Church of Euthanasia tykittää armotta, beware...
I Like to Watch
The pornography of terror [Boston Phoenix 12/20]
BY CHRIS WRIGHT
No one ever accused the Church of Euthanasia (CoE) of having good
taste. According to its founder (who for the purpose of this article
prefers to go by the name of Reverend), the CoE is "a nonprofit
organization devoted to restoring balance between humans and the
remaining non-human species through voluntary population reduction."
But the CoE is a sight more than that. The church's official slogan
is "Save the planet, kill yourself," and its main tenets, the so-
called Four Pillars are suicide, abortion, cannibalism, and sodomy.
As the Reverend says, "For better or worse, I founded the world's
only anti-human religion." (See "The Four Pillars of Euthanism,"
Styles, April 12, 1996.)
More an avant-garde direct-action group than a bona fide church, the
CoE has pulled some pretty dodgy stunts in its time - its "Fetus
Barbecue" on the Boston Common, for instance, or its "attack" on a
local sperm bank, in which CoE protesters noisily demanded that the
sperm be released. The church has long made a kind of art out of
tussling with the Right to Life crowd, conducting counter-
demonstrations outside area abortion clinics with members holding
banners sporting messages like EAT A QUEER FETUS FOR JESUS.
It's safe to say that the Reverend has not been one to shy away from
controversy, but speaking publicly about his latest project has him
somewhat rattled. "This is no joke," he says. "People are going to be
profoundly upset."
The project to which he refers is "I Like to Watch," a four-minute
music video that intersperses news footage of the World Trade Center
disaster with explicit pornographic images (mainly "money shots") and
clips from sporting events. "The film," says the Reverend, "is a
vicious satire. It expresses a real outrage that I have personally.
It reflects my contempt for and frustration with the profound
ugliness of the modern industrial world."
Ugliness is right. The background song - set to a funky electronica
beat - contains lines like, "People dive into the street/ While I
play with my meat" and "Now my hand's all sticky/ And I can't find a
rag/ I guess I'll have to use/ The American Flag." At this point, the
video depicts a man wiping himself with - yep - an American
flag. "People in the mainstream are going to think that this is not
just irresponsible but anti-American," the Reverend says. "They'll
see it and say that whoever did this should be put in prison."
All the same, he insists that there is an important message behind
such profane imagery. "What it shows," he says, "is the brutally
repressed sexual energy that lies beneath the surface of these images
we're watching on the news media. I think only people who have truly
been lobotomized could fail to grasp the sexual symbolism of these
monstrous phallic towers being penetrated by a plane. That's what
this video is all about: I'm pointing to the news coverage of the
September attacks and saying this is officially sanctioned mass
entertainment, different in content but not in form from sports
coverage and pornography."
The Reverend is quick to point out, however, that he was in no way
offended by the media coverage of September 11. In fact, he says, "I
found it very beautiful." He continues: "I don't believe that I'm the
only person in the world who derived sexual gratification from
watching two of America's tallest buildings destroyed, but I do
believe that I'm one of the few people with the courage to admit this
in public. As an artist, I have an obligation to capture my feelings
as accurately as possible. What I'm feeling may make me a monster,
but I don't believe I'm alone in being a monster."