New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees defended his involvement with a ‘Bring Your Bible to School Day’ video on Thursday after left-leaning media outlets bashed him for working with the Focus on the Family group.
Media outlets, who labeled Focus on the Family as anti-LGBTQ+, called for Brees to explain and apologize for his involvement with the organization.
Big Easy Magazine went as far as starting a hashtag on twitter, “SaintsDontHate,” in order to raise awareness of Bree’s involvement.
Brees, who was completely broadsided by this attack, took to Twitter on Thursday night to set the record straight.
“Hopefully this sets the record straight with who I am and what I stand for,” Bree’s wrote on Twitter. “Love, Respect, and Accept ALL. I encourage you not to believe the negativity you read that says differently. It’s simply not true. Have a great day.”
“What I did was I filmed a video recently that was encouraging kids to bring their Bibles to school for national Bring your Bible to School Day,” said Brees in his video.
“So I’m not sure why the negativity spread, or why people tried to rope me into certain negativity,” he added. “I do not support any groups that discriminate, or that have their own agendas that are trying to promote inequality. Okay? So hopefully that has set the record straight, and we can all move on because that is not what I stand for.”
The background
In late August, Brees appeared in a promotional video for the ‘Bring Your Bible to School Day’ event that is sponsored by the Christian organization, Focus on the Family.
“Hey guys,” Brees says in the video, “one of my favorite verses in the Bible is 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we live by faith, not by sight.”
“So I want to encourage you to live out your faith on ‘Bring your Bible to School Day’ and share God’s love with friends,” Brees adds. “You’re not alone.”
After the video went viral, media outlets bashed Brees for aligning with Focus on the Family, which they deemed an anti-LGBTQ+ group.
Out Magazine published an article titled, “NFL Quarterback Appears in Commercial for Anti-Gay Extremists,” and Big Easy Magazine wrote, “Drew Brees Records Video for Anti-LGBT Religious Organization.”
“Focus on the Family supports and promotes the practice of ‘conversion therapy,’ which uses a combination of shaming, emotionally manipulative and traumatic stimuli, and physically painful stimuli in order to ‘cure’ LGBTQ+ people of their sexual orientation,” Jenn Bentley of Big Easy Magazine wrote.
As Faithwire previously reported, “according to Focus on the Family, they support the belief in traditional, biblical marriage, which reserves marriage to be between a husband and wife.”
“Many people with same-sex attractions choose not to identify as homosexual, lesbian, gay or bisexual. Instead, their primary identification comes from their faith in Jesus Christ,” the Focus on the Family website details. “They identify as Christians, followers of Jesus and God’s children. And they choose to live according to biblical truths and values, reserving sexual expression for marriage between a man and a woman.”
“We understand that this may be a difficult struggle, requiring help and assistance from other Christians,” the website adds.
Friday morning, Focus on the Family shared a new promotional video for ‘Bring Your Bible to School Day,’ this time featuring The Newsboys.