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Popular television series The Chosen has garnered immense backlash for seemingly promoting the LGBTQ community in a viral Behind the Scenes video. The criticism comes in light of June’s ongoing Pride Month. Conservative Christians were enraged when they saw a Pride flag on set. Meanwhile, the show has defended their actions.
The hand-sized Pride flag was seen in a promotional video The Chosen released on Sunday, May 28. Twitter user @accabbat also claimed that one of the cinematographers of the show were spotted wearing a Pride t-shirt while shooting.
For those unversed The Chosen is a popular multi-series show that portrays the life, death and resurrection of Nazareth’s Jesus. The first two seasons of the show were produced with a $45 million budget that the production house gathered through crowdfunding. The third season premiered at the end of last year and concluded in February.
The historical drama is created by Dallas Jenkins with Jonathan Roumie plays Jesus.
The boycott against the hit show comes amid the ongoing cancellation of several companies who have shown support to the LGBTQ community. Beer giant Budweiser was the first among many who were seemingly cancelled for collaborating with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Since then, several brands including Target, Kohl’s, Adidas, Calvin Klein and Build A Bear amongst others have been subjected to criticism.
Twitter user @TerriGreenUSA took to Twitter to respond to the The Chosen controversy. She announced that followers of the show must boycott them. She went on to add:
“The series is unbiblical. Don’t watch it. Besides, there’s never a new version of Jesus that is promoted in films.”
The netizen went on to share screenshots of tweets where people defended the cast and crew of the show.
Netizens respond to the viral The Chosen controversy
Conservative followers of the television series were enraged and vowed to not watch the show anymore. Many went on to claim that God does not support the LGBTQ community. A few reactions to the controversy read:
The Chosen responds to ongoing drama
The Chosen took to their official Twitter account and announced that they have a diverse cast and crew. They also claimed that they are willing to work with whoever wishes to portray the authentic version of Jesus. Their tweet read:
“Just like with our hundreds of cast and crew who have different beliefs (or no belief at all)than we do, we will work with anyone on our show who helps us portray or… honor the authentic Jesus. We as that audiences let the show speak for itself and focus on the message, not the messenger, because we’ll always let you down.”
Actor Giavani Cairo who portrays disciple Thaddeus in the show also responded to the ongoing controversy by tweeting that those who attack the cast and crew who support the LGBTQ community are “no fan of ours.” He went on to add a pride flag and heart emojis to his tweet.
Filmmaker Jenkins has also been open from the beginning about hiring people of all faiths for the creation of the show.
