What Would Jesus Buy?

Sunday afternoon I went to a preview screening of What Would Jesus Buy? Produced by Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me), the documentary, which should hit mostly smaller art-house theaters this Friday, features Reverend Billy and the "stop shopping choir." If you don't know who Reverend Billy is, I have to say you're missing out. Reverend Billy is crazy. He is an anti-consumerism fanatic who essentially goes into chain stores (ie Starbucks, Walmart, the Disney Store, etc) and makes a scene. He'll perform "cash register exorcisms" or go into the Disney Store proclaiming Mickey to be the anti-Christ. He has something like 40 arrests on his record I think they said. Starbucks prints a pamphlet for their employees about what to do if Reverend Billy should enter their store and he is banned from every Starbucks in California. Reverend Billy is quite the character, working himself into a frenzy whenever he speaks - much like a minister of any charismatic Christian church would. He runs the "church of stop shopping," based mostly out of New York City, which has its own choir of Billy's followers.

I first became aware of Reverend Billy's existence about three years ago when he came and spoke to my "Writing the Essay: Art and the World, The World Through Art" (read: bullshit required pretentious hippie writing) class. He made one girl run out of the room crying when she tried to tell him he was disrespecting people like her father who were real ministers. It was quite an interesting class period. Really the only interesting period of that class for the entire year (yes, it was a two-semester course). Maybe it was just that I hated the class, but I still mainly just thought Reverend Billy was some crazy radical.

This documentary changed my opinion a lot. The documentary is about the commercialization of Christmas. As the director said before the screening, "it's not really an expose because the commercialization of Christmas has been exposed since the 1800s, but we hope you have fun watching the film." And fun was indeed had by all. The film is positively hilarious. There were just so many great lines from everyone involved, even just in the opening - like the news anchor who is laughing kind of morbidly and talking about people trampling pregnant ladies for their Xboxes (which is accompanied by pretty terrifying footage of Black Friday sale chaos, of people running and shoving and fighting - you know, emphasizing the Christmas spirit) or the news anchor who says she loves her diamond ring more than she loves her husband. One of my favorite lines was at the end when they are at Disneyland and one of the security guards says something to the effect of "This is Disneyland. It's not like out there in the public where you can just do whatever you want like... sing." Classic. Also watching bewildered security guards and police officers try to figure out how to deal with Reverend Billy and his peaceful but outrageous antics never gets old. Another favorite moment I think was when a security guard said to Reverend Billy "Excuse me sir, can I talk to you for just a moment?" and Reverend Billy just said "No." and kept yelling into his megaphone.

There are lots of really sobering moments too, which is part of what makes this documentary so effective. The message the film highlights is not just about the commercialization of Christmas, but about the amount of debt Americans are going into because of credit cards (particularly around Christmas time) and how nothing we consume in the US is made in the US anymore. For the first time in history, the national household savings average is below zero. That's right - on average, people in the US are in debt. Another great quote from the documentary is toward the beginning when it says "we used to be a nation of producers, but now we are a nation of consumers." People don't care how the item was made as long as they can get it cheaper. And while I always thought that sweatshop labor was one of those things everyone was aware of, there was a very telling scene with three teenage girls who had absolutely no idea and they are appalled when they research sweatshop conditions online and then go through their own clothes and see that none of them are made in the US.

There have been lots of documentaries about these kinds of topics before, but I think this one was very well done. The hilarity of it all made the more serious message kick you a little harder. And the film acknowledges that no one can literally stop shopping. But it puts forth the idea that you can make a difference by how you shop. For the first time I am much more inspired to make sure that I shop only for stuff made in the US, or at least for stuff made by companies that have proven they're not using sweatshop labor.

After the screening, the "stop shopping choir" came and performed a few songs for us and they, with the director, did a Q&A. All in all, it was quite an interesting event. Hopefully this film will make people think a little bit before they buy year round, and maybe encourage people to spend time with instead of money on their friends and family at the holiday season this year.

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