Fire HGTV!

In recent weeks the media's been abuzz with the saga of the Benham brothers, real estate millionaires whose tv show, Flip it Forward, was dropped by HGTV from its fall lineup because of the brothers' pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, Christian beliefs .  In response to HGTV's smarmy and cowardly move, a petition, called Flip This Decision, was started on the pro-Christian website, Faith Driven Consumer, to pressure HGTV to restore the Benhams' show.  I understand the reason for the petition and I actually signed it, but I'm not sure it's the right response to the censorship and anti-Christian bigotry of the cable channel.  Here's why.

If HGTV restores Flip it Forward to its lineup it'll be a victory of sorts for traditionalists and religious freedom.  But I can't help asking, should traditionalists have anything to do with a channel like HGTV?  Think about it.  HGTV's rapid fire cancellation of the Benham brothers' show suggests that the network is run by ardent secular progressives vehemently opposed to traditional family values.  Therefore traditionalists--Christian and non-Christian--should not support HGTV.  It's monumentally unwise to support, aid, and abet that which is against you and everything you believe.  In a shooting war no general would fight like that.  We must stop fighting like that in the culture war.

So what, then, should traditionalists do about HGTV?  I believe the correct response is to fire HGTV.  Drop it from your cable or satellite lineup.  If you can't drop it, don't watch it.  Don't buy the HGTV magazine.  Have nothing to do with the network in any way.  Instead of begging to participate, we should "come out of her" and all other secular progressive cultural/economic structures and begin building a traditionalist counter culture/economy.  That sounds like a tall order and it is.  But I now believe it is absolutely vital to preserving and strengthening the moral values on which our most basic and cherished freedoms rest.

Freedom of association, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and economic freedom are all under assault in the name of tolerance and equality.  Partnering with the attackers will just fortify them.  They must be emasculated.  Fire dies when it's deprived of oxygen.  It's time to deprive the fire of the Left of the oxygen of our time, our money, our goodwill.  It's time to "come out of her".  Let's start by firing HGTV.