Chip Gaines had a few select words after Samaritan’s Purse founder Franklin Graham publicly criticized his and wife Joanna’s new HBO Max show for casting a same-sex couple with twins among the three families who are featured.
Graham, who is the son of evangelist Billy Graham, wrote Saturday on X that he found it “very disappointing” to hear that Jason Hanna, Joe Riggs and their boys, Ethan and Lucas, were included on “Back to the Frontier,” produced by Magnolia Network. Chip and Joanna Gaines created Magnolia and are executive producers on the show.
“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,” Graham wrote. “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.”
The American Family Assn. — which bills itself as a “pro-family organization” and was formerly known as the National Federation for Decency — chimed in first, posting a statement from Vice President Ed Vitagliano saying, “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. 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 — a view no Christian should embrace.”
Chip Gaines, who with his wife belongs to the evangelical Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas, fired off what seemed to be a reply on Sunday.
“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.”
Matt Walsh, a conservative filmmaker, political commentator and podcast host at the Daily Wire, fired back at Chip Gaines with a response that said, “Maybe you should endeavor to understand the basic moral teachings of your own alleged religion before you give lectures to other people about their lack of understanding.”
Two hours after his “sad sunday” post, Gaines wrote that his family was off to worship, reposting a 2016 tweet in which he said, “In times of trouble.. you’ll find the gaines family at church.”
Meanwhile, on her Instagram on Tuesday, Joanna Gaines was promoting all the Magnolia Network shows nominated for Daytime Emmys.
Separate from the online back-and-forth, Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs have been posting about their family on their @2_dallas_dads Instagram account since the arrival of the twins in May 2014.
“When our boys were born — our twin boys were born via surrogacy in 2014 — we faced some legal challenges, and so we’ve always felt it it to be important that we try to be an example for same-sex couples,” Hanna told Queerty in a story published last week. “And so we’re super honored that, when they were choosing three modern day families, they did choose the same[-sex] couple as a modern-day family — because we are; we’re your neighbors, and your coworkers. And so it was this amazing opportunity to [continue to] normalize same-sex couples and same-sex families.”
“Back to the Frontier” throws three families — from Alabama, Florida and Texas — into an eight-week scenario that recalls the 1880s. Living on the “frontier,” the families have to reinforce their own shelters, raise livestock, collect food and manage their supplies. The goal by the end of the show is to gather enough resources to make it through winter. But don’t worry — the families are all back in modern air-conditioning right now.
“Through this immersive experience, the families will have to reflect on their relationships and navigate the challenges that come with an 1880s lifestyle,” HBO Max said in a release. The show premiered Thursday.
HBO Max did not reply immediately to The Times’ request for additional comment Tuesday.
Chip and Joanna Gaines were caught up in a different conflict over LGBTQ+ issues in May 2023 after Target, which carries the couple’s Magnolia Home line among its household items, came under fire for carrying transgender-targeted items as part of its seasonal Pride Month selections. Some critics also hammered Target’s recognition of Pride Month at all. A boycott was urged among right-wing conservatives. They also called for a comment from the couple.
“No one doubts that Chip and Joanna are good people, kind, moral, and aligned with American values,” Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy said at the time when she was subbing as host of “Jesse Watters Primetime.” “But if I had a line at a company and my name was on it and that brand partnered with a trans Satanist that makes tuck ‘em bikinis for kids, I would feel compelled to speak up.
“Now, maybe they’re raising questions internally. Of course, that’s possible, but why aren’t they doing so publicly?”
The person whom Campos-Duffy — wife of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy — called a “trans Satanist” is London designer Erik Carnell, who is trans and whose Abprallen line had partnered with Target until the retailer ended the relationship under pressure from the boycott. Carnell’s full line included a design that said “Satan respects pronouns.” That design was never available at Target, according to CNN.
Conservative activist Benny Johnson also posted a video of himself in a Target store at the time, touring the Pride Month section, then walking what he said was “10 steps” to the Magnolia Home display. He referred to Joanna Gaines and her family sarcastically as “the paragons of Christian entrepreneurs and family values.”
“I’ve been tweeting about how Christian influencers Chip & Joanna Gaines have not disavowed Target’s Satanic child grooming despite the backlash,” he said. “What I didn’t know is the Gaines Section of Target is directly ACROSS from the Groomer section. Not cool.”
Chip and Joanna Gaines did not speak out during that controversy.
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