The Church of Euthanasia (also known as CoE) is a religion founded by
Chris Korda and Robert Kimberk (Pastor Kim) in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
in 1992.
As stated on its website, it is "a non-profit educational foundation devoted to restoring balance between Humans and the remaining species on Earth."
[Church of Euthanasia FAQ.](_blank)
/ref> Its members affirm that this can only turn into a reality by a massive voluntary population reduction, which will depend on a leap in human consciousness to species-awareness. According to Korda, it is likely that this church is the world's only anti-human religion.
Its most popular slogan is "Save the Planet, Kill Yourself," and its founding ideology is set in one commandment, "Thou Shalt not Procreate," and four main pillars: suicide, abortion, cannibalism (of the already dead), and sodomy ("any sexual act not intended for procreation").eugenics
Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...
as a means of achieving it.
The church promotes its environmental views. They also utilize sermons, art performances, public demonstrations, culture jamming
Culture jamming (sometimes also guerrilla communication) is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It atte ...
, music, publicity stunts
In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilize ...
, and direct action to promote their idea of Earth's unsustainable population. They consider their methods similar to those of the Dadaist movement, finding the modern world so absurd that the means needed to spread their message to the public must be absurd themselves.
The Church of Euthanasia is also notorious for its conflicts with anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
Christian activists.
The group's slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political slogan, political, Advertising slogan, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the publi ...
s include "Save the Planet, Kill Yourself", "Six Billion Humans Can't Be Wrong", and "Eat a Queer Fetus for Jesus".
History
The church gained early attention in 1995 because of its affiliation with paranoia.com which hosted many sites that were controversial or skirted illegality. Members later appeared on an episode of ''The Jerry Springer Show
''Jerry Springer'' is an American scripted syndicated tabloid talk show that aired from September 30, 1991 to July 26, 2018. Produced and hosted by its namesake, Jerry Springer, it aired for 27 seasons and nearly 5,000 episodes. The television ...
'' titled "I Want to Join a Suicide Cult".
Following the 2001 September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
, the church posted on its website a four-minute music video titled ''I Like to Watch'', combining hardcore pornography
Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults, with footage of the World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
collapse, including an electronic soundtrack recorded by Korda with the lyrics, "People dive into the street/ While I play with my meat." It also showed a man masturbating and then cleaning himself with an American flag. Korda described the project as reflecting her "contempt for and frustration with the profound ugliness of the modern industrial world."
The church's instructions on "how to kill yourself" by asphyxia
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...
tion with helium
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
were removed from its website in 2003 after a 52-year-old woman used them to commit suicide in St. Louis County, Missouri, resulting in legal threats against the organization.[Frankel, Todd C. (2003) ]St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...
Now even committing suicide has gone online
Slogans
* ''"Save the Planet, Kill Yourself."''
* ''"Six Billion Humans Can't Be Wrong"''
* ''"Eat a Queer Fetus For Jesus"''
* ''"Thank You For Not Breeding"''
* ''"Human Extinction While We Still Can"''
* ''"Eat People Not Animals"''
* ''"Depressed? Commit Spermicide"''
* ''"I Like To Watch"''
* ''"Teach Masturbation"''
* ''"Mommy, What Were Trees Like?"''
* ''"God Is Coming, Stick Your Tongue Out!"''
See also
* Animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...
* Antinatalism
Antinatalism or anti-natalism is the view that procreation is wrong. Antinatalists argue that humans should abstain from procreation because it is morally wrong. In scholarly and literary writings, various ethical arguments have been put forth ...
* Climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
* Misanthropy
Misanthropy is the general hatred, dislike, distrust or contempt of the human species, human behavior or human nature. A misanthrope or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings. The word's origin is from the Greek words μῖσ ...
* Negative population growth
Negative Population Growth is an organization in the United States, founded in 1972.
NPG works on overpopulation issues and advocates a gradual reduction in U.S. and world population. NPG believes the optimal population for the United States is ...
* Neo-Dada
Neo-Dada was a movement with audio, visual and literary manifestations that had similarities in method or intent with earlier Dada artwork. It sought to close the gap between art and daily life, and was a combination of playfulness, iconoclasm, a ...
* Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) is an environmental movement that calls for all people to abstain from reproduction in order to cause the gradual voluntary extinction of humankind. VHEMT supports human extinction primarily becaus ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Church of Euthanasia
1992 establishments in the United States
Environmental organizations based in the United States
Culture jamming
Antinatalism
Euthanasia
New religious movements