Church's Unauthorized Hamilton Performance Ends in Anti-LGBTQ+ Sermon

Homophobia and musical theater don’t exactly go hand-in-hand, but one Texas church is apparently trying to change that.

The Door Christian Fellowship Ministries of McAllen made national headlines this week after putting on an unauthorized production of Hamilton, integrating explicitly Christian themes and ending the whole thing with an anti-LGBTQ sermon.

One of the main themes of the real version of Hamilton revolves around what type of legacy a person might leave behind. In both versions, Hamilton asks “What is a legacy?” but in the illegal church rendition, he answers his question with, “It’s knowing that you repented and accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ that sets men free.”

In addition to being clunky and not making a ton of sense regardless of your religious beliefs, it also distorts the original story — and one of the reasons copyright law exists is to prevent things like this from happening.

That is only one of a number of Christian-based changes made to this particular production, which was live-streamed on Friday and Saturday before the team behind the true production of Hamilton caught wind. Friday’s performance also concluded with a sermon from pastor Victor Lopez that encourages people who “struggle with alcohol, with drugs, with homosexuality” to turn to God so he can “forgive you for your sins.”

A spokesperson for Hamilton — the real Hamilton — confirmed that the church did not have authorization for these performances and issued a cease and desist letter, which included “immediate removal of all videos and images from previous productions from the internet.”

This is in direct contradiction to pastor Roman Gutierrez’s statement to Dallas Morning News claiming that he received legal permission to put on the show.

Whether the church will face any consequences for its illegal production, and the unauthorized changes made to the script, remains to be seen, although Hamilton’s spokesperson acknowledged that they will be “discussing this matter with the parties behind this unauthorized production within the coming days once all facts are properly vetted.”

Churches get a lot of leeway in the United States, and maybe that’s why some, like The Door, appear to think they are above the law. But unfortunately for them, copyright law doesn’t have a loophole for proselytizing.

In other words, they took thier shot — and missed.

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