After HGTV dropped the Benham Brothers' HGTV show, in 2014, Fox News provided a safe space for the boys to whine about their plight and to preach their anti-gay (but very Christian) gospel. It’s 2018, the bros have written a new book, and Fox & Friends is still giving them a safe space!
Sunday’s homage to the Benham brothers began with a mention of their show's cancellation. Fox friend Pete Hegseth explained that the network “faced backlash over the brothers’ Christian and pro-life beliefs and comments made about the LGBT community." Hegseth didn’t explain that HGTV was very concerned after David Benham led a prayer rally that, he felt, was necessary to stop "homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking our nation” and “demonic ideologies tak[ing] our universities and our public school systems."
During the discussion, the brothers spoke about their baseball careers, their vast numbers of children, and the importance of God in the pursuit of those careers.
Cohost Abby Huntsman then set the table for the Benham boys to position their anti-gay views as “traditional” and just part of being a good Christian: “You guys have been in the news often. And you’ve been honest about how you feel about things and at times have offended some people along the way, the LGBT community being one of those. Have you changed the way you feel about that?”
The Benhams preached from the Fox pulpit. Jason: “Absolutely not. God’s blessings are found within God’s boundaries. So David and I have talked about the boundaries that we all need to live inside of in order to experience God’s blessings.” He spoke of his father who helped them “hone this theology” and added, “We love all people but we don’t love all ideas and neither does God.”
Note: Their father, Flip Benham is a radical, anti-choice zealot who was recently arrested for threatening a woman outside an abortion clinic. He was previously convicted for stalking an abortion clinic doctor. He once described the gay community as “the most violent community there is.”
Hegseth advanced Fox's patented persecuted-Christian meme: “Why are we in such a place where having different views, in this country, that’s what America was founded on - you can have different views about the way you live your life or your political views. Why would HGTV or other places expel people who think one way because a lot of people think the way you do?”
David claimed that's “just a narrative that’s been built. It went from acceptance to appreciation to celebration and now it’s shifted over to forced participation. If you’re not speaking what we want you to speak, if you don’t believe like we want you to believe, then we’re going to isolate you, marginalize you, demonize you, and potentially criminalize you…we have to be willing to speak the truth and speak it in love."
He continued, “It’s nothing against any one people group over another but when we elevate certain lifestyles or lifestyle choices, the scripture clearly commands that it’s not best for human flourishing. It’s OK to speak about that.”
After denigrating gays (who “choose” a “lifestyle”), David claimed that he and his brother love everybody and don’t discriminate against anyone.
Huntsman gently challenged them by speaking about God’s “unconditional love.” But Jason said that he and his bro “simply line up with the judge who is God and when God says that, ‘Here are certain behaviors that you need to live within,’…all we say is let’s agree with him.” (Ergo, as the Westboro Baptist Church says, "God hates fags.")
Monday, the Benham brothers got a second chance to plug their book and their gospel on the Fox & Friends weekday show. The interview followed the same script except that the boys emphasized that when they speak about their faith, they “simply have told the truth and we won’t back off that.”
In September, they blamed Hurricane Irma on God’s wrath and lectured, “People should start to repent for their beliefs on marriage equality, gender recognition and gay rights.” But Fox & Friends loves the Benham brothers who claim to love everybody, so it’s all good…
Watch Fox & Friends demand the kind of tolerance for the Benham brothers it denies liberals or Democrats below, from the March 25 and March 26, 2018 Fox & Friends.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Bible-Really-about-Homosexuality/dp/188636009X
HGTV was right to deny these two a show as, like many evangelicals I’ve met, they’d probably not be able to keep themselves from preaching some Xtian RWNJ beliefs during a show.
If I want to hear about God, I’ll get my ass out of bed on Sunday morning. If I want to watch some one screw in dry wall, I’ll watch HGTV. Or PBS. This Old House is better than a lot of HGTV shows anyway.