Chip Gaines – a professing Christian from Waco, Texas known for starring on his show Fixer Upper – has recently promoted a new show hosted on the Magnolia Network – his network – called Back To The Frontier which will prominently feature a homosexual couple and their two young adopted boys.
After Christians voiced their concerns with promoting homosexuality on their network, Chip responded with 1 Peter 3:15:
Chip apparently thinks what Peter had in mind when writing his letter by the power of the Holy Spirit to Christians in exile was to condone what God calls an abomination (Leviticus 18:22). Is he right?
A Battle of World Views
Christians have been led to believe having a homosexual couple on the show is not promoting homosexuality at all – after all, you can still personally believe that homosexuality is a sin but still be “inclusive” with homosexuals, right?
This is a battle of world views, and lamentably Christians have adopted the liberal world view without realizing it. For decades, gay rights activists have pushed for the normalization of homosexuality by convincing Christians that 1) Being gay is an identity and you can’t deny someone their identity, 2) Being gay is totally normal, and 3) Gay people are victims, not perverts.
Sadly most Christians have these exact views on homosexuality, in part because pastors have not preached with boldness and clarity what God has spoken on this topic.
Is being gay someone’s identity?
The Bible is abundantly clear that homosexuality is a sin (Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10, and much more). The world says it’s an identity, the Bible says it’s a sin – Christians must conform to Scripture. We don’t get to pick and choose what sins we think are sins based on if it offends the world or not, even if they claim it is their identity.
Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The good news is that we do not have to remain slaves to our sin, that through repentance and faith in Christ we can be set free and made new.
Preaching that homosexuality is a sin is not preaching the Gospel – it is preaching the law. But this is a good thing. Paul states in his letter to the Romans, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). Through the law comes knowledge of sin, and through the knowledge of our sin we come to our need for grace. This is why Paul goes on to say, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).
For us to preach the Gospel – the good news that Jesus bore the wrath of God for our sins so we could be forgiven of our sins, adopted into the loving family of God and enjoy Him forever – we must also preach the law. Simply put, the good news does not make sense without the bad news. This is precisely what Jesus did to the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-30, he showed him his sinful self-righteousness by using the law, which resulted in the disciples asking “Who then can be saved?” Jesus responded, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
For Chip (or anyone) to compromise on God’s Law is to actually compromise on the Gospel itself.
Is being gay normal?
According to Gallup, approximately 7.6% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ+. This number has been steadily increasing, with recent data showing a rise from 3.5% in 2012 to 7.6% in 2023. Even with the attempt to normalize homosexuality, this is a very low percentage.
However, if you watch TV, movies or listen to any secular music, it seems like everyone is gay. There’s a gay couple in every show, and they are always portrayed as the smartest, kindest couple. This is intentional. There has been a large effort by the LGBTQ+ community to normalize sexual immorality so that we become desensitized to it – especially our children. Who cares if the parents think it’s wrong? If their children think it’s normal, in no time homosexuality will be completely embraced by the culture. This is one of the reasons why it is so wrong for Chip and Jo to feature a homosexual couple on their show.
As Christians, we are to “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). What are the marks of a true Christian according to Romans 12:9? “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” Whether the world tries to make homosexuality normal or not, we should abhor that which twists God’s design for human sexuality and embraces crimes against nature (sodomy).
Are gay people victims?
Aren’t Christians supposed to do justice and love the oppressed? Yes, but we need to define these things as God defines them. We are to do justice God’s way by treating everyone as image-bearers, showing no partiality, punishing evil and rewarding good according to God’s standards. Love is not seeing your neighbors house on fire and doing nothing about it. Oppression is not the inability to love whomever you want to love, otherwise pedophiles are unfairly oppressed as well. Chip and Jo are not loving those enslaved by their sin by normalizing it instead of calling them to repentance.
Romans 1 does not portray humanity as victims as we fall further into sin, “… God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…” (Romans 1:24-25). We are responsible for our sin because we have exchanged the truth about God for a lie. The answer is not to affirm the sin that God has given them up to, but it is to point them to Christ and call for repentance.
Those in the LGBTQ+ community may always feel oppressed, but it may be their conscience that is oppressing them – not Christians – because they have sinned against God. “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1).
Conclusion
Christians must not buy the lie that truth and love are mutually exclusive. We are to share the truth in love no matter how offensive it is, and expose the works of evil in this world. Chip and Jo – do you think you are more loving than God, that you need to censor or apologize for His Word?
May we all stand more boldly on God’s Word and preach the law and the Gospel to those who are perishing that by God’s grace some may be saved.
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the Gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:14-17)
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