Before You Start Your Christmas Shopping

I can "Consume" with the best of em'. So before the shopping season starts, I sit down with my family to watch "What Would Jesus Buy", produced by Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), and the Reverend Billy & the Church of Stop Shopping. It is a comedic look at America's obsession with buying things. In our country, we are encouraged to buy products to bring happiness and to fight terrorism. Our cycle of working more, to buy more, to live less - is the best in the world!

Do your part to help forestall the shopocalypse, watch this movie!

Here is the preview:

Reverend Billy: A Lone Voice?

I wonder why there are not more "preachers" talking about the topics Bill Talen talks about... Is it because the Christians in the western church are wedded to the same consumerism we should be speaking against? Did God go outside the church walls to a thespian in New York so that He would have a voice that would speak prophetically to our culture? Is the Christian church so busy getting people into the "belief club" that we have lost our ability to be salt and light in our neighborhoods and cities?

Let's make a few less purchases this week and go spend some time connecting with our neighbors.......

Reverend Billy on CNN

In this interview, the Reverend encourages us to Buy Less and Give More this Christmas.

In the spirit of the season....

I encourage everyone reading this blog to buy, rent, or check out from the library "What Would Jesus Buy?" It is a documentary following the Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Choir as they make a trek from New York to Disneyland. Along the way there is singing, preaching, and the exorcisms of shopping demons. Though approached with a humorous air, Reverend Billy gives a serious prophetic call to America.

Of particular note is an interview found in the deleted scenes of the DVD. A woman from China who was arrested for being a Christian and spent 6 years in a work camp is interviewed. I do not want to spoil her final revelation, but it left me stunned.

Go get the DVD and view it with friends. As the Reverend says, "Shop Less and Give More!"

UPDATE - For those of you in the Salt Lake area, WWJB will be playing at the
Sorenson Unity Center
1383 South 900 West
Salt Lake City Utah 84104
on Wednesday, December 10th, at 7:00



and while we are on the topic of shopping, this is a great video from Advent Conspiracy:

Prison letter from Reverend Billy

If you have not yet seen "What would Jesus buy?", your opportunity is coming up. It will be released on DVD May 20th. (View Trailer)

WWJB? is a documentary that follows the Reverend Billy and his choir from "The Church of Stop Shopping" as they take their Revival and protest against consumerism tour across America.

From their website: this docu-comedy follows our trials and triumphs across the country as we preach and sing to help holiday-abused Americans find a new Christmas without products.

The film has played throughout the US, bringing Fair Trade activists and Evangelical Christians together in darkened movie theaters, emerging with new tools to BUY LESS and GIVE MORE!

I am excited to see our churches getting on board with this message. We in the church are beginning to view ourselves less as clubs to join, and more as agents of change to redeem this world.

The movie is comedic and theatrical, and I love it. However, there is a serious and somber side of Bill Talen that you can see when you go beyond the movie. I just came across one of his blog entries which was initially written during one of his times in prison for protesting. Please head over here to give his entry a read.

More Reverend Billy!

Here is a great interview about what led Bill Talen to create the character of Reverend Billy. If you have not yet seen What would Jesus Buy? -go tonight! Wal-mart has thrown its mighty weight around to prevent this movie from hitting the screen. Stand up and be counted! See this film!

Again with the "right" beliefs

This video is amazing. Reverend Billy gets mocked and chastised by a priest for not believing the "right" things. The priest, in my opinion, is condescending and arrogant. Yet, here is Reverend Billy, who doesn't have the "right" theology speaking graciously to his accuser. I think Billy is hitting the mark on the message of gospel and kingdom much better than the priest.

Thank you Reverend Billy for preaching a message of justice. This seems to be a message our ministers have forgotten in their haste to coerce people into the right club.

What would Jesus Buy?

Pray for us sinners Reverend Billy!!!

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping