Could have at least called it "Shmamilton..."

Look, I don't want to tell anyone how to sermonize--that's a lie, of course I do, everyone does--but seriously The Door McAllen Church? I almost admire the sheer, unmitigated hutzpah on display by this McAllen, Texas Church who not only put on and streamed an unauthorized production of Hamilton, but also changed the lyrics to shoe-horn in references to Jesus, but we'll get to that.

"Nobody needs to know...about our copy-write
infringing and unauthorized production..."

"I also dreamed the rights to Hadestown
and Cabaret, so remember to get your
season tickets before they sell out!"

How this went down, is that pastor Roman Gutierrez got permission to perform the play. Or at least he said he did. Or maybe he had a dream in which he secured the rights? Either way, the rights-holders later clarified that no, of course Gutierrez had done no such thing because they don't now, nor have they ever, licensed the rights to anyone. When word got out that the church had put on a production, the rights holders sent a cease and desist letter, but later grudgingly allowed them to finish provided they abide by some stipulations.

To be clear: they thought they'd rip-off an
incredibly popular and profitable musical about
a lawyer and not get sued for it?

Specifically don't stream it, don't post photos, and for the love of theatre god (Dionysus, I guess?), don't do this again. Ok, great. That's downright magnanimous. I've read that religious organizations can make use of some copyrighted material without permission if it's part of a larger service, although it's apparently dicey territory, legally speaking, and that exemption may or may not apply to plays, at least not in their entirety and certainly not if they streamed it. But maybe the church thought they were covered because they tacked on a sermon at the end? Who knows? Seems like if I could do a quick internet search and discover it was a bad idea, they could too, but here we are.

In any case, the rights holder's good deed--not suing the be-Jesus out of The Door McAllen Church--went swiftly punished.  The Saturday show went up as stipulated--that is, no video or streaming--but it was full of inserted references to Jesus and anti-gay lines which the production company was evidently unaware of when they agreed to let them finish the run.

"Excuse me, are you Aaron Burr sir? And have you heard the good news?"

-Hamilton, making Aaron Burr...uncomfortable

Pictured: that time the cast of Hamilton
called Mike Pence (who was in the audience)
out on the GOP's record of homophobia.

Which, couple of things. First of all, Hamilton as a production, is about inclusion and diversity and playwright Lin Manuel Miranda has been incredibly vocal about his support of LGBTQIA+ rights. So while nobody but Right-wing MAGA goons complaining about everyone's wokeness even uses the word woke anymore, Hamilton (despite glossing over slavery and straight up omitting references to the treatment of indigenous peoples) is, pretty famously, woke (or was, for 2015 anyway). Which makes it a somewhat odd choice to appropriate and shove in a bunch of anti-gay messages. 

"Willkommen, bienvenue, praise Jesus..."

-The Church, meeting

 the kids half way

But more importantly--and this is what I'll never get about American Evangelicals--why do they feel the need to be so, I don't know, sneaky? Like, if their message is such a good one, why do they need to hide it like a de-worming pill in the peanut butter of popular culture? The answer, I suspect, has something to do with plummeting church attendance and ok, that's fair. But do they really think that the youths aren't showing up because there aren't enough off-brand productions of Broadway shows? 

"Yeah, but if you close one eye and squint..."

-someone trying very, very hard to 

rationalize Christians with money

Because, if I may, I'd like to offer an alternative explanation: maybe the kids just aren't into hearing sermons about how gay and transpeople are going to hell? Particularly since the religious basis for these and a lot of the other things the Christian Right harps on all the time is dubious at best. Somehow a religion about being kind to one another and giving up all your money is presented as an excuse to be shitty to queer people and hoard wealth. Kids are smart, and they can smell a scam. Usually. I mean, explain Minions, but generally speaking, smart.

My sense is that Jesus, as a first century Judean and anti-capitalist would probably not care about intellectual property, so if that was this church's excuse, I'd almost give them a pass. But instead they took someone's--admittedly commercial--artistic work and tried to use it to sell homophobia to young musical theatre fans, and that just sucks. 

"Pastor Gutierrez, I'd like you to meet my client Jesus Christ.
He tells me you've been mis-representing him in your sermons..."

-Jesus's lawyer