I’ve watched with vague interest as the couple from my favorite HGTV show have become superstars in the past year. I started watching HGTV’s Fixer Upper last year, mostly because it was on when I was at the gym. It’s the perfect gym-watching show – you really don’t need to hear what Chip and Joanna Gaines are saying to each other, you can just watch them totally refurbish these older or rundown tear-downs in Waco, Texas. If you do listen to them, you’ve probably noticed that Chip and Joanna have a lot of chemistry, and that they completely adore each other. They have a happy, photogenic young family and a farm full of animals. They’re also pretty churchy. There’s nothing wrong with that, but as they’ve gotten more and more attention, people are starting to take a closer look at their church, Antioch Community Church. And then this happened:
Fixer Upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines have come under scrutiny after a BuzzFeed story resurrected an anti-same-sex marriage lecture by their pastor, Jimmy Seibert, of Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas. In the lecture, which is available to view online, Seibert reaffirmed Antioch’s position on homosexuality after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in June 2015.
“God defined marriage, not you and I. God defined masculine and feminine, male and female, not you and I,” Seibert told the crowd. “Truth No. 1: Homosexuality is a sin. The lie: Homosexuality is not a sin.”
Seibert also said that members of the LGBT community have a choice and can change their sexual orientation. “Truth No. 2: God is able to give us power over every sin, including homosexuality. Lie No. 2: I am a homosexual in thought and action, and I cannot change,” he said. “We can change, contrary to what you hear. I’ve worked with people for over 30 years — I have seen hundreds of people personally change their direction of same-sex attraction from a homosexual lifestyle to a heterosexual lifestyle. It doesn’t mean they don’t struggle with feelings, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t hurting, it doesn’t mean it’s not challenging. But they have chosen to change. And there has always been grace there for those who choose that.”
The Antioch Community Church’s website also states that marriage should be between a man and a woman. “Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime,” the website says. “[A husband] has the God-given responsibility to provide for, protect and lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.”
The reality TV personalities, who have yet to feature a same-sex couple on their hit HGTV show, are Christian and attend the nondenominational, evangelical church founded by Seibert in 1999. The Gaines’ company, Magnolia, and HGTV have not yet responded to requests for comment by Us Weekly or BuzzFeed about whether the couple’s beliefs align with their church’s.
Fixer Upper viewers have started calling for Chip and Joanna to clarify their stance on same-sex marriage. “If Chip and Joanna Gaines end up being anti-LGBT, I am cancelling my mag subscription and ignoring their show,” one tweeter wrote, while another added, “As a Fixer Upper fan, I would love to know @joannagaines and @chippergaines’s thoughts on their pastor’s hateful, anti-LGBT beliefs.”
Considering they’ve lived in Texas for decades and considering they’re both born-again Christians, it does not surprise me at all that their pastor preaches the gospel of gay conversion therapy and homosexuality-is-a-choice. Does this mean that the Gaines subscribe to every single thing their pastor preaches? I doubt it. While they have never featured a same-sex couple on their show, are there a lot of same-sex couples in Waco looking for cheap fixer-upper properties decorated with shiplap and tons of giant clocks? I’m really asking, because even though I think the answer is “probably not,” I don’t know for sure. It wouldn’t hurt for the Gaines to clarify their thoughts on gay marriage and gay-conversion therapy, and it wouldn’t hurt for HGTV to press the issue a little bit too, because HGTV seems like a pretty LGBT-friendly network (their other shows frequently feature same-sex families). I knew there was going to be an issue when Joanna and Chip started getting the full Duggar treatment in People Magazine. Sigh… please don’t be secretly horrible, Chip and Joanna.
Photos courtesy of People, Instagram.
