Worldly Counterfeits: The Emergence of Christless Churches

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Let me begin this article with a simple question: what is the church? Yes, I know – all remnant believers will know exactly what the church is or, more to the point, who the church is. However, it seems that the word “church” is being loosely (and inappropriately) used today by many organisations which are not churches at all.

Many people today consider the church to be a building. After all, when people ask what church somebody attends, they are usually looking for a geographical landmark, not a spiritual one. However, as we know, the church is not a building but a body of believers who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through a saving faith in Him. So, if our use of the word “church” is predicated on the fact that those who belong to the church have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, let’s examine two instances where the use of the word “church” is entirely inappropriate.

Firstly, I would like to take you to Spain where there is an organisation called La Iglesia Patolica. The word “Patolica” is a play on words, combining “Catholic” with the Spanish word “pato” meaning “duck”. So, if we were to refer to this organisation in English, it would be The Patholic Church or, as it is more popularly known, The Duck Church. As the name suggests, the organisation does not revere Jesus Christ but instead directs its worship to rubber ducks. So, what should one expect from a service at La Iglesia Patolica? Well, the service is led by comedian (and sixth-generation clown) Leo Bassi who organises a mass every weekend.

During the one-hour event, Bassi mixes humour with current affairs while “quacking” several times to entertain his audience. It has been described as “the most eccentric and unholy of masses”. One travel website wrote: “Bassi blesses his millennial audience with a toilet brush and splashes them with unholy water. Disco beats, tasseled shoulder pads and magical absurdity fill the tiny church with laughter and applause.” May I also add that some pictures reveal that affixed to Bassi’s “pulpit” are two LGBT pride flags. If all of this is not enough to cause you to shake your head in disgust, prepare yourself for what I am about to share. A person who attended a service wrote: “To bring the duck mass to a close, Leo Bassi performs the best magic trick of all: turning water into wine. Proclaiming this ‘the only useful thing Jesus ever did,’ he proceeds to down it in one.”

Although Bassi has appointed himself to be the priest of his own “church”, he clearly does not believe in God. In a recent interview he gave, he said this: “I was thinking if I had a god, how could it be? Then I started to think, the god can’t be all-powerful, clowns don’t like all-powerful things, it had to be a small thing, a thing without transcendence, a childish thing, a thing for children. And then came the idea of a rubber duckling. I wanted to honour the rubber duckies, so I thought about doing it in some small chapel and start doing masses. At the beginning I didn’t know in which direction it was going to go and maybe this thing lasted a month, but 12 years later it is growing, growing and growing with such a deep message about valuing the little things.” […]

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