Brazilian Comedy Group Behind 'Gay Jesus' Film Targeted with Firebombing
A time-tested tactic of zealots who disagree with what others have to say or how they live is to hurl the threat of eternal damnation. Believers in a Lake of Fire that awaits the sinful are all too happy to assure those whose moral and theological views differ from their own that non-believers are destined to "burn in Hell."
But some believers are unwilling to wait for this magical outcome to unfold (or not) in the fullness of time and have been known to take matters into their own hands rather than rely on their faith to deliver cosmic justice. Such may have been the case when a Brazilian comedy troupe became the target of a terroristic firebombing in which perpetrators hurled Molotov cocktails at their office, presumably after taking offense at a comedy - now streaming on Netflix - about a gay Jesus bringing a flamboyant boyfriend home for the holidays.
As previously reported at EDGE, the comedy troupe Porta dos Fundos - whose name translates to "Back Door" - created the 46-minute Christmas comedy.
That troupe has come in for attacks from government officials in the past, but now it's come under attacks from religious Brazilians who have taken to a Change.org petition en masse to demand that the movie censored because they take offense at its plot. The petition has garnered more than a million signatures.
But violent extremists for whom online petitions and attempts at political persecution were evidently not sufficient had their own Yuletide comment to make, in the form of Molotov cocktails hurled at the group's office on Christmas Eve, reports
UK newspaper the Daily Mail reports that police are scrutinizing video posted online that shows three men hurling an incendiary device made with gasoline or some other accelerant at the door to the comedy troupe's offices.
The three men in the video wear masks and use an electronic means of distorting their voices as they announce that they have singled out the troupe for their act of violence. The group claims to call itself the Command of Popular National Insurgence.
A security guard quickly snuffed the blaze, the news source reported.
Porta dos Fundos issued a statement on the firebombing:
In the early morning of December 24, on Christmas Eve, the headquarters of Porta dos Fundos was the victim of an attack. Molotov cocktails were thrown at our building.
We will move on, more united, stronger, more inspired and confident that the country will survive this storm of hatred and love will prevail alongside freedom of speech.
The group said that security video had been provided to authorities.
Brazil has the world's largest Catholic population and also has a rapidly expanding evangelical population, media outsets noted. The nation is ruled over by Jair Bolsonaro, a politician who has openly pined for the days of military rule and repeatedly issued homophobic invective.
As Reuters noted:
President Jair Bolsonaro, who has described himself as a "proud" homophobe, once told an interviewer he would rather have a dead son than a gay son. Earlier this year he suspended funding for a series of films, including a handful with LGBT+ themes. The decision was later struck down by a federal court.
"The First Temptation of Christ" takes place on the evening of Jesus' birthday, with Mary, Joseph, and God all in attendance and planning to break the news to 30-year-old Jesus that he is actually the son of God. Jesus' boyfriend, Orlando - who sports jewelry and flowing blonde tresses, and who entertains the guests with musical renditions of traditional Christmas carols with new lyrics at an electronic keyboard - throws a wrench into the plans, as does God's lustful yearning for Mary, whom he desires to spirit away from Joseph.
Such raw and anachronistic humor is not unfamiliar to anyone who might have viewed the 1979 film "Life of Brian," which was created by and starred another cutting-edge comedy troupe, Britain's Monty Python. "Life of Brian," which was also set in times of antiquity, follows the misadventures of Brian, a contemporary of Jesus, who bumbles his way through a series of scrapes that include an impromptu lesson in Latin grammar while in the midst of painting the city center with anti-Roman graffiti, tumbling into an alien spacecraft during a pitched dogfight, and getting crucified next to Jesus.
That film has proved an enduring classic, despite having prompted condemnation from religious groups, being banned in Ireland and Norway, and being decried by a prominent rabbi as "foul, disgusting, [and] blasphemous" despite not actually having anything to do with Jesus or his ministry.
Watch the trailer for "The First Temptation of Christ" below.