an abortion doctor in the Charlotte area.

The largely hypothetical Buzzfeed story on the Gainses was criticized by several other outlets — Fox News's Dana Perino called it "activist journalism," and writing in the Washington Post, Brandon Ambrosino, a married gay man, labeled it a "dangerous hit piece" whose "entire case is made by speculation and suggestion."

Ambrosino says the Buzzfeed piece essentially boils down to this: "Two popular celebrities might oppose same-sex marriage because the pastor of the church they go to opposes same-sex marriage, but I haven’t heard one way or the other." He adds, "I can’t imagine pitching that story to an editor and getting a green light, by the way.

Ambrosino cited another concern in the story: "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."

“Stories such as this,” he warns, "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."

Jayme Deerwester 

USA Today