Brazil's Supreme Court overturned a ruling against a Netflix comedy special that depicts Jesus as gay

Travis Clark

Jan 11, 2020, 00:51 IST

Netflix

"The First Temptation of Christ"

Brazil's Supreme Court overturned a ruling that ordered Netflix to remove "The First Temptation of Christ," a Brazilian Christmas comedy special that depicts Jesus as gay, from its catalog.
Jose Antonio Dias Toffoli, the court's president, said that the special wouldn't "undermine the values of the Christian faith."
The comedy group that made the special, Porta dos Fundos, celebrated the ruling, tweeting, "We believe in the Judiciary to keep defending the Brazilian Constitution."
The special has sparked backlash from conservative Christians and inspired multiple online petitions that have millions of signatures.
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Netflix's controversial comedy special, "The First Temptation of Christ" - which depicts Jesus as gay - can keep streaming on the platform in Brazil, according to Brazil's Supreme Court.

After a conservative Catholic group filed a legal complaint, the Brazilian judge Benedicto Abicair ordered Netflix this week to remove the 46-minute, Portuguese-language comedy special from its catalog. The special had sparked backlash from conservative Christians and inspired multiple online petitions for its removal that got millions of signatures combined.

But the country's Supreme Court overturned the ruling on Thursday.

"It is not to be assumed that a humorous satire has the magic power to undermine the values of the Christian faith, whose existence goes back more than two thousand years," Jose Antonio Dias Toffoli, the court's president, said Thursday.

The YouTube comedy group that made the special, Porta dos Fundos - which Netflix has a stake in along with Viacom - celebrated the ruling on Twitter.

"We believe in the Judiciary to keep defending the Brazilian Constitution, and we are sure that Democratic institutions will be preserved," the group tweeted.

The group's Rio de Janeiro headquarters was attacked with two petrol bombs on December 24 (three weeks after the special's premiere), causing a fire that was put out by a security guard. No one was hurt in the attack but Porta dos Fundos said in a statement that it "endangered several innocent lives in the company and on the street."

Fábio Porchat, the star of the special and the cofounder of the group, told Variety last month that the criticism of the comedy special was "homophobic."

"For some Catholics here in Brazil, it's okay if Jesus is a bad guy, uses drugs, that's no problem," Porchat said. "The problem is he's gay. No, he can't be gay. And that's interesting because Jesus is everything. God is black and white and gay and straight. God is everything."

A Change.org petition calling for the special's removal from Netflix has 2.36 million signatures. Another petition from the conservative Christian group CitizenGo has 1.48 million signatures.