So far this week, more
than two million Christians worldwide have signed a petition demanding
streaming services provider, Netflix, to pull a comedy special that portrays
Jesus Christ as gay. The film, “The First Temptation of Christ,” was created by
a Brazilian comedy group called Porta dos Fundos and it is as goofy as it can
be. At the Nigerian end, the Pastor of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson
Suleman, also started a campaign urging Christians to “cancel” Netflix.
Whether they can
build up enough momentum for Netflix to yield to their demands remains to be
seen. Capitalist behemoths like Netflix are not moved by morality or liberal
arguments of mutual tolerance. They only respond to what threatens the balance
of their company’s balance sheets. The recent case of Hallmark films and their
flip flop over two lesbians kissing in an ad demonstrates this to a hilt. In
this case, Netflix might just point at the gazillion Christian shows on their
stables as proof of their all-round neutrality. And they will be sincere if
they say they are not for or against any side. Those that imagine we are
witnessing an ideological battle between conservative and liberal values, and
that Christianity is being offered up in this contest simply do not have the
full picture. There is only one god we are all called to serve these days, and
its name is capitalism. Or, dollars for short.
