WWJD? Not This.

Another week, another MAGA meltdown. This time, over Chip and Joanna Gaines featuring a same sex couple on their renovation show. While MAGA Christians rage about two men building a home together with their family, there’s radio silence from that same crowd on real crises: slashed SNAP benefits, Medicaid rollbacks, and rising maternal mortality rates. Funny how the loudest "defenders of life" are nowhere to be found when it comes to, you know, actual lives. Let’s dive in...

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This latest backlash against Chip and Joanna Gaines is less about TV and more about a worldview that prioritizes policing identity over promoting compassion. Christian nationalism has long positioned itself as a moral compass for America, just not the kind Jesus would recognize. In fact, where Christ spent his time healing the sick and feeding the poor, MAGA Christians cut food stamps and criminalize queer people.

Take a look at policy: Trump’s Big Bullshi*t Bill, recently passed by Congress, will kick up to 20 million Americans off of Medicaid. Food insecurity is on the rise. And yet, Americans are being told the real cultural threat is two gay dads getting a kitchen island. This is not a values-based movement. It’s a power grab; one that leverages faith to justify anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-abortion, and anti-poor policies, all behind the smokescreen of “traditional family values.”

We see this hypocrisy play out most viciously in reproductive health. The same lawmakers who oppose abortion access also vote against paid family leave, universal child care, and expanded postpartum Medicaid. Their votes show us so clearly that this has never been about life; it’s always been about control. It’s about narrowing who gets to live freely, safely, and with dignity. If MAGA Christians truly cared about families, they’d be fighting for the basics every family needs: food, healthcare, housing, and freedom from discrimination.

Bigotry shrouded in religion is still bigotry. And when it influences legislation, it puts lives at risk especially LGBTQIA+ people, pregnant people, and anyone living in poverty. Real Christians know this is nothing like what Jesus would do because feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and welcoming the outcast was never conditional.

So the next time someone tells you this is about “values,” ask whose values. Because the people clinging to power in Jesus’ name don’t look like they’re following him. They look like they’re using him. And we see right through it.

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