Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

Above, in Season Two of Anne With An E – Netflix’s take on the 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables – Aunt Jo, now in her 70s, mourns the loss of a lesbian lover from earlier in her life. The original books, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, did not contain such a storyline.

October 2018 – Netflix missed its second-quarter subscriber forecast by one million, sending stock shares down about 13% in after-hours trading on July 16. It is unclear how subscriber cancellations played a part in the loss, following upsets among conservative viewers over a string of offensive programs.

Less than two weeks after the stock plunge, Netflix vice president of original series, Cindy Holland, stated publicly that the faith-based, family-friendly audience represents “a significant percentage of the population not only here in the U.S., but around the world,” and claimed to be “focused on really building out a robust slate of family-friendly programming.”

This announcement came after Netflix refused to cancel 13 Reasons Why, the original series that allegedly provoked the suicide of Anna Bright and others, and instead, made available an arguably more offensive second season. The streaming platform also released its second season of Anne with an E, a distortion of the classic novel series Anne of Green Gables, adding homosexuality into the storyline. And its release of an Argentinian movie portraying a nine-year-old girl simulating sex with a pillow as a seven-year-old girl watches sparked a petition by AFA urging the Department of Justice to investigate Netflix for child pornography.

forbes.com, 7/17/18, 7/30/18; afa.net, 7/6/18, 7/25/18; christianheadlines.com, 7/30/18