Not Buying It: the Church of Stop Shopping

[Refugee 7]

What did you do Friday? Did it involve consumerism, angst over your holiday shopping list and tired feet? The retail industry calls the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday," but for most of us, it's the beginning of a monthlong marathon of angst, confusion and overspending.

Unless you are a member of the Church of Stop Shopping, like the Rev. Billy, aka Bill Talen, a performance activist with Bay Area roots. Talen and his "church" are the stars of a new documentary, "What Would Jesus Buy?" that follows the congregation on a Thanksgiving-to-Christmas tour around the United States in 2005 via biodiesel-fueled bus. The gospel they spread was simple; we should all spend less and give more time and thought to our loved ones during the holidays instead.

Produced by Morgan Spurlock, who ate all those hamburgers in "Super Size Me," the documentary uses goofy humor to make its anti-consumerism point -- Talen sports a platinum pompadour, a white suit and the flamboyant manner of a televangelist -- but it is serious stuff. Among the statistics cited in the film is one that says average Americans spend more than five hours a week shopping, while children spend less than 40 minutes a week engaged in meaningful conversation with their parents.

"What Would Jesus Buy?" opened at select Bay Area theaters on "Black Friday," which Billy prefers to think of as "Buy Nothing Day." We recently sat down for a conversation with Talen and his wife, Savitri Durkee, the Church of Stop Shopping's director and frequently, his personal moderator.

Q: The Church of Stop Shopping's tactics include storming malls in bright red choir robes and bursting into humorous songs. You also perform "exorcisms" on cash registers. The police always show up. In California, you are banned from being within 250 yards of all Starbucks because you've staged so many protests at their stores. Do you ever worry your methods distract from the message?

Billy: You'd be surprised, when you are really talking one-on-one with someone, almost everybody gets this message.

Savitri: What you don't see in the film is how many people invited us in and gave us hot chocolate. There is such a general desperation around Christmas that when we are standing there making jokes, people just seem grateful.

Billy: There are people who are upset and some who are giggling, but there are always people who do things like stand up and walk away from a latte in Starbucks.

Q: You parody evangelical congregations. Has that made for bad blood with fundamentalists?

Billy: No, actually we have significant support from evangelicals. We played the Cornerstone music festival, which is a Christian festival.

Savitri: We anticipated more opposition, but some of our best responses were in evangelical communities like Colorado Springs and Lubbock, Texas.

Q: You convinced me to cut back drastically on my Christmas spending. But it's funny how much pressure there is on the consumer to contribute to the economy.

Billy: It's fear-mongering, that the American Eagle will come crashing down. If we don't stay in debt, it's over. The weekly retail grosses have become hard news. I would just remind people that those reports are about profitability for corporations and that doesn't have to do with profitability for your life. We need a diverse economy. It can't rely on us shopping just at Christmas; there has to be more integrity in our economy. Christmas has become the annual repetition of the message 'If you love your country, you'll go out and shop.' The message is, we're supposed to save the economy.

Savitri: But the economy isn't saving us.

Q: What are your hopes for this Christmas and future holiday seasons?

Billy: We'd like to start a new slow gift movement, like the slow food movement. Let's take the time. So often we end up speeding to a mall to make a quick purchase.

Q: What would you recommend we do instead?

Billy: There's so much hiding in plain sight. Americans have so much stuff. We have this billion-dollar storage business. Let's send people into those storage units to find some stuff to give.

Q: Speaking of stuff, I'm curious about that slick leather jacket you wear in the film. Where did you get it?

Billy: Garage sale on Stanyan in Cole Valley -- $24.

Q: And I thought I'd caught you in a flagrant act of consumer indulgence! Speaking of, what is the best Christmas present either of you have ever gotten?

Billy: The Christmas Savitri took me on the A train and we went out to Coney Island and we walked on the beach and watched these Russian men playing chess in the ice. That was a wonderful day.

Savitri: My mother was a single mom with four kids. I remember the Christmas she told us that she couldn't do Christmas any more and I felt the most incredible relief. We all did. To see her putting up a Christmas tree and making the house beautiful, but not to see her worrying anymore. That was a great gift, that she was honest about it.

[Echosoftom 3]

LOL! I'll have to watch for the DVD, this Rev. Billy character sounds kind of funny. A movie making fun of consumerism in this country at this time of year, it's about time.

[Starfish 0]

Morgan Spurlock - my hero - nice to see him connected with this one. Brilliant idea!

[Magnolia 171]

Ha Ha Ha! I love it. "What Would Jesus Buy", LOL

[surfnburn 5]

haha....I'm not surprised he came from the Bay Area... Finally, a religion I can get behind...

[wild1forever 152]

I'm pretty sure this group was in the Santa Cruz shopping district last Friday. I like the concept of "Buy Nothing Day".

[agirl 0]

I love it. Except for the Starbucks thing.

[kira 0]

NPR had a piece about a group in the Bay Area who had made a compact to not buy anything new for a year. They were making exceptions for personal items like toothbrushes and food. I think it's a great idea! I get so sick of more is better and buy, buy, buy! How big does a house need to be? I tend to do my shopping at a thrift store in my little town. You would be amazed how many great items come through.

[Refugee 7]

The gospel they spread was simple; we should all spend less and give more time and thought to our loved ones during the holidays instead.

Now that is what the holidays are about!

[nurktwin 2,143]

i agree ref, that's the way i was brought up. the holidays are for family and friends and that means any holiday, if it's recognized and they sell greeting cards for it, then it's a holiday! i love getting together with family and friends and have dinner an bs. you don't have to go buy gifts and spend a fortune. but at the same time, i don't need this guy or anyone else to tell me about what to do. maybe some people didn't have the family like i did to teach them and maybe it will help them. let's hope so. now this reminds me of the other post about not being able to say "MERRY CHRISTMAS", i'll continue to say what i was brought up with and i know is right in my heart. but i can tell you 1 thing that i know will be taken away next, and that's the phrase for the day after thanksgiving "black friday". it's a shame that we can't even speak in our own country and we have a small amount of groups that instigate this and win! maybe we should have elections once a month, that way the crooks we elect can only screw us for 1 month, not years.

[nurktwin 2,143]

here's another day that will probably be taken away. will macy's, j c penney and other retailers be able to have a "white sale"? lol, this is getting out of hand.

[Pettyjunkie 0]

Good gospel. I love that he thinks we should spend more time with our loved ones, and it is so true. That is really what the holidays are about.