The First Temptation of Christ: One million people sign petition against Netflix comedy depicting Jesus as gay

More than a million people have signed a petition calling for Netflix to remove a comedy that depicts Jesus as a gay man.

The First Temptation of Christ was made by a YouTube comedy group and was released by Netflix in Brazil on 3 December.

In the one-off show, it is implied that Jesus is in a sexual relationship with his male friend Orlando.

Netflix’s description of the show reads: "Jesus, who's hitting the big 3-0, brings a surprise guest to meet the family. A Christmas special so wrong, it must be from comedians Porta dos Fundos."

At the time of writing, 1,509,329 people have signed a petition against the programme.

According to AFP, Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of the Brazilian president, wrote on social media: "We support freedom of expression, but is it worth attacking the belief of 86 per cent of the population?"

Henrique Soares da Costa, a bishop from the state of Pernambuco, wrote on Facebook that he has cancelled his subscription to the streaming service, denouncing the film as “blasphemous, vulgar, and disrespectful”.