A remodeled theology?

Bigger Gaines controversy is photography director, not new show

Chip and Joanna Gaines delivered their Magnolia brand and gained fame on the HGTV show “Fixer Upper.” Jeff Wilson/Texas Monthly via texasmonthly.com October 2016 edition

The controversy that unfolded this week over Chip and Joanna Gaines casting two gay men and their purchased children in a new Magnolia Network show involves something more disturbing than two gay activists getting free attention from Christians.

That’s bad enough for the Gaineses, who have received much support from Christ followers hosting HGTV’s “Fixer Upper.” However, a dive into Joanna Gaines’ social media activity revealed she hired a photography director who was married with 5 children, decided he was gay, and introduced the gay partner as a throuple with his wife–all with Joanna Gaines’ praise.

Chip and Joanna Gaines have made millions from their show portraying a Christian ethic.

However, the Spirit of the Age has seduced yet more Christians, compromising biblical morality for worldly praise.

“Back to the Frontier” follows three “families” trading modern living comforts for the 1880s. Among the cast are husbands Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs and their 10-year-old twin sons. Hanna and Riggs are activists for homosexual causes and issues, and bought their sons through surrogacy.

The deeper theological scandal is Magnolia Network photography director Billy Jack Brawner deciding in 2021 he was gay and would add the gay boyfriend with his wife to form a throuple, destroying boundaries of marriage and family.

The Daily Wire’s Megan Basham exposed it on X. The Christian discernment website Protestia provided the details.

While married to Sara Brawner, the couple had three miscarriages and one stillbirth before adopting four kids. Shortly thereafter, they learned Sara was pregnant and the Brawners had five children in their home in 12 months, Protestia reported.

In 2016, upon seeing his work and falling in love with it, Joanna Gaines made Billy Jack Brawner a Magnolia photography director. Brawner “worked the next five years to shape and execute the visual and conceptual direction of the Magnolia brand across print, TV, digital, and product platforms,” Protestia reported. And then:

In February 2021, Brawner came out as gay, sharing in a now-private Instagram post that, despite being married with children, he is a gay man who is ‘learning to absolutely love myself.’

In this post he reveals ‘I’m in love with a man who is so good. My life is so good, and I am so thankful. No more hate.’ This man became the third partner in the couple’s relationship, with the three forming a ‘throuple’ to raise the children together.

Joanna Gaines responded to Brawner:

Magnolia photography director Billy Jack Brawner was brought on by Joanna Gaines in 2016. Jeff Wilson/Texas Monthly via texasmonthly.com August 2018 edition

As Joanna Gaines brought Brawner into the Magnolia brand, a controversy erupted in late November 2016. Buzzfeed published a story that Gaines' church takes a traditional view of marriage.

Their church, Antioch Community Church, is a nondenominational, evangelical, mission-based megachurch. And their pastor, Jimmy Seibert, who described the Gaineses as ‘dear friends’ in a recent video, takes a hard line against same-sex marriage and promotes converting LGBT people into being straight.

The Supreme Court’s June 2015 Obergefell decision, which sanctioned same-sex marriage, didn’t compel churches to alter doctrinal statements. Most U.S. churches take the biblical position on marriage: a man and a woman. It’s more unusual a news outlet would be surprised a pastor’s comments on marriage line up with Scripture, not Obergefell.

Chip Gaines made comments July 13 on X , including this one:

Christian podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey responded to him:

Chip: You can’t out-love God. God is love, which means 2 things:

1) He gets to define it.

2) Everything He says and does He says and does in love.

In 1 Corinthians 13:6, He says that love, among other things, “never rejoices in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”

You are rejoicing in wrongdoing & rejecting the truth by choosing to glorify that which God calls sin—a disordered desire that hurts the body and soul of those who are ruled by it (Romans 1:26-32).

Thus you are neither loving God nor loving people by this decision.

If God is love, then in love, He created marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. This is the only kind of marriage God calls good. Jesus affirms this in Matthew 19. Every kind of sexuality outside of this union He calls sin.

Sin hurts people, and it angers the God you say you serve. The least loving thing possible is to normalize it.

Remember: the most loving thing we can do in every situation is agree with God.

Disagreeing with Him is no small deal. Encouraging others to do so is an even bigger deal. I seem to remember something about a millstone. Something to keep in mind.

Founders Ministry board member David Mitzenmacher also responded

Whenever controversies like this emerge, it gets interpreted as Christian cancel culture. Many Christians will pass on the Gainseses moving forward because parents are protecting their children.

Mitzenmacher and Stuckey underscore an overlooked point in the “judge not” culture: It is loving to communicate that people are violating God’s moral law. We must speak the truth in love. Too many times the church has failed here.

The issue isn’t about Chip and Joanna Gaines’ eternal state before God. That’s God’s business. It is sad, however, to see more prominent Christians bow to the Spirit of the Age.

For more than 25 years, LGBTQ issues have been thrust onto Americans with the demand they make a choice. What made Chip and Joanna Gaines think they could disregard it?

The same goes for Antioch Community Church, which has yet to make a statement on the latest brouhaha.