The fourth season of Chip and Joanna Gaines’ popular HGTV series Fixer Upper has begun amid controversy. The couple’s pastor Jimmy Seibert of Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas is reported to have preached a sermon and in it has said that marriage is between “one man and one woman” and “homosexuality is a sin.”
This has LGBT activists demanding that Chip and Joanna comment on where they stand regarding same-sex issues. Their network issued a statement saying, “We don’t discriminate against members of the LGBT community in any of our shows. HGTV is proud to have a crystal clear, consistent record of including people from all walks of life in its series.”
The hit series has yet to host a same-sex couple. HGTV and Fixer Upper may be on a collision course to do so. LGBT activists are relentless in their need to feel accepted and normal, and the entertainment industry is overly accepting and sensitive to their demands.
The Gaines have yet to comment, but Chip tweeted, “Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. DO EVERYTHING IN LOVE.” This is a quote of 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 from the New Living Translation.
Current circumstances present Christians with a dilemma. How are we to “do everything in love” as we are commanded and “not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret,” Ephesians 5:11-12.
Paul was addressing issues of immorality. If Christians are to be true to the Scriptures we must admit homosexuality is immoral, so how do we “do everything in love” when interacting with immoral people?
If I were a car salesman it would be easy, in a strictly business transaction I would be more concerned with a person’s credit than their moral background, heterosexual or homosexual.
But if I were a wedding photographer the situation gets a little more complicated. I would not want to be forced to commemorate a homosexual wedding in pictures, anymore than I would want to commemorate a heterosexual nude wedding, and for the same reasons, I find both offensive.
We now live in a post-Obergefell v. Hodges America. Christians are going to be forced to address these kinds of dilemmas, and there will be a learning curve as we seek guidance on how to “overcome evil with good.”
I think many Christians are uncomfortable with the state of affairs in America right now and would feel better if the LGBT community would slip quietly back into the closet, but I think God has allowed these things to happen so we can address the evil in our midst.
The tension between one’s right to force their immorality on another and the limits of religious liberty is about to get greater. Christians will need wisdom as much now as we ever have, so “if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,” James 1:5.
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