The “Gay Jesus” Christmas comedy that sparked outrage among Christians last month has been ordered off the streaming platform Netflix by a Brazilian judge.
“The judge, Benedicto Abicair, handed down his judgment in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday,” reports LifeSiteNews. “The decision followed a petition signed by over two million Brazilians stating that the comedic film, entitled ‘The First Temptation of Christ,’ broke the law and ‘seriously offended Christians.'”
Ricardo German, a Brazilian student in Edinburgh, told the outlet that he supported the ruling.
“I think it’s great,” German said. “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. Judge Abicair did nothing but order the provisional suspension of a work in clear violation of that legal prohibition.”
German added that the judge can bar Netflix’s Brazil extension from streaming the film while simultaneously forbidding Porta dos Fundos, the comedy group that spawned the movie, from advertising it in the country, “which would technically include the internet as a whole (at least in the Portuguese language, some jurists could say).” German was equally surprised that a Brazilian judge ruled this way, given the current liberal leanings of the courts, asserting that his decision will most likely be reversed by a higher court.
“The order will almost certainly be reversed by the higher courts (the High Court of Justice or the Supreme Court), unfortunately,” German said. “The superior courts don’t apply the law: they decide what outcome they would like the most and, based on that, confer whichever twisted hermeneutics they need to effectively render any legal disposition contrary to their ideology meaningless. They’ve done it with gay ‘marriage’ back in 2011, they’ve done it with abortion of fetuses with anencephaly, and they will probably do it again now.”
“Jesus, who’s hitting the big 3-0, brings a surprise guest to meet the family. A Christmas special so wrong, it must be from the comedians Porta dos Fundos,” Netflix says in a brief description.
The film, which Netflix added onto its platform in time for Christmas, touches on a variety of topics that Christians deemed blasphemous by making Jesus a homosexual and Mary a pot smoker. Here’s how The Washington Post described it:
And Jesus, the movie suggests, seems to have done more than wandering around the desert for 40 days. Arriving in Nazareth, he brings along a flamboyant companion, Orlando, who implies at nearly every turn that he and the son of God are romantically involved, at one point calling him a “naughty Capricorn.”
As Orlando, the walking stereotype of an effeminate gay man, begins to describe how the pair met – “I was bathing in an oasis, and I was naked” – Jesus abruptly cuts him off to prevent more from being revealed.
“And then I asked for directions,” Jesus says. “I asked, and he gave it to me.”
“You bet I did,” Orlando responds, nail file in hand. “I sure gave it to him.”
Christians responded with overwhelming outrage, with more than 500,000 signing a petition titled, “Ask Netflix to cancel film depicting Jesus as a homosexual!”
“Using humor and art as an excuse, this group has attacked Christianity in an unprecedented manner. They supposedly produced this film as a ‘Christmas’ film for their viewers!” the petition said. “It is an absolutely unacceptable provocation. No one has the right to attack the faith of millions of people around the world. These type of supposed ‘shows’ only cause one thing: numbing the population to attacks against Christians.”