HOLLYWOOD, CA, May 9, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The media and entertainment industry must end its intolerance of Christians who believe in the sanctity of life and marriage or risk alienating an enormous part of the viewing public, according to a certified brand specialist.
Chris Stone, the founder of Faith Driven Consumer, has launched a new online campaign encouraging HGTV to #FlipThisDecision, after the home improvement network chose to cancel a new reality show after a left-wing website “exposed” its hosts' pro-life, pro-family views.
Flip It Forward would have featured brothers David and Jason Benham helping hard-hit families buy a home they thought they could never afford. But Right-Wing Watch noted the brothers, and their father Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Save America, oppose abortion-on-demand, redefining marriage, and building a mosque near the site of the 9/11 attacks.
At noon on Wednesday, the network announced on its Twitter and Facebook accounts that “HGTV has decided not to move forward with the Benham Brothers' series.”
Stone has strongly opposed the “network's intolerant and discriminatory decision to cancel Flip It Forward from HGTV's fall 2014 lineup because of the pro-life and pro-natural marriage faith-driven beliefs of stars David and Jason Benham.”
“HGTV’s decision to exclude those who hold to a faith-based viewpoint held by 46 million Faith Driven Consumers who spend $1.75 trillion annually has no place in America’s inclusive rainbow of diversity,” Stone wrote.
“While some members of the pro-choice and LGBT communities may not agree with the Biblical view on these particular issues, the notion that free-thinking Americans should be discriminated against simply for expressing a perspective that is in conflict with another is patently un-American and flies in the face of true tolerance and inclusiveness,” he said.
Mainstream media sources have also warned about constricting the viewing public's choices due to the liberal progressive views of network executives. CNN’s Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter warned Thursday “of matching perceived intolerance with more intolerance.” He said many viewers are at home “looking at this thinking, 'Why are they taking away these brothers' TV show simply because of what they believe in the personal life?'”
Stelter said the answer was greater “diversity in the media. There should be a wide variety of media owners and a wide variety of places for people to go with their shows, so these brothers, for example, can get a show somewhere else if they feel they were wronged by Scripps Networks.”
The brothers agree there should be room for them somewhere on the TV dial.
“With all of the grotesque things that can be seen and heard on television today you would think there would be room for two twin brothers who are faithful to our families, committed to Biblical principles, and dedicated professionals,” the brothers said in a joint media statement. “If our faith costs us a television show then so be it.”
They acknowledged their program, which was set to debut in October, is already “in production,” and the two are helping six families – a project they vow to continue no matter what. “With or without cameras, we’re going to help them out,” David said.
Ironically, the boys will continue to help the half-dozen families acquire their dream house because of the religious, family-centered values that barred them from the network. The boys graduated from Liberty University, the evangelical college founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. David and his wife, Lori, have five children; Jason and Tori have four.
But the brothers say they do not blame the network – which their father, Flip, told LifeSiteNews knew about the potential backlash – for the precipitous public reversal. “We felt like HG[TV] was bullied,” David Benham told CNN.
A Charlotte pro-life group founded in part by the Benham brothers is asking its members to visit the HGTV website contact link, call them at 865-694-2700, and post their concerns on the HGTV Facebook page. It also advertises the Facebook page, “Stand With The Benham Brothers.”
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In the meantime, the brothers will tend to their family, their wildly successful business, and caring for the helpless, inside the womb or outside. They said, “The first and last thought on our minds as we begin and end each day is; have we shined Christ's light today?”