The Attack on the Gaines' is About Criminalizing Religion
BuzzFeed was fiercely criticized online on Wednesday and into Thursday after the website published a controversial story about the stars of the HGTV show "Fixer Upper."
The story centered on the views Chip and Joanna Gaines have toward same-sex couples. Reporter Kate Arthur, who was unable to obtain comment from the couple, only wrote that their church stands "firmly against same-sex marriage."
"Their pastor considers homosexuality to be a 'sin' caused by abuse — whether the Fixer Upper couple agrees is unclear," Arthur wrote.
The guilt-by-association nature of the story prompted an intense backlash.
The BuzzFeed story was a blatant example of targeting people for their religious belief. Furthermore if this policy of trying to drive people out of the entertainment space for belonging to religious groups that oppose homosexuality, no member of any traditional group, from Catholics to Orthodox Jews to even... Muslims... would be able to be on television.
The implications are obviously nasty and Ben Smith trying to turn the attack around won't change that.
This entire manufactured controversy reminds us again that "tolerance" campaigns are really about intolerantly purging people from public spaces by demanding that they endorse leftist ideas.
This line of attack isn't new...
“David and I also know what the phone call that Chip and Joanna probably received from HGTV is the same as what we received,” says Jason Benham. “I remember when (HGTV) called us and said ‘guys, man we are getting pushed, and we’re getting hammered by these groups.’ And I know that’s exactly what’s happening right now."
We saw the same thing with Mormons being targeted in the past. This is how the left masquerades its intolerance as tolerance.