Chip Gaines Calls for 'Respect' After Anti-Gay Church Report

Can't we all just get along? Fixer Upper star Chip Gaines took to Twitter to ask fans to be respectful of the BuzzFeed News reporter who recently revealed that he and wife Joanna Gaines' church is against same-sex marriage.

"Regardless of our decision to make a statement about all this craziness, or not, I ask that people please! respect [BuzzFeed's] @KateAurthur & [Cosmopolitan's] @ginamei," he wrote on Saturday, December 3. (Both Aurthur and Mei were attacked on social media for covering the story for their respective news outlets.)

The next morning, the reality stars headed to their controversial church for Sunday mass. "In times of trouble … you'll find the gaines family at church," Chip tweeted.

As previously reported, the HGTV stars came under scrutiny after BuzzFeed resurrected an anti-same-sex marriage lecture by the couple's pastor, Jimmy Seibert, in an article published on November 29. In the lecture, the pastor reaffirmed the position on homosexuality of the Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas, after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last year.

"God defined marriage, not you and I. God defined masculine and feminine, male and female, not you and I. Truth No. 1: Homosexuality is a sin. The lie: Homosexuality is not a sin," Seibert told churchgoers in June 2015, before saying that members of the LGBT community "choose" their sexual orientation. A similar statement was shared on the nondenominational, evangelical church's website.

Chip, 42, and Joanna, 38, have yet to make an official statement on the news. They are both Christian and have yet to feature a same-sex couple on Fixer Upper, which premiered in May 2013.

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HGTV released a statement responding to the controversy on December 1. "We don't discriminate against members of the LGBT community in any of our shows," the network said. "HGTV is proud to have a crystal clear, consistent record of including people from all walks of life in its series."

Fixer Upper airs on HGTV Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.

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