UPDATE: HGTV has dropped the show.
HGTV has decided not to move forward with the Benham Brothers' series.
— HGTV (@hgtv) May 7, 2014
I'm sure these sophisticated network executives think it's hysterical to spotlight extremists in their reality shows, and they probably don't bother to think about what it means to give them a platform that legitimizes them. They probably don't care, either. But if you care, you should let HGTV know what you think by contacting them:
Last month, the HGTV network announced that it will launch a new reality TV show, “Flip it Forward,” starring David and Jason Benham. The twin brothers will “leverage their good-natured sibling rivalry to help families find a fixer-upper and transform it into the dream home they never thought they could afford.”
What the announcement didn't mention is that at least one of the Benhams is not just a real estate dealer but also a dedicated right-wing activist in the mold of his father, Flip Benham, who has headed the abortion-clinic protest group Operation Save America ever since it split from the militant anti-choice group Operation Rescue.
As leader of OSA, Benham has condemned the interfaith Sandy Hook memorial, protested in front of mosques while shouting “Jesus Hates Muslims” and blamed the Aurora shooting on the Democratic Party, which he said promotes a “culture of death.”
He has also protested LGBT pride events, interrupted church services during a sermon by “sodomite Episcopalian bishop” Gene Robinson and was found “guilty of stalking a Charlotte abortion doctor after passing out hundreds of ‘wanted’ posters with the physician's name and photo on it.”
Benham even blamed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on abortion rights:
As smoke rises from the ashes in New York City the nation and the world’s attention is turned towards the evil that has committed this heinous crime. A crime of passion that has shed the innocent blood of thousands of victims both male and female young and old. The question is who is responsible for the carnage those who did the detestable act or whose sins brought it about.
God’s word clearly says bloodshed begets bloodshed He also tells us whatsoever a man sows so shall he reap. What we as a nation have sowed in shedding innocent blood on a daily basis at abortion clinics has come home to roost upon all of us. Yes whether we like it or not we are all guilty of permitting the sin of abortion in our nation. This includes you and I (Pro-life) pro-choice and the entire network of our society.
Flip's son, David Benham, led a prayer rally — Charlotte 7:14 — outside of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2012, which he told conservative radio host Janet Mefferd was needed to stop “homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation” and “demonic ideologies tak[ing] our universities and our public school systems”He told Mefferd that his brother Jason joined him in organizing the DNC prayer protest.
We don’t realize that, okay, if 87 percent of Americans are Christians and yet we have abortion on demand; we have no-fault divorce; we have pornography and perversion; we have a homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation; we have adultery; we have all of the things; we even have allowed demonic ideologies to take our universities and our public school systems while the church sits silent and just builds big churches. We are so complacent, we are so apathetic and we are very hypocritical in the church, that’s why the Bible says judgment begins in the house of God. So when we prayed at 714 we asked God and our city to forgive us for allowing these things in the house of God.
David also discussed his work to pass North Carolina’s Amendment One, which enshrined a ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions in the state constitution.
In North Carolina, you know, we just fought for Amendment One, which was a constitutional amendment that simply said, this is exactly what the amendment said is the only legal marriage in North Carolina was between a man and a woman. We received—it was such a battle in North Carolina, it blew me away. I already knew in my heart as most all of us Christians in America know that we are in a very desperate spiritual situation and moral situation in our country, but it really hit home during Amendment One, so much so that when Amendment One passed I realized the only three counties in North Carolina that actually voted against the amendment were Charlotte, Raleigh and Asheville, our three cities. So we had all the rural areas and all the suburban areas but we lost all the cities. So I felt like, okay, it’s time that we have a citywide church service of repentance and that’s the reason that we decided to do it right in the heart of Charlotte the night before the DNC.
