[Frederica-l] NRO: What Would Jesus Buy?

[Frederica at aol.com]

This documentary opens today, but only in limited areas. Its interesting! 
here's the URL on my site:
_http://www.frederica.com/writings/what-would-jesus-buy.html_ 
(http://www.frederica.com/writings/what-would-jesus-buy.html) 
 
also, I got to screen "Enchanted" last night, and wanted to pass on that I 
think it's terrific. If you're in the vicinity of kids, they will want to see it 
after it opens this coming Weds; if you're planning how to spend that 
Thanksgiving break time, put this on the calendar. I loved it. 
 
*******
 
 
What Would Jesus Buy? 
The Church of Stop Shopping? The name might ring a bell. During last year's 
pre-Christmas shopping season, this parody gospel choir roamed the country, 
stopping in places like Mall of America _http://www.mallofamerica.com/_ 
(http://www.mallofamerica.com/)  to offer carols rewritten to warn of the evils of 
consumerism. The music-and-comedy troupe was founded by "Rev. Billy" (Bill Talen), 
who preaches the Stop Shopping gospel ("We're on a mission to save Christmas 
from overconsumption") while costumed and coiffed to resemble the most 
terrifying wide-eyed faith healer on TV. (Actually, the Anglican-style clergy collar 
doesn't go with this character, nor the pre-Vatican II Catholic confessional, 
but we're not asking for historic accuracy here.)  
"What Would Jesus Buy?" is a documentary about that cross-country pilgrimage, 
and it's a top-notch production. There's been a welcome revival of the 
documentary genre in recent years, and spelling bees, flocks of birds, and child 
photographers in India have all been subjects of box-office favorites. "What 
Would Jesus Buy?" is as interesting and well-made as the best of them. Like all 
good documentaries, it starts with an intriguing phenomenon and presents it with 
verve. Before I saw it, I was worried that the troupe might exploit Jesus for 
comic purposes, for example by offering mock prayers. That worry turned out 
to be groundless. The Church employs the choir-and-preacher format to comic 
effect, but nimbly avoids religious belief itself.  
Yet there's a problem with this film. It's a dramatic problem, rather than a 
problem with the message. Personally, I'm enthusiastic about the message. I 
was anti-consumerism when these folks were still in the Stop Shopping Children's 
Choir. Twenty years ago, my husband and I were teaching our kids to analyze 
TV commercials looking for the lie: "See if you can figure out how it's trying 
to trick you." We didn't have Santa in our house (and I still get hate mail 
about my Beliefnet essay on this 
_http://bible.beliefnet.com/story/57/story_5781.html_ (http://bible.beliefnet.com/story/57/story_5781.html) ). Instead, each 
child told us what he wanted, within a budget of $100 (they'd get a few small 
surprises as well). We were pretty poor then-my husband is a "Rev," too-but we 
did it mostly for the principle of the thing: Christmas is not for sale.  
This philosophy didn't stop on December 26. Most of what we own today is 
second-hand. On purpose. You might wonder why National Review would allow someone 
with such outré views to review movies, but recall that this is the birthplace 
of Crunchy Consumerism, and I was crunchy before crunchy was cool. Next time 
someone tries to tell you that conservatives are narrow-minded and intolerant, 
point to the lady with the hyphenated name and the thrift shop pocketbook.  
No, the problem is that this gospel-preacher format inherently makes 
onlookers wary. Shouting born-again folks have a scary reputation, and during 
impromptu performances we can see onlookers keeping a careful, unsmiling distance. 
(Perhaps Talen assumed that ordinary Americans are drawn to street preachers. 
They aren't.) The dramatic flaw is that it looks like the Church's message is not 
getting across. Other documentaries gratify us by showing kids winning a 
ballroom dance competition, or penguins birthing a new generation. But in the 
whole 90 minutes of "What Would Jesus Buy?" we never see a person change their 
views or behavior as a result of hearing the Stop Shopping message.  
"Rev Billy" Talen may suspect that something isn't working right, because 
most of the time he looks uneasy. The choir, by contrast, is relaxed and happy 
(as well as terrifically talented), but both Talen and his wife, "Church 
Director" Savitri D, look concerned. That's contagious, and it's a downer.  
It seems to me that when "Rev. Billy" is delivering scripted lines he looks 
stiff, and when delivering ad lib remarks he looks panicky. Panic is 
reasonable, because it's hard to do spontaneous televangelist parody and make even comic 
sense--yet the role nevertheless requires great conviction at high volume. 
This is a combination designed to end in misery. After a protest at Walmart 
headquarters, Talen collapses onto a motel bed saying "That was terrible." Somehow 
he'd found himself loudly repeating, "We have millions of Americans inside 
our bodies!" Savitri D comments, "I don't know if anyone hears us...I need for 
what we do to have some impact on someone--soon."  
Maybe the problem is uncertainty about who they're trying to impact: ordinary 
shoppers, or the cognoscenti who like to laugh at ordinary shoppers? One of 
the cheerful choir members says she's delighted "to be doing serious political 
work in creative, fun ways," and perhaps that word, "political," underlies the 
confusion. Thinking of your work as "political" is thrilling and energizing, 
but consumerism is more a matter of cultural than political change. It's an 
issue that calls for consciousness-raising, as we fogeys used to say. There's a 
temptation to view every good cause as a "fight," and when Stop Shoppers come 
out fighting, the tired shoppers in the malls can only assume they're being 
fought.  
Even those who listen sympathetically can find the message confusing. The 
very question, "What would Jesus buy?," is too unfocused to answer, though 
several sympathetic talking heads try. The lyrics of some of the choir's songs 
(penned by Talen) are posted on their website 
_http://www.revbilly.com/blog/?cat=21_ (http://www.revbilly.com/blog/?cat=21) , but Talen is the kind of lyricist 
who prefers suggestion to clarity, and what he's trying to suggest often 
escapes me.  
For example, the "Beatitudes of Buylessness" begin: "Blessed are the 
Consumers, for you shall be free from Living By Products; Blessed are you who stumble 
out of branded Main Streets, for you shall find lovers not downloaded and 
oceans not rising; Blessed is the ordinary citizen who holds onto a patch of 
public commons, for you are the New World;" and so on. I probably agree, but I'm 
not exactly sure what he's getting at. Some of the Beatitudes offer blessings 
(rather than woes, as in Jesus' original) for consumers, advertisers, and 
celebrities. These folks are blessed because they're going to change their minds--an 
unsupported assumption so broad that the whole project begins to look like an 
exercise in wishful thinking. By the time the lyrics got to "Blessed are the 
young women in sweatshops, for the things you make will fly you like magic 
evening gowns to the City of Light," my willing suspension of disbelief had lost 
its suspenders.  
The Stop Shoppers readily admit that changing our lives is complicated, and 
when asked to suggest alternatives the tough "political" stance (blessedly) 
vanishes. They agree that it's not feasible to literally "stop shopping." They 
say they're asking people to think about their shopping habits and make some 
different choices: a choir member says, "Explore the options, that's all we ask." 
Rev. Billy admits, "We're trying to slow down our own shopping," and there's 
a funny scene where choir members, browsing in a truck stop while the buses 
refuel, are tempted to buy cheap souvenirs of the trip.  
Rev. Billy does have some concrete suggestions: he recommends that at 
Christmas we "Spend half as much, give twice as much" by making gifts of time and 
attention, or of something homemade. "We will take the real life that we have 
within us, that originality that we've got, that has nothing to do with 
products!"  
This might sound a bit strange-bedfellows; the exhortation to simplify 
Christmas, to buy less and make home-made gifts, can be found in virtually every 
Christian magazine around this time of year. Likewise, Rev. Billy's admonition to 
buy American, to check labels, check packaging, and reject anything made 
overseas, was once a mark of right-wing patriotism. Now the spur is 
anti-globalism, and though I'm sympathetic to the Stop Shoppers' analysis, I'm not convinced 
of their solution. I worry that, if I boycott foreign goods, the lives of 
those impoverished workers just get harder. The whole situation is so vast and 
interdependent that it is bewildering.  
How can we persuade people to resist consumerism? The Stop Shoppers and my 
family can live the change we're seeking, but the most persuasive bucks and 
billboards will always be on the other side. We can choose to resist fashion, but 
that guarantees our cause will never look fashionable. We can refuse to buy 
stuff marketed to inspire envy, but can't be surprised if we don't inspire 
emulation either. It's a confounding situation. As Rev. Billy says, "We don't have 
the answer. But I think we have the question." That's about right, and I'm 
glad the Church of Stop Shopping is trying to get the conversation going.   
 
********
Frederica Mathewes-Green
www.frederica.com



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