‘The Color Purple’ Actress Loses Job Over Her Christian Stance on Sex

Actress Seyi Omooba landed a great role in the upcoming British production of The Color Purple. That is, until Hamilton star Aaron Lee Lambert dug through her old tweets and found one from 2014 which alluded to a Bible verse about homosexuality.

She wrote:

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, of course, reads: 

 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

In her post, she said that Christians should be loving, but without compromising on such passages.  However, the Hamilton star was not impressed by this traditional Christian message.

“Do you still stand by this post?” he asked.  “Or are you happy to remain a hypocrite? Seeing as you’ve now been announced to be playing an LGBTQ character, I think you owe your LGBTQ peers an explanation. Immediately.”

Omooba didn’t back down, lost her agent, and then lost her part in the production.  

“The comments made by Seyi in that post have caused significant and widely expressed concerns both on social media and in the wider press. Following careful reflection, it has been decided that Seyi will no longer be involved with the production,” declared spokespeople for the venues where the show will be performed. “This decision was supported by the Authors and Theatrical Rights Worldwide. The audition process, as ever, was conducted professionally and rigorously, led by an exceptional casting director with actors who are evaluated on what they present in the audition room. We do not operate a social media screening process in the casting of actors.”

I admire Omooba for standing by her principles, but am saddened that it came at such a cost.  Perhaps RedState’s Alex Parker put it best:

“There’s room in the world for all kinds of beliefs. All kinds of convictions. And within those, there’s room for friends. Red and Blue can co-exist. In fact, they already do — in the Color Purple.”

Or, I guess it would’ve been more accurate to say, “they should’ve been able to co-exist… in the Color Purple.”

Hat Tip: Queerty