Perhaps all of you are well aware of the Woot “Bag O’ Crap.” I only came across it for the first time last week. In case you haven’t heard of it, here’s the main idea. Basically, an online store called Woot occasionally digs around their warehouse and gets rid of random items of mostly insignificant value. They put the items in the “Bag O’ Crap” and sell them for one dollar plus shipping. Sounds pretty ridiculous, right? Well, it certainly is ridiculous. But that doesn’t keep it from also being ridiculously popular. Apparently these “Bags O’ Crap” cause quite a frenzy and sell out in seconds. Yes, there are people who end up receiving “treasures” worth a hundred dollars or more, but most of the time the items are pretty much worthless. Woot even goes out of their way to make it clear that the great majority of people will receive exactly what they pay for – a “Bag O’ Crap.”

So why in the world am I blogging about this? Because I can’t imagine a better example of the troubling impact of consumerism on our culture. Not only do we spend unholy amounts of money to celebrate Christmas. Not only do we accumulate alarming amounts of debt. No, we also choose to spend money on a “Bag O’ Crap” at the mere chance that we may end up receiving something worth more money than we paid – even though that something is probably not something we need, or even necessarily want.

All of this makes me very convinced that we need people like Reverend Billy to raise the alarm and attempt to save us from the Shopacolypse.

In case you missed my previous posts about Reverend Billy (1 and 2), Wikipedia describes him this way:

“Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping is an activist performance group based in New York City, led by Bill Talen. Using the form of a revival meeting, on sidewalks and in chain stores, Reverend Billy and his gospel choir exhort consumers to abandon the products of large corporations and mass media; the group also preaches a broader message of economic justice, environmental protection, and anti-militarism...”

The reason I am bringing up Reverend Billy again is that I finally got a chance to watch What Would Jesus Buy? – a documentary that follows the good reverend and his rip-roarin’ Church of Stop Shopping on a Christmastime cross country tour to save America from the impending Shopacolypse. As many of you know, I was really excited to see this documentary, but when I got the movie from Netflix I was a little skeptical because Netflix viewers have given the movie a pathetic cumulative rating of 2.5 stars out of 5. But I now know we cannot give any weight to the cumulative Neflix community, because What Would Jesus Buy? is fantastic. Bump it to the top of your queue right now. Go. Now. It’s awesome. Reverend Billy is my hero.

I have to agree with Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann who compares Reverend Billy to the "guerilla theater" of Jesus and the prophets. Reverend Billy might not be a Christian, but he is certainly a prophet. He may use humor, but he is very serious about his message (he has even been arrested multiple times).

Reverend Billy is doing good work. We should all heed his call to STOP SHOPPING!

Check out some of the Revs prophetic antics on YouTube

The picnic began on the lawn at Union Square near the Abraham Lincoln statue on the northern end. There was preaching by Reverend Billy, singing by Community Improvement District/"Church of Stop Shopping" choir, petition signing (to stop the building of a restaurant in the historic Pavilion and further privatization of the Park) and watermelon!

Then, a large contingent, including a marching band, carrying trees marched through the Park and along 16th Street until they came to Danny Meyer's Union Square Cafe. Reverend Billy, Savitri D. and others sauntered in bringing with them the trees to the surprise of stunned diners and restaurant staff. Their message: "Union Square, Not For Sale." The Park is pushing back.

Not surprisingly (although they were in there for a pret-ty long time), they were then asked to leave by management and also undercover policemen who came in to the restaurant from the street. After having delivered the message, Reverend Billy laid sod and trees down on the sidewalk outside the front restaurant window and put Danny Meyer on notice:

The BID has had enough influence on the Park; the community is pushing back and reclaiming our public spaces. A large sign appeared in front of the Cafe: "Union Square Community Pushes Back." There was chanting. "Union Square. Not for Sale." The lively group then marched and chanted its way along 16th Street back to the Park.

Really not enough of this type action goes on in our city right now. Diners seated outside at the Blue Water Grill and the Coffee Shop, both on the corners of Union Square West, watched in awe, took pictures, some chanted along.

But this is important to me, and I want to spread the message where I can. I have been contemplating sending a letter to my family with instructions NOT to spend money on our family. Or if they want to spend it, buy locally, made in the USA, fair trade, thrift stores, or donate it to charity. People buy us gifts for the sake of buying gifts and in general I'm really disappointed in what we have received. I thought about this after I watched the walmart movie (Wal-mart: The High Cost Of Low Prices). But I never wrote the letter. I was intimidated. "But my family just loves to get stuff for the kids. It makes them feel good." What a warped thought, huh? But No More! I can't stand the idea of money being wasted on us again. This is perfect timing too because the kids birthdays are coming. So if I can get it out in the next week then we wont have to worry about getting all that new stuff that people just have to give them. I'll be sure to post my letter.

The Shopocalypse is upon us! I'm not going to wait around while it tries to sweep me and my family away. I'm going to start spreading the word and letting people know I'm not interested in their stuff anymore!

Changelujah!!

But you have to wonder, where do people put all their stuff? I know a guy who collects Legos; he dreams of one day building a Lego master piece and is painstakingly collecting all sorts of special Lego pieces for this grand oeuvre. Where does he keep the thousands and thousands of legos he has amassed? In a store locker on the East Coast. . . seriously.

My friend is not alone. Alternet's Martin John Brown writes:

According to the Self Storage Association, an industry advocacy group, square footage of rentable storage has increased 740 percent in the past two decades; a billion square feet of storage space was created between 1998 and 2005; and there are now 6.8 square feet of storage for every man, woman and child in America. Chris Sonne, a storage expert at Cushman & Wakefield Inc., estimates there are 45,000 storage facilities today compared to zero 50 years ago.

I'm flabbergasted that people buy more stuff than they have space for. If you aren't going to use it regularly, is there really a purpose in buying it at all? When shopping for clothes I aways consider the price:use ratio. If it's an item I'm likely to wear weekly, I can justify spending more for it. But to have boxes of household goods and clothing in storage for perpetuity? Why do you have that stuff in the first place?

Average tenancies nationwide are somewhere between one and two years, say Scanlon and Sonne, and some renters simply never leave.

"I have one renter who's been here since we opened -- in 1990," says Dawn Spencer, a manager at Clackamas River Mini Storage outside of Portland. "He pays automatically, by credit card, never comes in. Lives in another state now."

"It's an industry that builds on inertia," says Paul Adornato, an analyst for BMO Capital Markets. "People would much rather have $150 withdrawn automatically out of their checking account every month than have to wake up on a Saturday morning, rent a truck, move out the stuff, do something with the stuff … see what I mean?"

Our nation's obsession with "stuff" is rarely discussed, despite its impact, which is why I so thoroughly enjoyed the documentary What Would Jesus Buy? The film documents Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping on their holiday crusade to get people to give more and buy less. (The group has officially been banned from Starbucks locations globally after taking their act to a Starbucks venue.) The films looks at the community impact of excessive shopping at discount retailers, as well as the financial and social effects of reckless consumerism. Their tale is easier to swallow cloaked in humor, but it does address the serious realities of our shopping culture.

Though we have 198 days until Christmas rolls around again, I highly recommend the film, perhaps partnered with a money party for your closest friends.

Save Union Square 2008 gathering yesterday, Thursday, June 5th, at Union Square Park was quite the success!

Yes, there was a marching band! And a roving "Heroes of Union Square" walking tour featuring actors portraying George Washington, Paul Robeson, Emma Goldman, and Dorothy Day moving into different locations in the large space amidst the enthusiastic crowd gathered at the NorthWest corner of Union Square.

The Community Improvement District (the alternate version to how our communities can be imagined vs. the BID's - business improvement district - "model") table had a petition which gathered hundreds of signatures in a short time period. With marker, people wrote messages on price tags which were affixed to the construction site fence, such as "Not for Sale."

The message:

Keep public parks public. No Private Restaurant in the Historic Union Square Park Pavilion !

Reverend Billy led the crowd with a spirited reading of the First Amendment several times to remind us - and our elected officials (like Mayor Bloomberg) - of our freedoms and rights.

City Council Member Rosie Mendez dropped by and spoke, defending her position of support for the restaurant, to a puzzled audience.

Towards the end, the crowd linked arms lining the north side and part of the west side of the fence surrounding Union Square, recited the First Amendment, and then festively marched over to the swank W Hotel, where the local Business Improvement District, Union Square Partnership (co-chaired by restauranteur Danny Meyer) was holding its annual self-congratulatory dinner. The Union Square Partnership has tremendous influence over Union Square Park and is the instigating force behind the proposal to place a private restaurant in the historic Pavilion.

It was quite an amazing scene to see people gathered around this upscale hotel with large-as-life, beautifully designed cardboard figures of George Washington and Emma Goldman, amidst the real-life actors portraying these noted figures, as well as the marching band, and raucous, impassioned crowd.

The spirit of the event was undeniable. The people inside the W in their evening attire sipping cabernet franc could not possibly have been experiencing anywhere near the vitality in the room that this diverse and dedicated gathering of people exhibited coming together to protect our public space.

PHOTOS: #1, 4 and 6: Rebecca Major
#2, 3 and 5: John Quilty
#7: Deanna

A scene from last night, Wednesday, June 4th, atop the fenced-in Pavilion on the North side of Union Square amidst the construction.

The Union Square Pavilion is at the moment the site of a battle between those pushing a privatization agenda (specifically, the local BID: Union Square Partnership, led by restauranteur Danny Meyer, and Mayor Bloomberg who would like to insert a private restaurant there) and those who call for free speech, and demand that our history and our common public spaces be honored and preserved.

******************************************************************

We must inform the Tisch Family, the Danny Meyer's, the NYU's... that our Parks are Not for Sale. While also passing the word along to NYC Parks Commissioner Benepe, the New York City Council, and Mayor Bloomberg - the ones who are selling them off.

These are our treasured public spaces - our commons - and they need to remain that way.

Come to Union Square NorthWest corner (17th Street & Union Square West) TODAY, Thursday, June 5th, at 5 p.m. and join in on the fun as the Union Square Partnership celebrates itself (their annual self-congratulatory dinner is being held this evening at the W Hotel), we will celebrate and revel in our public space at Union Square Park.

* Expect marching bands, a “Heroes of Union Square Walking Tour,” community visioning sessions, and soapbox preaching.

* Expect surprises and spectacles and a glimpse of what the city CAN be.

* Come out and meet your neighbors in the square and defend the public’s right to public space.

********************************************************************

Some history of the Pavilion: George Washington and the Continental Army gathered at this spot in 1776. The Union Square Pavilion site was built as a stage for public assembly and democratic gathering. The first Labor Day Parade was held there in 1882. This is where our American conscience erupted in the songs of Paul Robeson, the shouts of Emma Goldman and the prayers of Dorothy Day. The 8-hour workday was born at Union Square and crowds surged before that reviewing stand in the tens of thousands. After September 11th, we gathered there instinctively in our grief and calls for peace.

What you can do NOW: Sign the petition.

It’s always been something of an irony that the pushy religious folks who crow about “the war on Christmas” aim their venom at municipalities who won’t pay for nativity scenes when, in fact, the single biggest threat to Jesus’ birthday is the mania that sets in on Black Friday and doesn’t relent until midnight on Christmas Eve. New York “preacher” Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping seems to have figured this out. This Morgan Spurlock-produced documentary (directed by Rob VanAlkemade) follows the Reverend around on his Christmas crusade to discourage people from losing their minds (and their souls) in pursuit of holiday overconsumption. Billy and his church are clearly more driven by the performance art and nonviolent resistance part of their proselytizing than they are by any religious imperative, but that makes it far more interesting that this is the freak that’s gotta remind people about “the reason for the season” in a way that they’ll actually pay attention to. VanAlekemade is smitten by the Reverend, and essentially lets this film act as a video extension of the Stop Shopping manifesto, but he also manages to draw a clear, bright line between the consumption at Christmas, the consumerism impulse that’s embedded in children by carton advertising and the debt-heavy attitude that’s screwed up the American economy. It’s a heavy message wrapped in a eye-catching package, and by the end, there’s a good chance you’ll be a new convert to the church.

First appeared June 5, 2008 in Detroit Metrotimes.

Buy this DVD at Amazon.com.

While the remarks are Trotta's, it should be noted that Anchor Eric Shawn glossed over her comments - Trotta, Shawn and Fox "News" should all take responsibility for airing such hateful comments. Reappearing on Fox, Trott later apologized, saying that she felt very sorry at what she called a "lame attempt at humor". She added that "... it's a very colorful political season, and many of us are making mistakes and saying things that we wish we hadn't said."

Colorful? I don't know about that... It seems pretty white to me.

Dinsdag jongstleden slaagde Ter Zake er opnieuw in bij wijze van infotainment een Amerikaanse zotskap op te voeren; Reverend Billy. In enkele minuten werd ons een schijnbaar halfgare Amerikaan voorgeschoteld die als look-a-like van de Amerikaanse TV-dominee's ten strijde trekt tegen het nieuwe Gouden Kalf; het shoppen. Met zijn Stop Shopping Church bestrijd dominee Billy in de VSA de Devil, zijnde de Disney Corporation, Walmart en Starbuck's. Deze drie-eenheid is in de ogen van het wandelend religieus cliché het werktuig van de Shopping-duivel die de mensheid verknecht. Tot zover de indruk die men over kan houden bij het zien van een zwaar geëmotioneerd Reverend die in de Gentse Fnac-vestiging er bijna onderdoorgaat bij het zien van de overvloed aan consumptiegoederen.

In realiteit is Reverend Billy veel meer dan de schertsfiguur voor wie men hem kon zien na Ter Zake van afgelopen dinsdag. Reverend Billy is een artistiek concept dat zo ver doorgeschoten is dat het een geëngageerd gezelschap geworden is dat terecht de strijd aanbindt met het dogmatische consumentarisme. Een nobele taak, zoveel is zeker, zeker in deze duistere tijden van hyperkapitalisme. Grootkapitalisten en consumptieduivels, U bent gewaarschuwd!

Intussen preekt Reverend Billy, a.k.a. als William, 'Bill' Talen, al meer dan 10 jaar in de straten van New York en andere Amerikaanse steden. Samen met zijn gospelkoor bestrijd de dominee het consumentarisme en ondersteunt hij locale milieu-activisten die strijden tegen het ongebreidelde consumentarisme en neo-liberaal kapitalisme dat door de Amerikaanse multinationals over de wereld verspreid wordt. Billy is duidelijk; de dominantie van het bedrijfslogo, de vervlakking van de maatschappij, het vermarkten van de menselijke creativiteit en de ecologische vernietiging door de huidige consumptiemaatschappij moet stoppen! Een boodschap die ook andere activisten uitdragen maar door Billy op een hoogst originele wijze bij de man in de straat gebracht wordt...

In Movies - I can't wait to see "What Would Jesus Buy?" It's my most anticipated movie of 2008. Of course I'll probably have to wait to see it on DVD since the chance of it coming to Waco is pretty slim - ok, actually there's no chance at all.

Here's a great video of Rev. Billy (Bill Talen) from Sojourners. Talen discusses consumerism and promotes his movie. Very interesting. Is Talen a modern day prophet? I'm becoming more convinced. (HT: God's Politics)

What Would Jesus Buy ? un film de Morgan Spurlock avec le Reverend Billy.

I was more than relieved to hear him say, at the end of the interview, that my questions were most sensitive and respectful - phew! Wouldn't want to piss someone like him off! I haven't yet seen the movie (I don't think it's hit Vancouver yet) but judging by the trailer, it's going to be a good show.

His ways might be a bit crazy, but his message isn't - why do we have to become money-crazed consumers just to celebrate Christmas?

Heed the warning, yo - the Shopcopalypse is coming.

Robyn Stubbs
Orato.com

Here's the trailer:

The film follows a character named Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they embark on a national tour to save Christmas from the 'Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.'

The Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping may be very funny, (and I hope you get the joke) but his points are serious. The rampant consumerism that characterises western lifestyle is destroying the planet, oppressing the world's poor, indebting the middle classes and is proven to make us stressed, overworked and unhappy. Ranting in a supermarket and casting demons from the cash registers, Billy, or Bill Talen as he is known to his mother, is in fact the sane one.

A wonderfully observed charicature he may be, but in an article on Sojourners theologian Walter Brueggeman goes so far as to say "I have no doubt that Rev Billy is a faithful prophetic figure who stands in direct continuity with ancient prophets in Israel and in continuity with the great prophetic figures of U.S. history who have incessantly called our society back to its core human passions of justice and compassion."

Do get along and see the movie if it's showing near you.

See also:

Buy Nothing Christmas

Buy Nothing Day

Reverend Billy's site

Today's mashup topic is Christmas.  Timely, huh?  See what you can do with these --

• Tall Skinny Kiwi has a delightful post on his Christmas goose.  I'm pulling for the goose myself. 
• Out of Ur has more on the Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping.  Reverend Billy poses the ancient question WWJB? (What would Jesus buy?)
• PSFK posts about the Non-Profit Shopping Mall.  Good idea, especially at this time of year. 
• boingboing has free Christmas plays on mp3, oldtime radio broadcasts free for the taking.  Plus, click thru to the post and see the comments for more free Christmas audio stuff. 
• Unsilent Night is back again this year.  Unsilent Night is an art/music/culture mashup of hundreds of boom boxes playing coordinated tracks.  Kind of the world's largest music machine.  Very creative idea that could be remixed for a church-type thing. 
• Finally, Steve Collins at smallritual has the peace labyrinth promo video here.  Gives new meaning to the term 'stick people.' 

Lots of Christmas goodies out there.  My all-time favorite is John Henry Faulk's Christmas Story.  I heard John Henry Faulk in 1978 in Dallas, when I was a student at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, TX.  Faulk had been blacklisted as a commie during the McCarthy era.  Edward R. Murrow helped Faulk regain his good name, win a lawsuit, and go back to being a writer and humorist.  If you don't know this Christmas story, you can read the transcript or download the audio at the NPR site. 

Who? I gasped.

Him! Right there! We were whispering urgently now, two hunters in a blind or fine just two girls on the old starfuck prowl. Lily had just seen the documentary What Would Jesus Buy? that chronicles the Reverend's recent cross-country trip, but I hadn't and it was consequently harder for me to believe that the man in front of us actually was the anti-consumerist deity of my early political consciousness.

Lily, does he have...highlights?

She nodded. I think he does. Have highlights. We stared.

I tried to remain aloof, aloofness being my only game and a consistently unsuccessful one--when people are intrigued by said aloofness it's usually inadvertent and I could in fact care less about their presence and when I do care I find it impossible to appear aloof and instead veer sharply toward undignified transparency--but then Krista, chipper and looking a lot like Snow White, said, I'll go talk to him!

Freya trotted over to join her, and Lily and I were left gaping at the man who was the political inspiration of the woman, Megan, who was then the political inspiration of me. It soon became clear to me that Reverend Billy had Megan beat on charisma, but I think she won the earnesty race. And who needs charisma when there's a black handkerchief over your face? Megan was an anti-globalization activist, and also my Resident Adviser at the now defunct Governor's School for Public Issues and the Future of New Jersey. She pronounced her name as Meee-ghan. (Meee-ghan. She was an undergrad at Wesleyan, which is where she learned to pronounce her name like that, natch.)

Megan had short, dirty hair and hairy armpits. I had hairy armpits the summer I attended Governor's School, too, but Megan's armpits were the kind of hairy that is disconcertingly braid-able. Also, she did Bread and Puppet theater, also her boyfriend was a thousand feet tall and weighed seventy pounds even counting his pigtails, also she led radical walking tours of the Astor Place-area Starbucks, also she and I were both almost kicked out of G-School when we distributed pro-choice anti-Bret Schundler literature and tried to bully him out of giving a speech.

It was a big summer, I feel in love in two directions: there was Gabe, my soulmate from the moment I realized we both wore our lucky t-shirts on the first days of things, and then there was Megan. It's an important moment in a young woman's life when she realizes that playing cute is a waste of everyone's time. Megan taught me how to get angry and all the reasons I should never apologize for staying that way.

Keep your laws off my body, betch!

Learning to accept alienating people is the most valuable political lesson I've ever learned; I'm not sure if Megan got it from the Reverend Billy or figured it out herself. It's not hard, except it is.

(I am at a cafe and a woman just asked her boyfriend almost unconsciously What time do you think we'll be hungry again? I completely loved that. I am totally guilty of that kind of hyper-planning.)

In the summer of 2001 Bret Schundler was still the mayor of Jersey City, the seedy and beloved metropolis of my youth. Schundler's entire political career seems like an accident of circumstance; in the first of the only three elections he's ever won, the field was split between nineteen candidates, and seventeen of them were Democrats. Schundler was elected as mayor with less than 20% of the vote.

He was reelected for two more terms, though, and some right-minded people I know from Jersey City will grudgingly acknowledge that economically, he did aiight. Mayors don't need to make decisions on health care, abortion, labor rights or capital punishment, of course, and on all those issues Schundler's policy is basically medieval.

I guess there was no chance that the state of New Jersey would elect him, but Megan and I (her ever-eager student) weren't taking any chances. Armed with a well-loved copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves, we took it upon ourselves to educate the other forty-nine women at Governor's School about their reproductive rights. I made fliers with ghastly statistics and drawings of bloody coat-hangers, and we raided closets for real wire hangers to brandish at the man when he arrived.

Megan's waifish boyfriend drove down from his workshop in Vermont to help us make a puppet whose illegal abortion had gone gruesomely wrong, and then we practiced some chants. As part of the preparation for actually accosting Schundler in person, Megan taught me some of her black bloc protest techniques. I learned how to resist arrest in a way that I've since forgotten, but I think it mainly involved laying down, and she had me prepare a handkerchief in a water-bottle filled with vinegar to neutralize the effects of tear gas.

(Don't laugh! We knew that Bret Schundler's cronies weren't going to tear gas us, but this was a radical apprenticeship with an eye to the future. Vinegared handkerchiefs have since been very useful in my life thank you.)

I fear that I've mellowed a lot since the days of Megan. I haven't been to a demonstration in awhile, I just still wear tight black pants. It remains intimidating sometimes to be politically contentious on my own, and even harder not to smile and ignore it when I start talking about the evils of Mike Huckabee and the man I'm on a date with puts his arm around me and confides to his friend like it's an apology, She's feisty.

No, I should say, I am not feisty I am only interested in ensuring that when you impregnate me later it doesn't mean that we have to wake up next to each other for the rest of our lives. Trust me, this is a good thing for everyone.

Full disclosure: I am actually quite smitten with the person who called me feisty. Around that same time last night he pinched my ass (pinched my ass!) while I was trying to talk to a Swedish art dealer about Gertrude Stein. I liked the ass pinching a lot. Later, the art dealer invited me to an opening on Tuesday but because I'd arrived with a gentleman the dealer gave my date his card, instead of me. It was so proper I forgot to be offended and wanted to kiss them both. Things are complicated and I wonder if, like me, Megan ever forgets that the personal is political. I think Reverend Billy does, because Lily and I were right. He totally has highlights!

Here is the blub from the movie's website:

What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt!

From producer Morgan Spurlock (SUPER SIZE ME) and director Rob VanAlkemade comes a serious docu-comedy about the commercialization of Christmas.  Bill Talen (aka Reverend Billy) was a lost idealist who hitchhiked to New York City only to find that Times Square was becoming a mall. Spurred on by the loss of his neighborhood and inspired by the sidewalk preachers around him, Bill bought a collar to match his white caterer's jacket, bleached his hair and became the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. Since 1999, Reverend Billy has gone from being a lone preacher with a portable pulpit preaching on subways, to the leader of a congregation and a movement whose numbers are well into the thousands.

Through retail interventions, corporate exorcisms, and some good old-fashioned preaching, Reverend Billy reminds us that we have lost the true meaning of Christmas. What Would Jesus Buy? is a  journey into the heart of America – from exorcising the demons at the Wal-Mart headquarters to taking over the center stage at the Mall of America and then ultimately heading to the Promised Land … Disneyland.

Will we be led like Sheeple to the Christmas slaughter, or will we find a new way to give a gift this Christmas?  What Would Jesus Buy? may just be the divine intervention we’ve all been searching for.

The Shopocalypse is upon us … Who will be $aved?

• Last year Americans spent $456.2 billion during the holidays (National Retail Federation)
• Consumer credit debt is now $2.4 trillion (Federal Reserve)
• 26 million Americans are addicted to shopping

As an antidote to the commercialization of Christmas, producer Morgan Spurlock (SUPER SIZE ME) and director Rob VanAlkemade brings you the serious docu-comedy, What Would Jesus Buy? The movie follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt. The Stop Shopping mission reminds us that even though we may be “hypnotized and consumerized,” we still have a chance to save ourselves this Christmas. The movie has opened to rave reviews.

This holiday season, spend time with family and friends. Shop locally. Buy fair-trade items. Ask yourself before you make that purchase, "What would Jesus buy?"

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.557026&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26]

from verdavivo.vodpod.com

Related Posts:

• Buying Our Way Green
• Website of the day: Waste Free Holidays 
• Green Christmas
• Green Your Holidays
• Buy Nothing Day 

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It's coming.

And despite your love social justice and everything you say and do the rest of the year, you will wake up on Friday morning (full from Thingstaken dinner the night before) and be ready to consume. You will find yourself in the midst of Black Friday, fighting in traffic, making circles finding a parking spot, and knocking people out of your way in the store as you search for that oh-so-perfect fill-in-the-blank present for so-and-so... And you will ignore your better instinct and your years of compassion. You will forget that you may be one of faces who make up the $2.4-trillion in US credit card debt this holiday season. You will forget that whatever you are buying was likely made in horrid conditions (often by children) and sold by sales persons in the US that can hardly make ends meet because the big box they work for keeps an insane bulk of the profit. You will forget that the best gift you can give is your time and your love. You will forget... unless of course, you choose to remember.

A new film out in select theaters this holiday season aims to do just that: to make us remember that the holidays can have a deeper meaning. What Would Jesus Buy follows the Reverend Billy and The Church of Stop Shopping on a cross-country tour, as they save consumers from what they call "the false idols of the Christmas spirit." You will be beside yourself when you are introduced to a couple who does some serious shopping for their dog. You will see a massive intervention at The Mall of the Americas. You will hear a Disney security guard explain that The Greatest Place on Earth is "not like the United States on public land where you're free to sing." You will laugh your ass off, and you will have those reflective moments, remembering yourself at the check-out aisle with a little too much in the basket. Aside from taking a candid and poignant look at a Reverend that mixes guerrilla theater with socially relevant street sermons, What Would Jesus Buy looks at the way in which Christmas was co-opted by mass marketing campaigns; it examines the frenzy behind consumer spending; it takes a hard look at the working conditions endured by the people abroad and at home who make and sell us the products we can't wait to get our hands on - and most importantly, it reminds us that there are alternatives.

This film doesn't pretend to have all the answers, but it asks all the right questions and manages to never once beat you over the head. If you must give, then give your loved ones a home cooked meal, and handmade necklace, or a long walk in the park. If you must buy, then buy locally from artisans and independent stores. And if you must enjoy yourself, then catch this film while you can.

For theaters near you: http://wwjbmovie.com/theaters.html

yes, that really happened. though, it is just a character, sadly :) now, onto the fun.

step it up 2007

tell your senators - pass a fair farm bill

no free rides for polluters

tell congress to act now on climate change

check out 'darfur now'

sign the global petition to end violence in darfur

crucial time for peace in darfur

They make a very good point about the foolishness and contradictions implied by Americans addiction to shopping and consumerism. We have a incubated a cultural cancer in America and are now spreading it to the rest of the world. As Borat would say: "Very nice."

The parody of using evangelical christianity to spread the word is pure genius. They found a way to reach out to an audience that the progressives rarely target--granted it is a bit sarcastic, but maybe some will miss this or get a kick out of it--and at the same time put religion and religious people on trial for the obvious hypocrisy of not speaking out against bad family values (i.e. out of control consumerism).

[While I'm on the rant, why on earth have the religious communities and orgs (read Christian) not come out loud and strong against consumerism, the Iraq war, and global warming? These issues should be direct hits with the core issues and values of Christianity (killing innocent people, lying about the facts, spending money on things rather than time with people, destroying our planet and causing misery to the less fortunate, etc.). It makes no sense. (and yes I know, some Christians are going to say "I care about these issues", but the problem is that the institutions of religion are not doing enough and end up on the wrong side of the argument.)]

On a larger scale, this film represents to me a new and smarter approach to packaging counter-culture ideas and change into effective, broad viral memes. I think that Carl Rove has taught us all how to be more effective in persuading the American masses. And, Walt Disney invented the ability to talk to multiple audiences at the same time (e.g. children and adults). It will be interesting to see if this is a growing trend.

Movie trailer (funny!): http://movies.aol.com/movie/what-would-jesus-buy/31783/video/trailer-no-1/2012984

Movie website: http://www.wwjbmovie.com/