Sodomy on the frontier

For over a decade now, Chip and Joanna Gaines have been a pop-culture phenomenon—first through their HGTV series Fixer Upper and later through their sprawling Magnolia brand, which has now spun-off a cable television network. Their star has risen, especially among American evangelicals, who have largely beamed with admiration for a winsome and successful Christian couple who have been public with their Christian faith.

About nine years ago, the Gaineses came under fire after a reporter from Buzzfeed did a deep dive into the Gaines’s views on marriage. After the reporter failed to find any public declarations from the couple themselves, she turned to the stated beliefs of their pastor and of their church, Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas. Their church’s confession was clear, saying, “God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood or adoption. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.”

The Buzzfeed report used the church’s public confession, their pastor’s preaching, and the lack of gay couples on Fixer Upper to prosecute the Gaineses in the court of public opinion. Almost immediately, Christians and other social conservatives began defending the couple. I should know because I was one of them. But there were much more prominent voices than mine doing the same, including Megan Kelly and Dana Perino on Fox News, just to name two. The backlash against Buzzfeed was swift and fierce as grassroots evangelicals weren’t about to let a liberal news outlet cancel two of their own over their religious views.

But that was then, and this is now. Fast forward nine years, and it appears that things have changed with Chip and Joanna. Last week, Chip Gaines highlighted a promotional ad for a new program they are producing for the Magnolia Network—Back to the Frontier. The premise of the show is simple. Three families leave behind their workaday lives and move to rustic homesteads in the middle of 10,000 acres of wilderness near Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The show explores how each family endures the hardships of 19th century homesteading in a barren wilderness.

But there is one twist. One of the “families” consists of two “married” dads and their 10-year old sons, both of whom were born through a surrogate mother. So not only does Back to the Frontier affirm an aberrant definition of marriage, but it also defines the “family” in a way that directly contradicts the teaching of Antioch Community Church. It is not clear whether the Gaineses still attend that church. Content that the Gaineses had previously contributed to the church’s website has apparently been scrubbed.

Nor is it clear what the Gaineses actually believe about homosexuality and same-sex “marriage.” As I noted nine years ago when Christians were still defending the Gaineses, the couple has never really revealed in so many words what their views are. Even now nine years later, I have yet to find a clear statement on the matter from them. Nevertheless, just as people inferred from their church membership what they believed nine years ago, now people are inferring from Back to the Frontier what they believe now.

I don’t pretend to know what the Gaineses would say their views are. All I know is that they are producing a television program that affirms a gay “marriage” as a family just like any other. I also know that when Chip Gaines was confronted about it on social media this week, he rebuffed critics as unkind and uncharitable Pharisees. And yet, the two men in a gay “marriage” have stated very publicly that one of the reasons they agreed to appear on the show is to “normalize same-sex couples and same-sex families.” I have watched the first episode, and that is exactly what this program does. It normalizes what the word of God abominates (Leviticus 18:22; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

The problem is not with critics voicing concerns about the program. The problem is that Chip and Joanna Gaines are not taking responsibility for the aberrant affirmations that are at the heart of the program they are producing. Vague messages on social media about unity and love and not being judgmental are no substitute for the articulation of clear biblical conviction. Indeed they can’t be—not when one is otherwise communicating that two men engaging in sodomy is the equivalent of holy matrimony.

I hope and pray that the Gaineses have simply made a massive, naïve miscalculation and that repentance and correction are in the offing. I want that because the alternative is devastating. Doubling-down in defense of gay “marriage” is not an option for a follower of Christ. One can either follow Christ or affirm sexual immorality. But he cannot do both. He must choose. And make no mistake. The choice is between the narrow road that leads to life and the broad road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).