If you're not up to speed on the Chip and Joanna Gaines spectacle, allow me to present the TL;DR (too long; didn't read) version:
- Chip and Joanna Gaines built a multi-million-dollar home decor brand
- The couple's bread-and-butter audience is evangelical Christians
- The Gaineses launched a lifestyle network subscribed to by 51 million households
- A new show on the network is called "Back to the Frontier," where three families relinquish modern conveniences (to include indoor toilets) for a more authentic, connected way of living
- One of the three "Back to the Frontier" families is a gay couple with twin boys born via surrogate
- Chip Gaines took to X on Sunday to wag his finger at his evangelical Christian audience for being too judgy
- The Gaineses' brand, which was just a trashcan fire, becomes a dumpster fire
As my colleague Chris wrote yesterday, even Franklin Graham is disappointed in the Gaineses. With the whole entertainment world going down in flames (not even Elmo is safe!), why are we still surprised when people aren't who they pretend to be?
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.…
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) July 12, 2025
Hold on, Ashley, you're saying Chip and JoJo were never really Christians? No, I'm not going to go that far, but I will suggest that we believe people when they show us who they are.
For example, Bud Light stepped into a big ol' pile of stink in 2023 with an ad campaign featuring Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender activist who cosplayed a girl (not even a woman, but a Britney Spears oops-I-did-it-again plaid-skirt-and-pig-tails girl). It didn't take long for people to rage against the brand. But Light's then-new director of marketing doubled down on the partnership, stating she wanted to update the beer's "fratty" and "out of touch" reputation. In her own words, her mission was to make Bud Light more inclusive: "Inclusivity, it means shifting the tone, it means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive, and feels lighter and brighter and different, and appeals to women and to men."
Bud Light fired her and quickly set out to repair the damage. That's Bud Light; they showed you who they are, and who they are not.
Chip and Joanna Gaines have told us who they are for 12 years. They've put in the sweat equity and worked to climb the media mountain. Now that they're on top and can call the shots, they are showing us who they are. That whole "talk the talk and walk the walk" thing isn't jiving.
From USA Today:
“I'm not a crier, but I felt it,” Joanna says of the eight-episode project, which she produced with husband Chip Gaines. “I felt this sense of peace; I felt home. The idea that these three families got out of their busy rut and got to have this experience of eight weeks together going through the hard, going through the beautiful, it was like this spiritual experience that I felt for these families.”
They produced the show. She said the experience is spiritual. The Gaineses know exactly what they're doing because they are doing it on purpose. As ludicrous as it sounds to forgo toilet paper for a healthier marriage or something, I refuse to believe that the casting call line was not a mile long. Couples from all over the country submitted their applications for the same reason flocks of tourists descend on Waco, Texas: They want to be in the Gaineses' orbit. Chip and his wife handpicked the three families to bask in their influencer limelight.
Unlike Bud Light, they didn't realize too late in the game that one of the couples was gay — they knew it and were okay with it. In fact, they were so okay with it that camera crews filmed pre-Frontier footage in the men's bedroom. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I really don't want to see any married couple's bedroom because we all know what goes on in there. Nope, I'm good.
Here we are, at the deciding moment of what to do about Chip and Joanna Gaines. They've doubled down on their choices, so it's obvious the course correction we saw from Bud Light is not forthcoming. This is where the free market comes in, but beware: While the free market lady is lovely, she is brutally honest.
If the evangelical Christians choose to let go of their love affair with Chip and Joanna Gaines, then they will be choosing their faith and its principles over the LGBTQ affirmation culture. Jesus told us about this in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:15-20):
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
If the evangelical Christians choose to overlook their faith and its principles so they can be entertained by today's LGBTQ affirmation culture, then it's a more honest reflection on them than the Gaineses. That bit of scripture is a few verses later, 24 through 27:
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.
If you are not a practicing Christian, then none of this should really matter to you. If your reaction to this controversy is "Who cares? Just change the channel!" I thank you for reading thus far and agree: Just change the channel.
