Jesus and Commercialization... Would HE really buy?

Adorned with a clerical collar and over zealous southern preacher style, Bill Talen, known as Reverend Billy, doesn't mind making a fool of himself. He is happy to throw himself on the floor in a fit of religious ecstasy, perform cash register exorcisms or go caroling with the 35 members of the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, singing such favorites as "Fill the Malls With Wealthy People," to the tune of "Deck the Halls." The Rev. Billy, an activist who portrays an evangelist-prophet leading the Church of Stop Shopping, is the focus of “What Would Jesus Buy”? He's a fake preacher who traveled the country in 2005 with his choir, thundering against the "Shopocalypse" – that is, the spiritual deadening maniacal consumerism brings to our society. In his mock view of the end times, Christians would take the Mark of the Beast with a smile on their faces if it gave them exclusive access to the must-have holiday toy.

This documentary is an examination of the commercialization of Christmas in America while following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.) The film also delves into issues such as the role sweatshops play in America’s mass consumerism and Big-Box Culture. The group storms from place to place, rampaging through Wal-Marts and Starbucks and Staples parking lots and finally Disneyland, but only once are they shown to have made anything more than a fleeting impression on anybody that they encounter. Most of the time, Reverend Billy seems to just be an annoyance and/or source of amusement to those with whom he comes into contact. He does have some entertaining moments, but that doesn’t really translate into anything meaningful.

We spend half our childhood trying to find the spirit of the season, our eyes cast skyward for that fleeting glimpse of Santa, or earthward for that one last seasonal hymn. Yet we grow older, and that blind adoring faith is cut down, string by string, until all that’s left are just the presents on the big morning or the eight crazy nights of gifts, gifts, gifts!

The media, bless them, simply shove down our throats these time-honored tales of hope and magic, of warmth and love, where family is always there and that last gift is always received. Adorable movies peppered with commercials for holiday band-saw sales and the promise that “This Christmas only, a diamond is forever.” Oddly enough, in a world where miracles are defied and disproved daily, there are still the children who believe, go and sit on Santa’s lap, wishing away their little hearts for a bike or scooter, for G.I.JOE’s secret fortress or Barbie and her Malibu convertible.

I will agree that occasionally the commercialization during the christmas holiday season does go a little overboard. There is the insatiable need for parents to run from store to store for days on end so their child gets the "it" toy of the season. People should have fun when they shop for others; it shouldn't be a competition. On the other hand, there is something to say for how much a parent must love their child to go to such outlandish lengths to make that child happy.