“‘Stop running from God, Alexander… His word says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and [wants] just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us.’ Don’t remember that line from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Hamilton? Well, neither does Miranda,” begins the Deadline article about the multi-hyphenate’s reaction to the unauthorized staging of his 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical that took place at a Texas church. And of course, Miranda, who is known for his pro-LGBTQIA+ stance, is not too pleased about the Christianized version of his Broadway musical phenomenon telling the story of the “ten-dollar Founding Father without a father.”

The Christianized staging of Hamilton was performed at The Door Christian Fellowship Ministries of McAllen, Texas on August 5 and the whole two-hour performance and the 15-minute sermon that followed it were streamed online. Reportedly, there was also an unauthorized second performance of Miranda’s musical the next night, August 6. When Miranda learned about the performance from his legions of loyal fans, he was not pleased. “Grateful to all of you who reached out about this illegal, unauthorized production,” Miranda tweeted on August 10, 2022. “Now lawyers do their work. And always grateful to the @dramatistsguild, who have the backs of writers everywhere, be it your first play or your fiftieth.”

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Lin-Manual Miranda Is Known for His Pro-LGBTQ Stance

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The Door Christian Fellowship Ministries version of Miranda’s Hamilton included anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric—and so did the sermon. “Maybe you struggle with alcohol, with drugs, homosexuality, maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, relationships,” the associate pastor of the Church, Victor Lopez says in a video posted on Twitter by YouTuber and podcast host Hemant Mehta. “God can help you tonight. He wants to forgive you for your sins.”

However, the Church’s pastor says that the sermon was just words, and it is welcoming to everyone. Pastor Roman Gutierrez told the NY Post that said the church is not anti-LGBT and “everyone is always welcome,” and that he “obtained legal permission to produce the church’s show,” but a Hamilton rep said that wasn’t true.

On Tuesday, Shane Marshall Brown, a spokesman for Hamilton, issued the following statement to USA Today:

Hamilton does not grant amateur or professional licenses for any stage productions and did not grant one to The Door Church. We issued a cease-and-desist letter for the unauthorized use of Hamilton’s intellectual property, demanding the immediate removal of all videos and images from previous productions from the internet, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, their own website, and elsewhere.

The Hamilton family stands for tolerance, compassion, inclusivity and certainly LGBTQ+ rights. We are in the process of reviewing the unauthorized changes made to the script to determine further action.