Business: What Would Jesus Buy?

As dawn breaks this Black Friday, William Talen will again be waiting to greet the sleepy-eyed masses hoping to cash in on the biggest sales of the season. Talen's target this year: Macy's in Manhattan, just as the doors swing open at 6 a.m. Chances are, Talen—a performance artist also known as Reverend Billy—will once again be trampled by an onrush of credit-card toting consumers, his message largely unheard and unheeded.

And what, exactly, is that message? Actually, he has many, and they're detailed in "What Would Jesus Buy?," a new documentary by director Rob VanAlkemade and producer Morgan "Supersize Me" Spurlock. The new film is Reverend Billy's tour de farce—a ferociously satirical and cynical take on consumer culture, pegged to America's most sacred spending season. Dolled up in High Evangelical style (equal parts Jimmy Swaggart and Reverend Lovejoy), the blond pompadoured Reverend Billy crosses the country with his Church of Stop Shopping, from New York City to Disneyland, breathing brimstone about America's impending "shopocalypse." If the messenger is charismatic and funny, his message is deadly serious.

How serious? Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemannwrites that "Rev. Billy is a faithful prophetic figure who stands in direct continuity with ancient prophets in Israel and in continuity with the great prophetic figures of U.S. history who have incessantly called our society back to its core human passions of justice and compassion." Perhaps. But you may have to take his word for it since "What Would Jesus Buy?" is struggling to find widespread theatrical release. In a recent interview with NEWSWEEK's Brian Braiker, Talen dropped his comic persona to discuss what he sees as the true meaning of the holiday season. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: You were raised a Dutch Calvinist. Is your upbringing reflected in the persona of Reverend Billy?
William Talen: I don't think anybody can deny that their life is inside their lifework. So many of the people in the Church of Stop Shopping you'd call postreligious—a lot of PKs (preachers' kids); folks from different fundamentalist backgrounds; we have Muslims and Hindus, Catholics and Protestants and Jews. And we all love gospel music.

What about you? Why this message?
It concerns us deeply that the heart of Christmas—the giving and receiving—be recovered from the industrial juggernaut. The seed of hope in late December that all cultures regard, is denied us in so many ways in our society. It's denied because we can't create it ourselves anymore. We have thousands of advertising exposures a day all about the hope you buy: beauty, sex, status. We're saying "create Christmas this year; don't go to the big-box store this Christmas."
 
Do you give gifts this season? What do you want for Christmas or Chanukah or Kwanza or Chritsmanukwanza or whatever?
We can give a gift of a commitment of an activity; we can give the gift of praise. What is Christmas about? The birth of a child who was supposed to grow up and teach us peace. When you give a gift you enter an intimate economy with your closest witness to the remarkable state of being alive. What's so remarkable about a PlayStation 17 wrapped and vaccu-packed in fossil fuels?

One common criticism is that you parody evangelicals, and that your traveling confession booths offend some Roman Catholics.
There's real pastoring to do here. I like being ecumenical. We call ourselves postreligious but we believe in the creative force of life. We all know that life is amazing. Every minute that we're alive we're saying, "Wow, this is incredible. What is it?" We don't know what it is, but it's remarkable. And that's what Christmas is. It's a reminder that life is incredible. But the average American family is still paying off their Christmas debt some 16 weeks into the year. Soon that will extend to when the first Christmas carols start playing again!