Last Updated on January 10, 2020
A show depicting Jesus Christ as gay for a Netflix special in Brazil, airing around Christmas, has had its removal ordered by a judge overturned.
The Netflix special was banned by a judge for one day before its ban was overturned.
Judge, Benedicto Abicair, initially handed down his judgement in Rio de Janeiro before his decision was overturned.
The president of Brazil’s Supreme Court, Dias Toffoli, said “one cannot suppose that a humorous satire has the ability to weaken the values of the Christian faith, whose existence is traced back more than two thousand years, and which is the belief of the majority of Brazilian citizens,” and that freedom of speech was vital in a democracy.
Ironically, in spite of freedom of speech being cherished by the Supreme Court, there are no freedom of speech protections for the commission of so-called ‘hate speech.’
Life Site News reports that, according to Article 208 of the Brazilian Penal Code, to “publicly denigrate an act or object of religious worship’ is a crime punishable by up to one year in prison.”
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, called the film “garbage” and said the filmmakers “do not represent Brazilian society.”
On the show itself, National File reported:
The Netflix film, A Primeira Tentação de Cristo, or The First Temptation of Christ, depicts a 30-year-old Jesus Christ as gay and taking his boyfriend, Orlando, to meet his parents, Mary and Joseph.
As a result, over a million people took to signing a petition to ban the film for “seriously offending Christians.”
According to Caldron Pool, the film reportedly “follows the adventures of Jesus’ disciples after they wake up hungover the morning after the Last Supper… wondering where the Messiah is.”
Porta dos Fundos, which literally means “back door”, is a comedy group of five Brazilians working from Rio de Janeiro, Pink News reports.
The group, whose content has been compared with Monty Python, has already signed deals with Netflix and Brazil’s Fox Network.
Petitioners expressed their outrage at the production; one of the production’s complainants cancelled their Netflix subscription, saying: “I have nothing against being gay, but not when it mocks my God.”
Another described the film as “an attack not just on our faith but blasphemy against our Lord.”
One incensed petitioner wrote: “It is a serious offence against Jesus Christ and the Christians! It has no historical evidence to support the insinuations presented.”
