A Hungarian politician has now joined Poland in its demand for Netflix to remove the Brazilian parody “The First Temptation of Christ” from its streaming service for depicting Jesus as a gay man.
“It is revolting that such a piece has made it into the offering and what’s more, Netflix is promoting the movie as comedy to its viewers,” Bence Rétvári, deputy president of Hungary’s junior coalition Christian Democrat Party wrote in a statement published on the party’s website.
“Christianity – just like any other religion – cannot be mocked because this offends other people’s religious freedom and human dignity. Like all other people, Christians also deserve to be respected and a platform such as Netflix cannot be an exception to that.”
Rétvári also pointed out that as of now, the Hungarian online petition to remove the parody has received almost half a million signatures.
The show, produced by Brazilian comedians from the group Porta dos Fundos (Back Door), is a parody depicting Jesus as a gay man.
Christians also took issue with the timing of the movie because it was released on Netflix at the beginning of the Christmas period, on Dec. 3.
In Brazil, two million people signed a petition asking for the movie to be removed from Netflix as it offends the religious sentiments of Christians. Brazil is home to the world’s largest Catholic community. Outrage in the country has led to the comedy’s group being petrol bombed.
In Poland, the reaction against the film has been especially fierce, with 1.4 million signing a petition demanding the film be removed.
Title image: “The First Temptation of Christ” (source: IMDB)
