Following the news that the upcoming HGTV series "Flip it Forward" had been cancelled due to the Biblical worldviews of the stars of the show, Faith Driven Consumer is campaigning to bring it back.
The company, whose efforts previously contributed to the return of Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson, announced a new campaign called #FlipThisDecision to call on HGTV to reinstate the show.
"David and Jason Benham are well-qualified to star on an HGTV show, they are well-respected members of their community, and the network has invested time and treasure in developing 'Flip It Forward," wrote Chris Stone, Founder of Faith Driven Consumer. "Now, this project has come to a screeching halt simply because the Benham brothers hold a biblical view of life and marriage. This is pure intolerance, discrimination, and bullying toward those who hold to widely held and legitimate views."
"Flip It Forward," which would have premiered this October, would follow brothers David and Jason Benham as they helped low income families afford homes they never dreamed they'd own. "In each episode, the guys help a deserving family find a fixer-upper and transform it into their forever home - with a healthy dose of sibling rivalry between the brothers along the way," HGTV announced.
However, the "Right-Wing Watch" website recently published an article calling the brothers "anti-gay, anti-Choice extremists" for their biblical viewpoints on abortion and gay marriage. The article emphasized individual cases of "extremism" from both the brothers and their father, Rev. Flip Benham of the pro-life outreach Operation Save America.
One of the grievances documented in the article against the brothers stated that the two helped successfully overrule the lobbying of President Obama to pass a constitutional ban on gay 'marriage' in North Carolina. At the time, the brothers told the Christian Post that "the design of the family...a man and woman covenanting together for life...is the thread that connects the world together."
But earlier today, HGTV revealed the show's cancellation via social media with no apparent explanation.
Rev. Flip Benham said that his family, who had not been informed of the show's discontinuance before it was announced publically, had been honest about their Biblical worldview since the beginning of the show.
"We knew - and so did HGTV - that this was a possibility," he told LifeSiteNews.
"I think of my sons, who have to suffer for the fact that their dad speaks up about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But homosexuality is not a good thing," he reiterated. "It destroys those who practice it and nations that approve of it."
Benham mentioned that while HGTV has plenty of homosexual characters, the channel does not depict any evangelical Christians.
"We are seeing Christianity systematically being criminalized," Benham stated. "If you are going to stand on what the Bible says, you are going to spend time in jail."
"If the church can't even stand strong, how can we expect HGTV, which doesn't even acknowledge God, to stand strong against this?" he asked. "It's a battle we've got to fight, and we've got to be willing to pay the price."
God, he said, "is not wringing His hands worried about what's happening here. He's just watching His church seeing if she will live up and be what God called us from the very beginning to be: the light of the world, the salt of the earth."
Stone calls HGTV's actions "the height of hypocrisy."
"HGTV's rash actions hold no place in America's rainbow of diversity. Whether people agree or disagree with the Beham's faith-driven perspective is beside the point; the Benhams have a right to have those views and to be treated equally with those who hold to other viewpoints," he stated. "This is the very definition of tolerance."
To sign up and join the campaign for tolerance and inclusion, go to FlipThisDecision.com.
