The LGBT community is praising Chip and Joanna Gaines for including a same-sex couple with two young sons in their new reality television series, “Back to the Frontier.”
Queerty said the show “serves queer Laura Ingalls Wilder vibes for gay dads stepping back in time.”
“This series taps into something we’ve always believed–that stepping away from the noise of everyday life can bring you closer to what matters most,” the Christian couple said in a statement. “It is proof that no matter where you find yourself, the most important part of home is the people you share it with.”
Chip Gaines called it a “social experiment” plus “family time well spent.”
“Back to the Frontier” transports three families back to the 1880s where they have to give up modern comforts in exchange for a horse and buggy and outhouses. The program airs on the Magnolia Network and is streaming on HBO Max.
“For Gen Xers who grew up fantasizing about Michael Landon as daddy Charles Ingalls taking you into the barn for a roll in the hay, your time has come,” wrote Queerty in a review of the show.
And while LGBT groups are celebrating Chip and Joanna Gaines, faithful Christian supporters are not. And many are posting their objections on social media.
The American Family Association said “Back to the Frontier” promotes an “unbiblical view of human sexuality, marriage and family – a view no Christian should embrace.”
“This is sad and disappointing, because Chip and Joanna Gaines have been very influential in the evangelical community,” said Ed Vitagliano, vice president of the influential Christian ministry.
“Moreover, in the past, they have stood firm on the sanctity of marriage regardless of the personal cost that has entailed,” Vitagliano added.
Jon Root, who has a large following on social media, posted a series of questions for Gaines and his wife.
“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,” Root wrote.
In response, Chip Gaines shared a Bible verse that openly mocked Root.
“I really felt the hope, and gentleness and respect here,” Gaines wrote, referring to 1 Peter 3:15.
In another post, Gaines said “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.”
He accused the “modern American Christian culture” of judging first and understanding either later or never.
Gaines never addressed the question that many of their longtime supporters and fans have: why did they intentionally platform a same-sex couple?
The New York Times bestselling author Megan Basham called the inclusion of a gay couple incredibly disappointing, but not surprising.
“Highlighting their faith early in their business building helped get them where they are, but they don’t need to do it anymore,” Basham wrote on X. “It is indeed very sad.”
Years ago, Chip and Joanna became targets of the LGBT activist mob for not featuring same-sex couples on their reality television show, “Fixer Upper.”
Buzzfeed wrote a blistering hit piece, targeting the church where the Gaines family worshipped. The church happened to support the biblical definition of marriage.
I interviewed their pastor for Fox News and he gave a powerful defense of not only the Gaines family, but also the church’s position on marriage.
“Our definition is not the definition we made up. It’s straight from the Scripture,” the pastor said. “One man, one woman for life. That’s how God created us. That’s what he has for us.”
Katy Faust, the conservative writer, said this is not a matter of hating the LGBT community. Writing on X, she said those who identify as LGBT should feel loved by Christians.
“You can and must do that without flinching on the truth that God’s design for sex and marriage is plan A for child protection,” Faust wrote.
But she pointed out that’s not at all what Chip and Joanna are promoting.
“You are promoting a household where two men custom ordered two motherless boys,” she wrote in a direct response to Chip on X. “Maybe you thought you were being kind or inclusive to the adults. You’re actually complicit in ‘causing these little ones to stumble. Pull the show.”
Chip and Joanna Gaines have made millions of dollars in no small part because of the platform they built promoting conservative Christian values and traditional family values. And now their devoted fans are left to wonder if it was all just a façade.