Benham Brothers Stand Firm in Faith After HGTV Axed Their Show for Having Conservative Values
David and Jason Benham made headlines in 2014 when HGTV decided to not move forward with their home renovation show. The decision from the network came after the brothers’ belief in the biblical view of marriage came to light and certain media outlets pressured HGTV to cancel the show.
Since then, the twin brothers haven’t backed down from their conservative, Christian values and are now even empowering other people of faith to also stand firmly and boldly in their biblical convictions.
David and Jason’s story really begins before they were even born. When their mother, Faye Benham, was pregnant with them, their father, Phillip “Flip” Benham, was an active alcoholic who owned a saloon.
Faye decided she couldn’t handle his anger anymore and gave Flip an ultimatum — he either needed to come to church with her or she was going to take her daughter, Tracy, and the unborn twins and leave.
So Flip went to church and the Gospel radically changed his life. “For the next six months, he was stacking the beer coolers singing ‘Amazing Grace,’ witnessing to everybody that bellied up to the bar,” David told Liftable, a section of The Western Journal.
Flip’s newfound faith led him to become sober and even pastor his own church. David and Jason were influenced by their father’s zeal for the Lord early in their life.
“Our dad read the bible veraciously,” David said. “Every morning we woke up, we saw him reading the bible or praying. And there wasn’t a morning we can remember where we didn’t see that. We really caught that.”
The faith that their dad had instilled in them continued to define the brothers’ paths even as they began to play baseball professionally.
“Our dad taught us as kids that our theology must become our biography. What we think about God and study about God must be lived out for God,” David said. “So as athletes we used our talents, we were trained, and we see this in scripture to use your talents to bring God glory to bring people into the presence of the Lord.”
After David and Jason left their baseball careers, they moved their growing families to Charlotte, North Carolina, where they began to build and maintain multiple businesses and ministries that continued to be based on their faith, including a real estate business called Redwood United that eventually caught the attention of HGTV.
The network began filming a reality television show featuring the brothers called “Flip It Forward” in Spring 2014, before the first season of Chip and Joanna Gaines’ “Fixer Upper” aired.
But as the commercials promoting the Benham brothers’ show began to air, activist groups familiar with the family’s stance on traditional marriage and abortion began to pressure the network to cancel the show.
In May 2014, HGTV announced that it “decided not to move forward” with the show.
HGTV has decided not to move forward with the Benham Brothers’ series.
— HGTV (@hgtv) May 7, 2014
The brothers now consider losing the HGTV show as a high point in their lives because of the truth laid out in Matthew 5:11: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
David explained that even though that season of their lives was difficult “in the flesh” because they lost money and influence, they look back and consider it a blessing because they were able to walk in Spirit and stay true to God’s word.
Since then the brothers have appeared in various news interviews, written four books, and have continued to encourage Christians to “stand boldly for Jesus whatever the cost.”
“You first gotta face your fear, just like David did when he stepped out on the battlefield. When you face your fear, God takes over the fight. But before you face your fear, you first have got to die to your dream.”
But the brothers don’t just encourage believers to be bold with their words. They also encourage Christians to give glory to the Lord through their actions, including the actions at work.
“Your work is worship. We as Christians should be the light of the world there,” Jason said. “The way that we work, the process that we deliver. We don’t cut corners, we can be counted on, we’re trustworthy, we’re diligent.”
“Those are some simple principles, but man, if you’re going to live your faith boldly, especially if you’re going to speak conservative values, you’ve got to have the other side of the coin which is a life that’s worthy of the Lord.”
They continue to encourage believers to live boldly in their newest book called “Bold and Broken” where they highlight true stories of believers who have demonstrated what it looks like to be both bold and broken in their faith.
To continue to follow the brothers’ journey, click here to follow them on social media or subscribe to their podcast.
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