Jason and David Benham of Charlotte, North Carolina, received national attention when HGTV pulled the plug on their reality real estate show, Flip It Forward, because of their traditional stance on marriage.
The network quit filming three days before the final shoot under pressure from critics of the brothers’ religious beliefs.
Brian Boyles, pastor of Charlotte’s Northside Baptist Church, is a friend of Jason and David Benham. He says they’re humble and affectionate toward all and told CBN News others can learn from their consistency.
“If you’re only known by negative statements or by negative actions, then you’re only going to get a negative backlash,” Boyles says.
“But what people need to see in us is that we’re consistent in our faith of love,” he said. “We’re consistent in our faith of forgiveness and mercy and grace and serving or helping the community.”
“So if a believer wants to know ‘how can I make a statement or stand up for my faith and not be demonized,’ well, be consistent—not just giving statements on marriage or other hot topics, but be consistent showing the love that you’re supposed to show everybody,” he says.
The Benham brothers have stressed that they’re not upset with HGTV.
But the twins aren’t the only ones dealing with this type of criticism in recent months.
In early April, Mozilla’s former CEO was canned for supporting California’s anti-gay marriage referendum, Proposition 8.
Last December, Phil Robertson was briefly banned from Duck Dynasty after comments he made about homosexuality.
In 2011, Chick-fil-A had dueling protests after its president, Dan Cathy, expressed his support for traditional marriage.
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