Family Research Council Urging Americans to ‘Stand With Chip and Joanna Gaines’s Pastor’
A disastrous and ill-conceived Buzzfeed article that attempted to link HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” couple Chip and Joanna Gaines to their extremist anti-gay pastor’s beliefs is being used as a marketing tool to gain supporters for an anti-gay hate group that masquerades as a Christian lobbying organization.
The Buzzfeed article may be one of the few things most Americans agree on in this hyper-polarized nation. It was bad. By now, many have heard about or read Kate Arthur’s hit piece, which notes the Gaines have never had a same-sex couple on their show after four seasons, and that’s a valid question as to why, given the entire channel’s demographics seem to include gays and lesbians. HGTV issued a statement insisting none of their shows discriminate.
But now Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council is actually using the Buzzfeed piece to collect email addresses, which it can use for future fundraising efforts. FRC, which appears on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of active anti-gay hate groups, is urging people who ordinarily might not join them to “Stand with Chip and Joanna Gaines’s pastor who is under fire for preaching the truth.”
Perkins also penned a lengthy post on the Buzzfeed article, writing, “Bullying Christians may be a favorite strategy of the Left — but it’s not necessarily an effective one. Chip and Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s popular show ‘Fixer Upper’ may be sending that message without ever opening their mouths!“
FRC holds the same dangerous views as the Gaines’ pastor, that homosexuality is a sin, marriage is only between a man and a woman, and, the most harmful one of all, that gay people can undergo therapy to convert them into being straight. Every major medical organization along with some courts have made clear this is both false and harmful.
The Family Research Council head also managed to use his missive to attack same-sex marriage, of course. He posted the false claim that only 37 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, using a poll from a company headed by the former Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas to support his claim, one that every major poll over the past six years disproves.
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license