Christian ‘Fixer Upper’ Stars Accused Of Caving To Woke Culture

A popular HGTV host is deflecting after facing criticisms from religious conservatives irate about his decision to feature gay parents with children on an episode of his newly launched show.

Chip Gaines, who co-wrote “Back to the Frontier,” defended his decision to feature a same-sex couple in a show about present-day Americans living an 1800s-era lifestyle in the plains of the United States. Jason Hannah, one of the gay participants, said Gaines’ inclusion of LGBT themes in prairie life convinced him to join the cast.

“What really inspired me was when I saw the flyer on social media, and I saw a gay couple on the front of that flyer,” he said.

“Y’all are going to love this show!! Social experiment + family time well spent..” declared Gaines on social media shortly before the show launched on July 10.

Gaines and his wife Joanna as self-professed Christian evangelicals who rose to prominence as popular hosts of homebuilding programs on HGTV. They premiered “Back to the Frontier” on the Magnolia Network, the cable network they co-founded with Warner Bros. Discovery, and it was recently picked up for distribution by HBO.

Now Hannah, his husband, and their two 10-year-old sons are at the center of a furious evangelical response to the show.

Gaines alluded to the criticism in a social media post on Sunday morning.

“Talk, ask qustns, listen.. maybe even learn. Too much to ask of modern American Christian culture. Judge 1st, understand later/never,” he wrote on X. “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.”

Leading evangelicals, including Franklin Graham and the American Family Association, have denounced the show, stating that it portrays anti-biblical values about the nuclear family.

“God loves us, and His design for marriage is between one man and one woman,” Graham said. “Promoting something that God defines as sin is in itself sin.”

“We aren’t sure why the Gaines have reversed course, but we are sure of this: Back to the Frontier promotes an unbiblical view of human sexuality, marriage, and family,” Ed Vitagliano, vice president of the AFA, said in a statement to the Tribune.

Gaines’ Sunday response did little to quell the furor, and later in the day, he doubled down on his disagreement with his haters.

“If you admire and appreciate us so much, any chance there’s more to this? But that’s my point.. no one knows. But the ‘Christians’ have certainly come out in full force as if they do know.. ‘judge not….’ ‘Love one another’ it’s not difficult,” he wrote on X.

The Gaineses found fame with the creation of “Fixer Upper,” the ultra-popular HGTV program about their design and renovation business in Waco, Texas. The original show debuted in 2013, lasting five seasons before being resurrected in a series of spin-off programs, including “Fixer Upper: Welcome Home,” “Fixer Upper: The Castle,” “Fixer Upper: The Hotel,” and most recently “Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse” in June 2024.