Why Ben Higgins Is 'Jealous' of Hannah Brown's 'Bachelorette' Season (Exclusive)
Ben Higgins wishes his faith would have been featured more on his season of The Bachelor.
ET's Lauren Zima spoke with the Generous Coffee co-founder on Tuesday's episode of Roses and Rose Live, where he revealed he's "jealous" of the amount of airtime religion is receiving on Hannah Brown's season of The Bachelorette.
Christianity has been a big focus of Hannah's connection with controversial contestant Luke Parker. During Monday's episode, fans saw Luke take Hannah to Sunday school, where he again opened up about finding God in the shower after "chasing sex" in his early college days.
To Higgins, the hometown date in Gainesville, Georgia, "came off on television a lot more awkward than it was in real life" -- but he's still "envious" that he didn't have the chance to showcase religion on his season.
"I'll be honest, I'm a little bit envious and jealous of this season because faith is such an important thing in my life. It is the reason why I am [who I am] today and a lot of the things I said and did don't make sense without Jesus being at the center of it. So, I'm a little bit saddened it wasn't part of my story," he shared. "I am jealous."
That being said, Higgins isn't too pleased with how Parker is portraying Christianity on Brown's season. He's seen the dramatic promo showing Parker confronting Brown for possibly having sex with the other contestants, and disagrees with the way he handled the situation.
"As a Christian myself, I get that you want to hold yourself to some type of moral standard. One of the core beliefs as Christians is that you have value and you have a purpose and you should treat yourself and others with respect," Higgins explained. "Ultimately, though, within that whole dialogue needs to be respect for others. And I think we should never push our own beliefs or convictions off on somebody else, expecting them to live up to some type of standard that we've created in our mind or that we feel like is best for us, no matter what your belief system."
"But I also think that dialogue is important. So, for example, if Luke has a big problem with Hannah having sex before marriage, I think it is completely OK and fair for him to discuss it with her. I think he should say, 'Hey, this is something that is important to me. This is something that I have struggled with in my past that now is something I'm trying to fix. I want to have this conversation so that we are in a better understanding of who we are as people,'" he continued. "Instead, I feel like he shamed her and pushed her in a corner and said, 'You need to hold up to this standard. You need to believe what I believe. You need to do what I do, and you need to also follow along, because I am the man in this relationship.'"
Higgins -- who had conversations about faith on his season of The Bachelor and even on Kaitlyn Bristowe's season of The Bachelorette (but said they just weren't shown) -- said Parker's behavior "gives a really bad idea of what Christianity is."
"I think it really misrepresents what Christianity is trying to tell people," he shared, noting that, in his eyes, sex is "powerful" both before and after marriage, and neither is wrong. "At no level should we ever shame or make somebody feel bad for a choice they made to be physical with somebody else."
"I'm just jealous... I'm really pissed off that I didn't get to talk about it as much as this season is, and I'm just jealous," Higgins confessed.
Brown has spoken openly about how her faith affected her as the Bachelorette, telling ET that she was thrilled to see personal moments like her prayer on night one featured on the series. See how Brown's Christianity affected her approach to fantasy suites in the video below.
The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Join ET's Bachelor Nation Facebook group here.
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