There is nothing wrong in buying and giving presents if one can afford it, but let it be something really useful and not wasteful. However I do agree with Billy Talen that he should continue the Stop Shopping campaign to put some sense into peoples' mind. I fully support him. Yes, the best gifts would be not in a material form but rather spiritual which is much lacking and much needed now. Give something spiritual, it costs nothing, it is lasting and cannot be simply thrown away. Put the extra money into your child's savings or make early settlements on your debts, which will be beneficial in the long run both for you and the overall economy.
Business: What Would Jesus Buy?
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You've targeted Disney, Starbucks, Wal-Mart. What's the common thread here?
I would say the three of them have a problematic relationship to public space. All three are claiming they're the new commons, the new place where people go when they are not working or at home. We believe Christmas is the commons. The sidewalks and streets and libraries are commons, not Barnes & Noble. All three are attacking the commons in a way that we feel that our First Amendment rights are disappearing in this country. You can't walk in America anymore. In a lot of suburban-type places, you have to get in a car to go from point A to point B. There are no sidewalks. There are vast sections in the U.S. where you have to go to a Wal-Mart-type store just to get household necessities. Increasingly you can't walk to get the basics.
How do First Amendment rights tie into that?
We're saying if you come and shutter our neighborhood and our Main Street and you make a big-box store and you simulate my Main Street inside it, then I'm going to go inside your Main Street and exercise my First Amendment rights. I'm going to shout and sing, and you know what? The song might be about the sweatshop goods you sell.
What is the "shopocalypse" as you envision it?
If we just keep expressing ourselves to each other by making purchases, our neighbors are all going to be chain stores. Our representatives in Congress will be more corrupt, and we'll end up being just consumers and not citizens.
Is parody the most effective means for your message? I would think the guerilla-style tactics you engage in at, say, Starbucks would alienate and annoy the very $6 latte-sipping people you're trying to convert.
[Laughs.] We have such an emergency in our culture right now. So much of it comes from consumerism. We have to crack the culture and walk through that crack. We have to break up the assumption of what's polite. Let's enjoy change and not be offended. When we go into Starbucks and start our Christmas carols, I exorcise the demons from the cash registers. Some of the people join us in clapping; other people are annoyed. The response is more like an explosion. Change-aleujah!
Now that I think of it, it strikes me that Jesus practiced a type of guerrilla theater in his own way.
Of course we don't have it on YouTube. And certainly when you ask "what would Jesus buy," there's no evidence that he bought anything, but we think he would buy less and give more.
Do you have big plans for Black Friday?
Of course! This is the high holiday of our theological calendar! We will be at the front door of Macy's on "Buy Nothing Day," as we call it, just like we were last year. The door usually opens at around 6 a.m. and there's a long line down 34th Street. Last year we met people from Ireland who flew across the Atlantic Ocean to go shopping at Macy's! Morgan [Spurlock] has organized 40 elves. He has a vision of elves striking against Santa. And he's got elves striking in Portland, San Francisco, Chicago and L.A.
Discuss