What Would Jesus Buy?

Is Thanksgiving about being thankful? Or is the turkey dinner with all the trimmings becoming less about being thankful, and becoming more about the carbohydrate load-up necessary for the long day of shopping that follows? Are the holidays (which used to start with Thanksgiving, but now it's more like Halloween) forever lost to our consumerist culture? Have we confused giving with spending? Have we exchanged expressions of love and thankfulness with brand name gifts and designer labels?

Even if you are smart enough to avoid the malls and big-box stores on “Black Friday,” you will more than likely find your way to one (or eighty) of them before December 25. The question is, what are you trying to buy when you are there—is it really something for sale in a store? What happens to us as individuals, families and as an American culture when we load our trunks with packages and our credit cards with debt?

60 percent of Americans are in some kind of long-term debt, much of that is racked up on credit cards during the holiday shopping season. Is this simply an issue of bad financial discipline or is there a deeper issue at hand? Is there something spiritual going on here?

Rev. Billy [Bill Talen] and The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir have taken to the streets and (mall parking lots) in an effort to awaken us to deeper realities present this Christmas season—and if you are lucky enough to live in one of the select cities in America —The Good Reverend is coming to a theater near you. What Would Jesus Buy? is a documentary from director Rob VanAlkemade that follows this merry band of protest activists from Times Square in New York to Wal-mart's headquarters to The Mall of America. Each stop they make with their bio-diesel bus is an impromptu ‘church service,’ proclaiming the good news that we don’t have to live this way as well as announcing the impending danger of the 'Shopocalypse.'

Bill Talen is not just a performer, he is a passionate man who recognizes that we as Americans have lost our way—like the prophets of the Old Testament—and he is calling us back to the way things were meant to be. The Stop Shopping Choir is not just entertainment (although they are very much entertaining), they are people who care about how America is affecting the rest of the world as well as itself.

It's not easy to swim up stream. Bill Talen and his choir are certainly doing that, and they are asking us to consider it too. That puts him in company not just with Old Testament prophets, but with Jesus as well.

If you can find this film in a theater, go see it. It will make you laugh, it will make you think, and it might even ‘Save’ your Christmas.

Check out the trailer here: