New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees on Thursday pushed back against some of the backlash he has received over an appearance in a video released by Focus on the Family, a Christian organization that has been known for anti-LGBTQ rights views. 

Brees addressed the criticism surrounding the video, which he noted he shot for “Bring Your Bible to School Day,” in a video on Twitter. 

{mosads}“Hello, everyone. There’s been a lot of negativity spread about me in the LGBTQ community recently based upon an article that someone wrote with a very negative headline that I think led people to believe somehow I was aligned with an organization that was anti-LGBTQ and so on and so forth,” he said in the video. 

“I’d like to set the record straight. I live by two very simple Christian fundamentals, and that is love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. I think the first one is very self-explanatory,” he said. “The second one, love your neighbor as yourself, what does that mean to me? That means love all, respect all and accept all. So that is actually how I live my life. That is what I try to do with my family, with my teammates, with people in my community, with my friends. All people.”

“So, the fact that these rumors have been spread about me are completely untrue. 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,” he said.

“So, I’m not sure why the negativity spread or why people tried to rope me into certain negativity. I do not support any groups that discriminate or that have their own agendas that are trying to promote inequality,” he continued.

Hopefully this sets the record straight with who I am and what I stand for. 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. pic.twitter.com/4RdTahE7EZ

— Drew Brees (@drewbrees) September 5, 2019

According to USA Today, Brees had been upset by the story published by the Big Easy Magazine about the video, which was headlined, “Drew Brees records video for Anti-LGBTQ religious organization.”

The 22-second video that Brees shot encouraging kids to bring their Bibles to school was released at the end of last month by an account that links to bringyourbible.org, which is a website reportedly published by Focus on the Family. 

Focus on the Family reportedly has a history of promoting “conversion therapy” and was regarded by the Human Rights Campaign as “one of the most well funded anti-LGBTQ organizations in America.” 

In follow-up remarks, Brees said that he was “not aware any of the things they said about them lobbying for anti-gay [causes] … any type of messaging or inequality or any type of hate type related stuff I was not aware of that at all,” according to USA Today.

“And again the video itself was just focused on National Bring Your Bible to School Day. It was not promoting any group. Certainly not promoting any group that is associated with that type of behavior,” he continued. 

“Because I know that there are, unfortunately, Christian organizations out there that are involved in that kind of thing and to me that is totally against what being a Christian is all about. Being a Christian is love, it’s forgiveness, it’s respecting all, it’s accepting all,” he added.

Updated: Sept. 7 at 11:20 a.m.