Chip Gaines defended his and wife Joanna Gaines’ new reality show, Back to the Frontier, from critics who took issue with the series featuring a same-sex couple.
Chip, 50, took to X on Sunday, July 13, writing, “Talk, ask questions, listen.. maybe even learn. Too much to ask of modern American Christian culture. Judge 1st, understand later/never.”
Back to Frontier, which premiered on Thursday, July 10, follows families who leave the 21st century behind to live as 1800s pioneers in a social experiment that tests their strength, stamina and sense of humour.
Chip continued: “It’s a sad Sunday when ‘non-believers’ have never been confronted with hate or vitriol until they are introduced to a modern American Christian.”
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Chip’s statement came after Franklin Graham, the son of Evangelical pastor Billy Graham, posted about the HBO Max series including married couple Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs, and their 10-year-old twin sons.
“While we are to love people, we should love them enough to tell them the truth of God’s Word. His Word is absolute truth,” Graham, 73, wrote via X on Saturday, July 12. “God loves us, and His design for marriage is between one man and one woman. Promoting something that God defines as sin is in itself sin.”
Hanna, for his part, recently praised Back to the Frontier, telling Queerty that the show presented a “great, amazing opportunity to normalize same-sex couples and same-sex families.”
“I’m super honored that when they were choosing three modern-day families, they did choose a same-sex couple as a modern-day family, because we are,” he added earlier this month. “We are your neighbors and your coworkers.”
Back to Frontier is part of Chip and Joanna’s home and lifestyle empire, which began on HGTV with the premiere of Fixer Upper. From there, they launched Magnolia Network in 2022 as a rebrand of the DIY Network and have now taken on new shows such as Back to Frontier.
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“There’s really no shortage of us doing things together,” Joanna, 47, joked during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly in March. “But what I’ve loved most about this new rhythm of working out together is that it’s new and different for us, but it’s also been interesting to see that the way we show up for each other in our little garage gym is the same way we always have at the office, or with a new project.”
Joanna, who shares kids Drake, 20, Ella, 18, Duke, 16, Emmie, 15 and Crew, 6, with Chip, reflected on what their days look like as their children get older.
“That’s part of where working out came in, and we also just started taking dancing lessons, which is another fun and hilarious thing for us to do,” she said. “Really, just continuing to find new ways to partner up is what keeps us strong, so we’re having fun with what that looks like this season.”