An animated horror comedy featuring Danny DeVito as the voice of Satan is “clearly evil”, said a Republican congressman from Louisiana.
US representative Mike Johnson said his Facebook post denouncing Little Demon, which is aired by FX Networks, had reached millions of people by Tuesday morning.
Its website says the series is about a woman and her daughter, 13, who are trying to live normal lives even though Satan is the girl's father and wants custody of her soul.
A trailer for the show, which airs its fourth episode late on Thursday, played during Sunday night's TV broadcast of Louisiana State University's football opener against Florida State.
“I couldn't get to the remote fast enough to shield my 11-year-old from the preview, and I wonder how many other children were exposed to it — and how many millions more will tune in to the new series, owned and marketed by Disney,” the congressman and vice chairman of the House Republican Conference wrote on Monday.
FX Networks and Hulu, the platform where the show is streamed, are among entertainment assets that Disney bought from Fox in a stock deal worth about $52.4 billion in late 2017.
On the show, DeVito voices the role of Satan and his daughter, Lucy DeVito, plays Satan’s daughter, Chrissy the Antichrist. Aubrey Plaza plays the mother. New episodes are broadcast at 10pm Thursdays on FXX.
Disney and FX Networks did not immediately respond on Tuesday to emails requesting comment.
On Monday, Mr Johnson wrote online: “Our job as parents is to guard the hearts and minds of our kids. This culture has become alarmingly dark and desensitised and this is not a game. Disney and FX have decided to embrace and market what is clearly evil. Stay far from it.”
Although many people thanked Mr Johnson for the post and talked about boycotting Disney, many others disagreed with his assessment.
Some noted that Little Demon was made for and marketed to adults. Children should be in bed by 10pm, some wrote.
Others said people opposed to the show's existence are trying to make networks shelter their children when that is a job for parents.
Mr Johnson responded on Tuesday in a Facebook message and tweet that also were linked to from his House webpage.
“Free speech is an important principle and in this country, everyone can obviously make their own decisions about what media they and their families consume,” he wrote.
“But a corollary is that Christians have the freedom to fulfil our obligation to ‘speak the truth in love’ (Eph. 4:15), even — sometimes, most importantly — when it may not be popular.”
Mr Johnson was first elected in 2016 to the US House district that covers a large area of western Louisiana. He was re-elected in July to a fourth term when nobody qualified to run against him.
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