Texas church forced to donate to LGBTQ causes: report

On Tuesday, The New York Timesreported that a South Texas church is apologizing for an unauthorized, Christian-themed production of the smash hit Broadway musical "Hamilton" after the official production demanded they stop.

They are also agreeing to pay damages, which the production says will be donated to local LGBTQ causes — which is ironic, given the content changes the church production made to the show, as reported earlier this month.

"The version put on this month by The Door McAllen, a nondenominational church in the border town of McAllen, Texas, altered certain words and inserted invocations of Jesus Christ, according to clips posted on Twitter. It also included a sermon stating that God could help people with their homosexuality, as well as with struggles with drugs and alcohol," reported Marc Tracy. "A message posted Tuesday to the church’s Instagram page apologized and acknowledged that the performances had not been licensed, as the church’s pastor had claimed."

"[God] knows exactly what you've gone through," Pastor Victor Lopez said in a sermon concluding the show, which had been caught on video. "You've gone through maybe broken marriages. Maybe you struggle with alcohol, with drugs — with homosexuality — maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, God can help you tonight. He wants to forgive you for your sins."

Initially, senior Pastor Roman Gutierrez had tried to claim they had acquired the rights to the production in an interview with the Dallas Morning News — but the official production team quickly clarified this was not

"The message added that the church would pay damages," said the report. "A spokesman for 'Hamilton,' Shane Marshall Brown, said Tuesday that 'Hamilton' would donate all damages to the South Texas Equality Project, a coalition that supports the local L.G.B.T.Q. community."

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