Story By:  Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:Central European News

Brazil’s supreme court has sided with Netflix and decided to allow the platform to show a film which portrays Jesus as a gay man after it was initially banned.

The short film, named “The First Temptation of Christ’ was initially banned by Rio de Janeiro judge Benedicto Abicair after 2 million people signed a petition asking for it to be moved from the Brazilian Netflix.

The decision was appealed and Supreme Court judge Dias Toffoli has now overruled the decision, authorizing Netflix to show the Christmas special created by production company Porta dos Fundos.

In the ruling, the judge commented: “The relevance of the Christian faith (as well as other religious beliefs or the absence of faith) is not neglected. However, it is not believed that a humorous satire has the power to undermine the values of the Christian faith, whose existence goes back more than 2,000 years or that it has been insulted in the eyes of most Brazilian citizens.”

The decision comes after the headquarters of production company Porta dos Fondos in Rio de Janeiro was attacked by thugs hurling Molotov cocktails at the building.

Netflix had said in their appeal to the Supreme Court that the Rio court’s original decision had “the same effect as the bomb used in the terrorist attack on the Porta dos Fondos headquarters: silence through fear and intimidation”.

The company wrote on Twitter yesterday (Thursday) that they “strongly support artistic expression” and would “fight for this important principle”.

The First Temptation of Christ seemingly shows Jesus Christ introducing his boyfriend who he met “in the desert” to his family.

Rio-based Catholic organization Centro Dom Bosco de Fe e Cultura (Dom Bosco Centre of Faith and Culture) had presented the initial complaint against the program.

Netflix has yet to comment on the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.