I’ll admit, I went into What Would Jesus Buy? expecting a bit of a joke. I had heard of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping before. It seemed like an amusing concept: an evangelical preacher, compete with gospel choir, doing a full-blown revival against consumerism.
But the documentary turns the thing from a joke into a human portrait. Reverend Billy is a real guy, Bill Talen, and he’s pretty serious with his message against gentrification, materialism, advertising, the corporatization of America, consumer debt, and cultural inauthenticity. It’s part performance art, part activism. You see that kind of thing and you’re apt to think of it as a put-on. You might laugh or think and then you move on. But the film shows that there are real people behind The Church of Stop Shopping who dedicate their lives to getting out their message.
Morgan Spurlock is one of the producers and the Church is involved in the production, so it’s clear that this isn’t an objective portrait, but another way of getting their message out. It’s terribly effective. The main spine of the message is Reverend Billy and his flock trying to tour the country the month before Christmas, dealing with hardships on the road. In addition, there are interviews with experts and ordinary people, showing how we’re caught in the grip of consumerism in this country, willing to drop into painful debt at the end of the year, all for the kids.
Starbucks, Wal-Mart and particularly Disney come in for their well-deserved lumps. The film starts in Times Square and ends up in Disneyland, following the path of good intentions gone bad. Billy has his run-ins with security, but always tries to keep his cool as they throw him out. He gets a little upset as he’s hustled out of the Mall of America and then he walks back to apologize to the security guard.
After the screening, Reverend Bill and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir performed and then answered questions from the audience. He seems like a really decent guy with an important message. The group doesn’t believe in content-free souvenirs, so they don’t sell T-shirts, but they will sell books. So, go see the movie and buy the DVD. It’ll make a swell Christmas gift.
(By the way, during the post-screening discussion, Reverend Billy shocked the crowd by announcing that Starbucks had pulled its sponsorship from Silverdocs because of his participation. A WaPo story clarified that Starbucks asked that its logos not be displayed, but it did not withdraw its money.)
Tags: What Would Jesus Buy?, Reverend Billy, Church of Stop Shopping, documentary, Silverdocs