la cosa nostra

La Cosa Nostra

Welcome to Breaking Church. I’m EB Rowan, the founder of the Breaking Church Project (BCP).

I’m going to begin by summarizing the whole point of, as the mob says, la cosa nostra, or this little thing of ours. We’re here to break down Church. Yes, just like it sounds.

Next, I’d like to establish a definition: Church. “Church” is the name we’re giving all of organized Christianity, from catholicism to protestantism to every sect and cult that claims to be organizing in Christ’s name, and all points in between. Not The Church, not A Church, not this or my or that or your or any church, but Church. It’s a single-word personal pronoun (or name) like Bob or SuJin or Olga, that also points to and encompasses a larger entity or reality, like House MD or Ronaldo or Trump.

Growing up, I was cajoled and dragged to Church, as it was called, a term that served for everything that went on inside and outside the building, ostensibly in Christ’s name. As in, “Gotta get to Church on time, or “Church is about people,” or “That’s not how we do Church,” or “we gotta get those pagans going to Church.” Church became so much more than a place to worship and fellowship; in fact, your very salvation was dependent on your relationship to it or even if you went at all. For me and scores of others, the term holds a lot of baggage and pain, so that’s why we’re making the distinction.

Aside: please don’t assume that we’re not going to talk about The Church. We will. The Church has enabled, empowered, and protected a lot of evil people and has hurt many, many times more, and has a lot to answer for. We’re going to look it in eye and call it Satan.

Finally, I’d like to clarify the reason we’re here. As to our mission — i.e. to break down church, as I mentioned at the start — it’s also vitally important to pull no punches about this. Our hope and goal is no less than the total destruction and eradication of organized Christianity. We’re not looking for solutions to how Church can be better; it’s too far gone for that. No, we want to pour acid on its foundation, blow it up, vaporize it, dissolve it, and cheer as it happens. Or even better, in the words of that great old song, “we don’t need no water, let the motherfucker burn."

Church has to go. Our very survival as spiritual beings and the furthering of the best of the Christian vision (following Christ’s example of loving each other and serving our neighbour) depends on it. Because simply put, Church as we know it isn’t Christian at all, but a cultish, idolatrous hodgepodge of paganism, mythology, and blind superstition.

If I’m honest with you, I’m extremely pessimistic that our little thing will have any effect at all in a larger sense; i.e. that we’ll see meaningful change. Church is probably too big to fall. Still, here at BCP, we know that, while we can deny what we’ve learn and seen, it’s impossible to un-learn and un-see it, too. We feel like we’ve been blessed by what we’ve seen and learned, and feel that it would be wrong to remain silent any longer, so here we are. Who knows, maybe the universe will surprise us. How cool would that be?

A final note to those who might feel hurt by what we’re doing: too bad, and sorry not sorry. If you’re feeling hurt by criticism of Church, it’s far more to do with how indoctrinated you are and how thoroughly Church has corrupted our collective consciousness than anything we could possibly say. You or anyone feeling hurt must not determine whether or not anyone speaks about anything, full stop. We can try to reassure you that we’re acting in love, but we can’t tell you how to feel (unlike Church, I might say); all we can do is hope you give the ideas a chance and do a lot of learning on your own.

Careful, though: Pope said that a little learning is a dangerous thing, and how true that is. A lot of learning, though, now that’ll move mountains. And that's fantastic.

Welcome to the Breaking Church Project. We're glad you're here.

Keywords: la Cosa Nostra; Faith; Deconstruction; Religion; Christian; Christianity; Church; Sin; Corruption; Scandal