Blasphemy is defined as saying or doing something that shows disrespect to God, to a religion, to a religious "holy" book, or to a "prophet" or leader of a religion. In many Muslim countries it also includes saying or doing something that offends a believer in Islam.
Prior to the European Enlightenment and the success of the American Revolution, Christian sects put on trial and executed thousands of people for blasphemy over the centuries. Currently, in Islamic nations that have not been positively influenced by the ideals of the Enlightenment and the American Revolution, people are still being imprisoned and executed for blasphemy.
Today Christians in the US and in other Western nations, whose thinking is much more grounded in the ancient teachings in the Christian Bible than in the principles and ideals of the Enlightenment and the American Revolution, oppose any criticism of their "holy" Christian religion, their Christian Bible and their imagined savior Jesus. Because of the important advances made by the Enlightenment and American Revolution that separated religion from government, they are no longer able to put people on trial or execute them for blasphemy. Now, they must be content with petitioning and pressuring companies and organizations to prevent them from airing or distributing content that they believe is blasphemous against their Christian/superstitious beliefs.
Most recently the Christians were able to get over 240,000 of the faithful to sign a petition to pressure Netflix from streaming the comedy The First Temptation of Christ. The petition states in part, "This mockery of Jesus should not be deemed as satire but an intentional attempt to attack the fundamental beliefs that uphold the Christian faith. It is anti-Christ in every sense of the word." (Speaking of anti-Christ, the World Union of Deists has a new addition to our free Deism eBooklets, Anti-God or Anti-Christ?, which you can download for free here.)
The First Temptation of Christ was written and produced by the Brazilian comedy group Porta dos Fundos. They are like a Brazilian version of the British comedy group Monty Python. (Monty Python caught hell for their thought-provoking and hilarious movie about a man in Judea at the time of Jesus who is often mistaken for Jesus, Life of Brian. The script was so controversial they couldn't get funding for it until former Beatle George Harrison stepped forward and funded the outstanding film.)
The First Temptation of Christ is described in the official Netflix description in the film's title page as: "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." It turns out Jesus' guest is his gay boyfriend! Jesus must need conversion therapy!
The comedians of Porta dos Fundos have been physically attacked by angry Christians. Their office was fire-bombed for making the film. Based on the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the penalty for blasphemy is death, so the Christians who want to murder the comedians of Porta dos Fundos are in line with the teachings of the ungodly and cruel Bible.
The American Founder and Deist Thomas Paine did a great job of pointing out that the Bible itself is actually blasphemy against the Creator. In The Age of Reason, The Complete Edition he wrote, "... it (the Bible) is a book of lies, wickedness, and blasphemy; for what can be greater blasphemy than to ascribe the wickedness of man to the orders of the Almighty?"
