"Save the planet, commit suicide": this is the controversial Church of Euthanasia

by Diego Bermejo
06/25/2017 02:51

"Save the planet, kill yourself." This is the provocative and direct motto that expands the Church of Euthanasia. A religious organization founded in 1992 by Reverend Chris Korda in Boston, United States, and which defines itself as "a non-profit association whose efforts are aimed at restoring balance between human beings and the remaining species on Earth."

A balance that can only be achieved through a voluntary and massive reduction of the population, so there is no other way out than to bow to what constitutes the four pillars of this church: suicide, abortion, cannibalism and sodomy, the latter understood as any non-reproductive sexual act. This series of rules is summarized in a single commandment that presides over its website: "Thou shalt not procreate."

Along with this unique commandment, on the home page of the official portal of this organization we also find a very particular counter, whose digits advance at an approximate speed of four new units per second. What counts is not the visitors to the website, but the world population, which is currently heading towards 7.5 billion people.

This counter could well be accompanied by others that, without being on the site, also greatly alarm this congregation, such as those referring to the species of living beings or forests, and whose decline is just as unstoppable as the growth of the first. The culprit of all this disorder would be, for this structure, the human being and his desire for unlimited reproduction: "We are witnessing a mass extinction of species. Every hour one disappears. If we talk about humid tropical forests, the rate of disappearance multiplies by four," Korda says on his website.

A global 'crusade' against growth

Starting from that base, it is not surprising that the Church of Euthanasia has started a global crusade against all forms of growth, adding human, economic and technological, demographic, which is the one that worries them the most. All these types of uncontrolled expansion, according to this institution, are encouraged by the venerated scale of humanist values that prevails in the world, which is based on the belief that man is the measure of all things and that without him the world cannot exist. would have value or meaning.

On the aforementioned website, Korda recognizes that his is, to begin with, a lost war. However, he does not resist fighting: "We cannot prevent humans from killing the Earth, but we can make them feel guilty about it. And we can also not participate. By not having children, consuming as little as possible and, finally, committing suicide ". In this context, the members of the congregation choose to do pedagogy, creating what could be considered the first "anti-human" religion.

That is why, unlike any other structure, in this organization any discharge is celebrated, and in what way. The Reverend clarifies that, although it is not necessary to have to commit suicide to be able to access her congregation, it is desirable to register with it before undertaking suicidal thoughts. In this way, the member would automatically become a saint for their religion.

As expected, both this church and its founder have been the subject of various controversies over time. One of those that caused the most controversy occurred after the attacks of September 11, 2001. After the attack, the church did not hesitate to create a video clip in which pornographic images were combined with other images of the impacts of the planes on the twin towers. All of this enlivened with an electronic soundtrack composed by Korda herself. Video that is still available for any user to download.

Suicide instruction manual

Its rudimentary website, loaded with sermons, proclamations, links to sister portals or press clippings with the Church of Euthanasia as the protagonist, also had, until 2003, an instruction manual in which it was detailed, step by step, how to commit suicide by suffocation using helium. That information was discontinued after a 52-year-old man got hold of it and a legal storm was unleashed on the organization.

One of the questions the supreme leader is asked the most is why someone who is 'alive and well' calls for suicide so strongly. For now, she believes that her pedagogical work spreading the word of her religion, in view of how the world is advancing, still has a long way to go. Something that, however, does not prevent him from "thinking about it every day."

Qualified as a suicidal sect by some, as simple provocateurs by others, the truth is that this "ministry of propaganda" is presented to the world as a dadaist-ecologist movement whose purpose is none other than to stir consciences in search of a radical change in our way of understanding the world and getting along in it. Their final solution, as controversial as it is definitive, is what is making them monopolize the spotlight of media attention.

The highest authority of the Church of Euthanasia defines its work this way: "My goal is to communicate deeply subversive and antisocial ideas to as many people as possible. This can only be done using the methods of Mass Society. To a certain extent, you are part of that apparatus. In a way, my goal is to convince you that my cause is good. Convince you enough that you are willing to play my game and make these ideas available to a larger percentage of the public. If I persuade you, I will have succeeded. If, on the other hand, I convince you that I am a lunatic or an object of entertainment, I will have failed in my cause."

The preceding is a translation. The original language is here.