Evangelicals lose their minds after Chip and Joanna Gaines cast gay couple on reality show
"Back to the Frontier" has sparked right-wing outrage for treating two gay dads as... normal people
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Conservative Christians are flipping out after home renovating celebrities Chip and Joanna Gaines included a same-sex couple on their new TV show Back to the Frontier.
The reality show, which airs on the couple’s Magnolia Network, features three families trying to rough it and live like they’re back in the 1880s, without any modern amenities like electricity or running water. Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs, along with their twin boys, are among the contestants.
None of this is particularly controversial. Either that kind of show appeals to you or it doesn’t, and casting different types of families creates the potential for different kinds of conflicts. It’s damn near impossible to find a reality show today that doesn’t value diversity in whatever ways they can manage.
But white evangelicals hate diversity when it means normalizing people they want the world to demonize.
The outrage over this absolute nothing-burger shows you just how radicalized these people are.
Evangelist bigot Franklin Graham found it “disappointing” that the show isn’t all about telling this gay couple why they deserve eternal torture.
The American Family Association, an anti-LGBTQ Christian hate group, called the casting choice “sad and disappointing” because the show “promotes an unbiblical view of human sexuality, marriage, and family—a view no Christian should embrace.”
The same group has yet to weigh in Donald Trump’s super-biblical third marriage to the mother of his fifth kid. As April Ajoy wrote about this whole fake controversy, “The Venn diagram of people who voted for a rapist and people who are outraged over Chip and Joanna Gaines being nice to gay people is a circle.”
Another Christian who cosplays as a comedian also took the I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed route, telling Chip Gaines, “I’m just sad. I can’t let my kids watch your show now, since I’m trying to protect their eyes and hearts from the lies of the world—lies you’re now participating in.” (The same guy was equally upset when Star Trek aired an episode in which Stacey Abrams played the president of Earth. His outrage meter is permanently set at Everything Is Woke.)
To be clear, this isn’t an evangelical show and the Gaines aren’t here to promote Christianity. They’re running a business and hoping for high ratings. Just because they’re popular in white evangelical circles doesn’t mean everything they do has to promote their religion—just like all those pastors who are very excited to endorse Republicans now that the Johnson Amendment won’t be enforced.
Chip Gaines responded to the pretend-backlash over the weekend, urging people to “learn” rather than “judge.” He added that it was “sad” how many non-Christians are exposed to “hate or vitriol” only after listening to “modern American Christian[s].”
Conservative activist Matt Walsh lashed out against that post, telling Chip Gaines that he “should endeavor to understand the basic moral teachings of your own alleged religion” before lecturing others on how to be more Christ-like… as if learning from people who aren’t like you is an unfair request and treating Christianity as if it only comes in one flavor.
Some of the frustration stems from the fact that the Gaines have used their faith as part of their wholesome appeal. In 2016, they said in an interview, “Our family has made a commitment to put Christ first, a lifestyle our parents modeled for us very well… They showed us how to keep our marriage and family centered around God.”
But as we now know, conservative Christians believe putting Christ first means making culture war battles a top priority and downplaying anything about helping the poor or loving your neighbor. If you’re emulating Christ by simply being decent, you’re doing it wrong.
It doesn’t matter to their critics that the Gaines are active churchgoers and regularly bring up their faith in interviews. Because they’re not actively demonizing LGBTQ people and immigrants and Democrats, conservatives are eager to treat them as enemies of the faith. That church they go to, by the way, has an openly anti-LGBTQ pastor, but the Gaines distanced themselves from those teachings years ago when confronted about it. They also insisted they weren’t anti-LGBTQ when they launched their own network a few years ago.
Maybe they learned a lesson from twin brothers David and Jason Benham. Those guys were set to have their own show on HGTV, but it was canceled in 2014 after the Benhams’ anti-LGBTQ vitriol came to light thanks to Right Wing Watch. The same network then launched a show with a different evangelical Christian, Jen Hatmaker, who also opposed marriage equality but didn’t spout fire and brimstone against gay people the same way.
In some ways, this is the Gaines’ own damn fault. Faith is part of their branding, but their faith has been hijacked by conservative extremists who demand purity tests of everybody in the public eye, and the Gaines aren’t going to speak out about that either because blandness is part of their appeal. You don’t watch them for their hot takes because they purposely avoid having opinions that matter. You watch them because you have other shit to do and need something playing in the background.
What they’re doing now by including a gay couple on their show doesn’t make them courageous; it just makes them regular TV producers. They’re not endorsing marriage equality; they’re simply including a couple that represents plenty of other couples who may watch the show… which is the same reason you want to include a family of color in the mix. The fact that they’re not even condemning the bigots but trying to downplay the “controversy” entirely by bringing it all back to Jesus just shows that their focus is growing their business, not promoting evangelical Christianity. There’s nothing wrong with that. Let’s just acknowledge the game.
They’re not allies. They’re not enemies either. They’re people who think Christianity doesn’t have to be political because, for them, it’s easier to pretend the problems with conservative Christianity don’t exist instead of addressing them directly. Seems like an obvious oversight for people whose entire brand is fixing things up… but it’s worked for them so far.
The new show’s not going to succeed or fail based on right-wing backlash. If it’s a bad show, it’ll get canceled and they’ll move on. Just like the bigots who are always angry about everything until they realize it’s no longer gaining traction, at which point, they’ll move on to the next bit of performative outrage over something that doesn’t affect their lives.
The Cut summarized the fake outrage perfectly:
Do these outraged Fundamentalists even have HBO Max accounts that they can cancel in protest, or are they just yelling for the sake of yelling? If they must be up in arms over the content on that platform, they could at least direct their ire constructively. There are nearly 100 episodes of Entourage on there that need to be dealt with.
To any and all xtians who take offense at this:
For god's sake, turn your TVs off and read your bibles. Just make sure they're not KJVs. The ones by the gay king.
Few people disgust me more than those who claim their religion entitles them to a say in other people's personal choices. Their cherished 'moral teachings' are really just a rule book they pretend to follow because it is far easier and less painful for them than thinking. It's kind of hard to find things to feel grateful for these days, but be grateful you do not live in a world where the evangelical preachers got to make the rules for everyone. You would soon learn what true persecution looks like.