Well, this is kind of disappointing.
You know Chip and Joanna Gaines, from Fixer Upper on HGTV?
They have a whole lot of fans, just so many people who love them and adore them and think that they’re just the best, cutest couple to ever appear on reality television.
Or they did have a whole lot of fans, before this little story came out last week.
A few days ago, Buzzfeed published a story all about the church that the Gaines family attends, specifically about the Church’s pastor, Jimmy Seibert.
According to the report, Seibert is “against same-sex marriage,” and he “promotes converting LGBT people into being straight.”
The idea that a pastor in Texas would be against gay marriage is, sadly, not all that shocking, but some of the things that Seibert has said definitely are.
He’s been quoted as stating that “Statistics say that 90% of people who are in a full-blown homosexual lifestyle were abused in some way. Physically sexually, mentally.”
He’s also called “same-sex attraction” an “addiction,” that young people see “sexuality up front in pornography” and get caught up in it.
As for the terrible, terrifying idea of conversion therapy, Seibert has claimed “I have seen hundreds of people personally change their direction of same-sex attraction from a homosexual lifestyle to a heterosexual lifestyle.”
“It doesn’t mean that they don’t struggle with feelings, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t hurting, it doesn’t mean it’s not challenging.”
“But they have chosen to change,” he said. “And there has always been grace there for those who choose that.”
Yikes, right?
So the idea, and the scandal, is that since Chip and Joanna attend Seibert’s church, they must share his views.
HGTV has made a statement about the controversy that read “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.”
But still, Chip and Joanna haven’t made a statement themselves, and, it’s worth noting, they’ve never made any sort of homophobic remarks publicly.
However, Chip’s Twitter account sure has been interesting these past few days …
On December 1st, right after the original article was published, he tweeted “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. DO EVERYTHING IN LOVE.”
Later that day, he wrote “U know.. even as all hell ‘appears’ to be breaking loose. All I have to do is look at my 4 precious babies sleeping, or kiss Jo good morning and at least at that moment, at my house, all is right with the world.”
A couple of days after that, he asked his fans to “please! respect” the authors of the article, “regardless of our decision to make a statement about all this craziness, or not.”
And then, this morning, he tweeted “In times of trouble.. you’ll find the gaines family at church.”
So that seems pretty pointed, right?
He could have fired off a quick tweet denying that they share the same beliefs as their pastor, he could have even not tweeted anything.
But instead, he stated that, in the middle of all this mess, the family would be at church. With the pastor.
We hope we’re wrong about this, but it’s really not looking too great, huh?