07/23/2025
Chip and Joanna Gaines: When popularity wins over God's truth
By William Wolfe, Op-ed contributor Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Screenshot: Discovery +
Screenshot: Discovery +
Chip and Joanna Gaines, the beloved duo behind the HGTV sensation “Fixer Upper,” have long presented themselves as exemplars of Christian family life.
That image, or perhaps mirage, that had been built over the years was instantly shattered with one social media post recently.
On Thursday, July 10, Chip Gaines took to X to cheerfully spread the word about their new show on the Magnolia Network, titled “Back to the Frontier.”
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
Enter your email
Subscribe
“Y’all are going to love this show!! Social experiment + family time well spent,” he promised.
Social experiment? Yes. Family time well-spent? Not exactly. And no, we did not love it.
Chip unfortunately glossed over a pretty big detail: The show features two men in a so-called “same sex” marriage. Even worse, these are men who have “adopted” (purchased) children via surrogacy.
Far from being family-friendly wholesome entertainment, “Back to the Frontier” marks a tragic surrender to the sexual revolution and the LGBT agenda. By choosing to feature two men pretending to be married, along with their commodified children, Chip and Joanna Gaines have publicly traded biblical truth for progressive applause, turning their shiplap empire into a modern-day S***m and Gomorrah.
And the bottom line is really about their bottom line: They decided that compromise with — and approval from — the world is more profitable than obedience to God.
This new rainbow-themed adventure from the fixer-uppers was met with significant backlash from public Christian figures, and rightly so. Megan Basham responded, “As someone who was an enormous fan and booster early in your careers (I wrote multiple positive articles in a Christian magazine when few knew who you were) it is in incredibly disappointing to see you capitulate to the spirit of the age.”
This sellout is all the more surprising (in some ways) because the Gaineses all but built their brand on a foundation of Christian values. When “Fixer Upper” premiered in 2013, Chip and Joanna quickly became household names, not just for their home renovation skills but also for their wholesome image.
They openly shared their faith, attending Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas — a congregation known for its Evangelical roots (though, on further examination, we now know that Antioch is a feminist/egalitarian-affirming church, and it appears there will be no action taken to correct Chip and Joanna for their promotion of sin in their new show).
Joanna often spoke of her reliance on Scripture, and their episodes were peppered with family prayers, references to God’s provision, and a portrayal of marriage as a sacred union between one man and one woman. Their many children were front and center, embodying the biblical mandate in Genesis 1:28 to “be fruitful and multiply” and painting a picture of joyful embrace of God’s good creation-order design for the family.
For years, to the casual observer, this didn’t just look like window dressing to appeal to a niche market; it was a core part of their appeal. In interviews, Chip described their success as “God’s favor,” and Joanna’s books, like The Magnolia Story, chronicled how faith guided their decisions. Fans, especially fellow Christians, flocked to Magnolia Market in Waco, seeing it as a beacon of traditional values. Their brand exploded — books, merchandise, a network — all built on the promise (or lie) that they were devout Christians.
However, now that we have a good reason to review their record with greater scrutiny, the indicators of compromise are undeniable. Plenty of other posts throughout the years, which went unnoticed, reveal that they had decided to abandon Scripture for the acceptance of sexual degeneracy.
Megan Basham found that Chip and Joanna have a “close professional and personal ties to a strange polyamory arrangement in which a husband and father brought another man into the home and they are now together while the wife remains to raise the four children is true. The man in question is Billy Jack Brawner, Magnolia photographer. I am told that the Gaineses did not rebuke this situation, but instead have affirmed Billy Jack in his choices. The rot in Waco goes a lot deeper than I suspected.”
You read that right: They publicly praised and celebrated their longtime photographer coming out as “gay” and even inviting a man to live with him, his wife, and their children — a bizarre “throuple” arrangement that mocks the sanctity of marriage and will only confuse their children. Romans 1:26-27 clearly condemns homosexual behavior as “dishonorable passions,” yet the Gaines chose friendship over fidelity to God’s Word.
This isn’t the Christianity they once professed. It’s a watered-down, progressive version that cherry-picks verses to justify sin. True Christianity affirms that marriage is exclusively between one man and one woman, as Jesus Himself taught in Matthew 19:4-6:
“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female …Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.”
Anything else is a distortion, leading souls to hell. The Gaineses’ inclusion of this couple signals a total surrender to the LGBTQ agenda, which seeks not equality but supremacy, demanding affirmation of what God calls abomination (Leviticus 18:22).
Chip’s defense of this compromise only compounds the betrayal. In response to the backlash, Chip took to social media and interviews, twisting Scripture to shield their decisions. He invoked Matthew 7:1 — “Judge not, that you be not judged” — as if calling sin what it actually is equates to unrighteous judgment.
But this is a gross misapplication. Jesus’ words warn against hypocritical judgment, not discerning right from wrong. In John 7:24, He commands, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
Chip’s selective quoting ignores passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, which lists homosexual practice among sins that bar one from the Kingdom of God unless repented of. By wielding “judge not” as a club against critics, Chip echoes the Pharisees, who twisted God’s law for personal gain.
What makes this sell-out particularly pathetic is the timing. It’s 2025, a decade after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalized same-sex “marriage” nationwide. Back then, cultural momentum seemed unstoppable, with support for LGBT causes surging.
But now? Polls show Republican support for same-sex marriage at a record low since Obergefell.
Overall acceptance, while still high among liberals, is showing cracks as Americans grapple with the fallout: confused children in schools, the loss of religious freedoms, and a society unmoored from God’s design.
Transgender issues and drag queen story hours have awakened many to the slippery slope that ends in unspeakable horrors. Why cave now, when the tide is turning? The Gaineses could have stood firm, bolstering the remnant faithful. Instead, they’ve chosen the broad road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).
This isn’t about hating or “judging” individuals; it’s about loving the truth, obeying God, and defending the bedrock of society — the family. Homosexuals, like all sinners, need the Gospel’s transforming power, not affirmation in their sin. The Gaineses’ progressive Christianity offers cheap grace without repentance, a feel-good faith that saves no one.
Just as Ezekiel 33:6 charges the watchman, Christians are called to warn of danger, and if we fail, the blood is on our hands. Chip and Joanna: Repent and return to the narrow path. If your church doesn’t love you enough to tell you that, I do. I pray you hear and heed this warning.
While money may have been the driving factor in this choice to trade Zion for S***m, here’s what’s at the root of the confused theology they are using to defend themselves:
The Gaineses think they can be more loving than Jesus. They think they can be nicer than Jesus. They can’t. No one can.
Jesus teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman and that Hell is a consequence of unrepentant sin. And Jesus knows better than you.
Originally published at the Standing for Freedom Center.
William Wolfe is a visiting fellow with the Center for Renewing America. He served as a senior official in the Trump administration, both as a deputy assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon and a director of legislative affairs at the State Department. Prior to his service in the administration, Wolfe worked for Heritage Action for America, and as a congressional staffer for three different members of Congress, including the former Rep. Dave Brat. He has a B.A. in history from Covenant College, and is finishing his Masters of Divinity at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Follow William on Twitter at
