Chip and Joanna Gaines get hit with backlash from Franklin Graham and their fans over ‘woke’ inclusion on latest show

Reality television stars Chip and Joanna Gaines are facing a public relations crisis after many fans reacted negatively to the featuring of an LGBTQ couple on their newest show.

The evangelical couple are promoting “Back to the Frontier,” a reality television show from their Magnolia Network to be aired on HBO Max, but the show has already been clouded with controversy.

‘Heartbreaking to watch Chip and Joanna Gaines trade the cross of Christ for an LGBT rainbow flag.’

Among the show’s participants are Jason and Joe Hanna-Riggs, a same-sex couple from Texas with two children. The show challenges families to live as the pioneers lived in frontier times.

Evangelist Franklin Graham conveyed his disappointment with the incident on social media.

I hope this isn’t true, but I read today that Chip and Joanna Gaines are featuring a gay couple in their new series. If It is true, it is very disappointing. While we are to love people, we should love them enough to tell them the truth of God’s Word. His Word is absolute truth. God loves us, and His design for marriage is between one man and one woman. Promoting something that God defines as sin is in itself sin.

In 2020, a number of venues in Europe canceled Graham’s evangelical speaking events over his affirmations of biblical teaching on same-sex relationships.

American Family Association Vice President Ed Vitagliano also criticized the Gaines.

“This is sad and disappointing, because Chip and Joanna Gaines have been very influential in the evangelical community. Moreover, in the past, they have stood firm on the sanctity of marriage regardless of the personal cost that has entailed,” he wrote.

“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,” Vitagliano added, “a view no Christian should embrace.”

Chip Gaines defended the inclusion of the same-sex couple in a message on social media.

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

“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 added.

RELATED: How ‘Fixer Upper’ stars Chip and Joanna Gaines are helping an injured firefighter

  Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images

That response was criticized by many Christians on social media.

“As someone who considered Chip & Joanna Gaines as my spiritual covering, I couldn’t be any more devastated,” responded pastor Jonathan Shuttlesworth.

“It’s heartbreaking to watch Chip and Joanna Gaines trade the cross of Christ for an LGBT rainbow flag. They, like many other compromisers, have decided that sin is more profitable than obedience,” replied William Wolfe of the Center for Baptist Leadership.

“It is not hate to point out sin. Quite the contrary, actually. Chip and Joanna need to go back and read Romans 1,” said another user.

Some on the left also used the occasion to criticize Christians.

“The backlash against Chip and Joanna Gaines proves yet again that the hardest thing for christians to do is actually behave like Christ,” responded actor Jody Dean.

However, in 2021, the Gaineses were hit with criticism from the left when they donated money to a local school board candidate who had spoken out against critical race theory. She also was Chip Gaines’ sister.

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