A “blasphemous” Netflix film has caused uproar, sparking huge petitions against it.
Mary and God are portrayed as lovers
In ‘The First Temptation of Jesus Christ’, Jesus returns from the desert and brings home his boyfriend to meet his family. In addition, Mary and God are portrayed as lovers. Christians were outraged by the Brazil-made satire, released in Portuguese on 3 December.
The same comedy group has produced other sketches with religious themes, including ‘The Last Hangover’ which depicts the apostles waking to find Jesus missing following the previous night’s “wild Last Supper”.
A petition by Change.org attracted 2.3 million signatures, and another from the conservative group CitizenGo had 1.4 million.
Catholic pressure group Don Bosco Centre for Faith and Culture filed a suit against the film in January. A Rio de Ja- neiro judge issued a temporary injunction banning the film un- til a final ruling could be made by Brazil’s Supreme Court a few days later, but the Supreme Court lifted the ban. According the Press Association, though, Netflix had never removed the film from their streaming plat- form anyway.