Chip Gaines Attacks Christians in Defense of a Magnolia Network Show with a Gay Couple

The entertainment figure and his wife Joanna Gaines, themselves Believers, are executive producers of the new reality series.

Joanna and Chip Gaines pose for a picture near the set of their new Magnolia Network show "Back to the Frontier." Image: Magnolia Network/from Instagram.

Long supported by fellow Christians who are among the fans of their hit reality show Fixer Upper and their home and lifestyle channel Magnolia Network, the Gaineses now find themselves at odds with some of those supporters. The issue stems from a new show that the couple is executive producing called Back to the Frontier.

A promotional graphic for "Back to the Frontier." Image: Magnolia Network/from Instagram.

The series debuted last week on HBO/Max, and it features three families eschewing modern comforts like electricity and running water, living instead like 1880's homesteaders. The controversy at hand, however, relates to the fact that one of the families in the cast consists of two homosexual men, together with their young sons.

Some Christians have been quick to complain about that in various social media outlets. And the criticism is not just confined to regular folks, but has included comments from public figures like the Reverend Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the global charity Samaritan's Purse, who in a social media post called the development "very disappointing."

The disapproval has drawn a particularly harsh response from Chip Gaines. In a missive on X over the weekend, he seems to go after Believers in general with sweeping accusations.

"Talk, ask qustns (sic), listen.. maybe even learn. Too much to ask of American Christian culture. Judge 1st, understand later/never. It's a sad sunday (sic) when "non believers" have never been confronted with hate or vitriol until they are introduced to a modern American Christian."

This dustup is something of a surprise not only because Chip and Joanna Gaines are Christians, but particularly because they were once accused by activists of being against the homosexual community since the church they attend in their hometown - Waco, Texas - had years ago denounced so-called homosexual marriage.