The Greatest Depression | 03/12/2009 6:00 am
Comic Preacher Reverend Billy on America's Life After Shopping (Video)
Billy Norwich asks, ‘Is this economy a punishment from God?’ And Reverend Billy performs at the Highline Ballroom …
Hallelujah and Amen, America’s stopped shopping.
At least, according to Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, the troupe of radical performance artists who tour the country in the guise of outlandish Holy Rollers to confuse mall security guards and confound police as they sing and pray outside of mega-malls, asking shoppers to put away their credit cards. Does that mean that comic preacher Reverend Billy and the newly renamed Church of Life After Shopping have won their battle against the Wal-Marts, Starbucks and crazed consumerism that have so many burdened with so much debt?
Maybe.
According to Reverend Billy, there’s a great chance for change. He says, "Wall Street crashed, Obama rises, there’s lots of change in the air, people’s hearts are open."
It does beg the question: If we’d all listened to the right reverend, would America be in the credit crisis it’s in today?
wowOwow’s Etceterist Billy Norwich, a social and cultural commenter and a known fashionista himself, sat down last week with NYC’s Green Party mayoral candidate, Reverend Billy, and his wife, Savitri D, to talk about the New Economy and the role of the Church of Life After Shopping in it. Then we followed Reverend Billy to his March 8 fabulous worship performance at the Highline Ballroom in NYC. Here are the highlights, and the full interview follows after the jump.
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Here is the full interview
Read more about: Billy Norwich, Church of Life After Shopping, Church of Stop Shopping, Reverend Billy, The Etceterist, The Greatest Depression
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11 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
I really like your comment about God testing us. One of the things that I have been warning people about since September is that fear breeds panic ("The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!") and that makes the situation worse. If you look at the stock market trends, you’ll see how right that is.
Does that mean the situation isn’t real, isn’t bad, isn’t indeed REAL BAD? NO! But I believe it was sent from God to remind us of what our true priorities need to be. Did you see that more and more couples are staying married through the recession (mostly for monetary reasons, such as taxes, can’t afford two residences etc but hey, they may end up working it out)? Television viewing is up dramatically, meaning that a lot of people are spending more time at home with their families (albeit with the tube on). Simple pleasures are making a come back.
God does indeed test us as well: but it won’t last forever. And when the bucks do come back, maybe we, like our grandparent’s generation who lived through the Depression, we will look fondly at the simple pleasures we enjoyed during our crisis.
Maybe we just needed a good ole kick to remind us to be grateful. As Shug says in "The Color Purple": "I think it pisses God off when you pass by the color purple and don’t think to thank him." (Or something like that). There is always purple in our lives. We just need to look a little harder to find it sometimes. Thank you for a good post.
It seems to me that he is preaching against shopping because that means less money for his church.
Religion is a big money maker…. if anything gets in the way of that money (like shopping) then those involved in the church will preach against it.
Don’t you just feel so good when they start singing the first ammendment? The thrill of our American lives when we celebrate being on the right side of history! Hallelujiah!
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Great lyrics.