War on Christmas at Mall of America: Stop the Shopocalypse

Everyone on DailyKos has read or heard about the War on Christmas. The front lines of the war are on FOX News, the halls of the American Family Association, and even the Congress of the United States. The cause appears to be the commercialization of Christmas. Ironically, Christmas is being forced into stores while at the same time being removed from churches. Many churches have announced they will be Closed on Christmas day.

Reverend Billy, accompanied by his Choir from the New-York based Stop Shopping Church, drove into Minnesota on their bus tour to deliver an alternative message. Reverend Billy warns of an impending Shopocalypse, and he spread this spiritual message throughout the Mall of America. Rev. Billy blends anti-consumerism theater with the fervor of a fire and brimstone preacher. He dares ask "What would Jesus buy?" or "Why women would want to smell like J Lo?" Below the fold I have photos from his trip to Minnesota, an MP3 recording of his choir, as well as some observations about U.S. Christian culture.

Reverend Billy delivered a message to a packed auditorium in south Minneapolis, and, afterwards, he invited his audience to accompany him and his red-robed choir to the Mall of America. More than 50 persons accepted the invitation. Each was given a white or a blue robe.

At the Mall of America, Billy and his flock occupied an empty stage outside of Sears, one of the anchor stores. They began singing songs imploring people to "stop shopping". Lyrics to one song "demanded no more Starbucks, no more Disney, no more Bush, no more Cheney." This song, which is worth hearing, is near the end of my 8 minute long MP3. The lyrics to some songs are difficult to hear on the audio recording (but you can get a sense for the excitement of the event from the recording), so I have included a sample of the lyrics to one song here:

Pack the Halls with folks with money
FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA
Tis the season to be dummies
FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA
Squeeze our fat in gap apparel
FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA
Buy some junk for cousin Carol
FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA

After performing several songs to the amazement of a gathering crowd, Billy and his followers rode up and down escalators in the mall.

They ended their mission with a sermon inside of Abercrombie and Fitch, a clothing store.



After about an hour in the mall, Reverend Billy and his followers were asked by mall security to leave. The peacefully exited the mall. Mission accomplished.

Christian preachers have a potentially large audience in the United States. Bill McKibben in an article in Harper's Magazine (Aug, 2005) titled The Christian Paradox: How a faithful nation gets Jesus Wrong, reports that the U.S. "is among the spiritually most homogeneous nations on earth." He notes that "85% of us call ourselves Christians. Israel, by way of comparison, is only 77% Jewish." Given the dominance of Christianity, McKibben claims, and I agree, that nearly every statistic of American behavior represents the behavior of professed Christians. Included among these statistics are, according to McKibben's article, evidence of non-Christian-like behaviors, including ones of neglect and excess. Examples include issues that are frequent topics of discussion here on DailyKos including:

1. a rank that is second to last among developed countries in foreign aid
2. an 18% poverty rate among children in the U.S., which shows that foreign aid monies are not diverted to problems here in the U.S.
3. The most violent rich nation on earth with a murder rate 4 to 5 times that of European peers. Prisons are also overflowing with almost an order of magnitude more incarcerated persons than in European nations.
4. A death penalty which is used most frequently in states considered part of the Bible belt.
5. A divorce rate of more than 50%; The EU has a divorce rate of 40%.
6. Teenage pregnancy off the charts.
7. A national problem of obesity
8. government and personal deficits that are out of control.
9. A lack of health insurance for many US citizens
10. Homelessness in the US
11. Hunger in the US

The last two include many Kartrina victims as Shanikka's recent diary noted.

Bill McKibben believes that the disconnect between the teachings of Christianity and action are a result of many Americans replacing Christianity of the Bible with competing creeds. One such creed is taught in the mega-churches in the exurbs as well as in the media. The message is not recognized as deviant because it is just like the rest of the culture. The following quote from Harper's Magazine (Aug, 2005), summarizes this phenomenon that represents "a comfortable, soft-focus, suburban faith:"

A New York Times reporter visiting one booming megachurch outside Phoenix recently found the typical scene: a drive-through latte stand, Krispy Kreme doughnuts at every service, and sermons about "how to discipline your children, how to reach your professional goals, how to invest your money, how to reduce your debt." On Sundays children played with church-distributed Xboxes, and many congregants had signed up for a twice-weekly aerobics class called Firm Believers. A list of bestsellers compiled monthly by the Christian Booksellers Association illuminates the creed. It includes texts like Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen--pastor of a church so mega it recently leased a 16,000-seat sports arena in Houston for its services--which even the normally tolerant Publishers Weekly dismissed as "a treatise on how to get God to serve the demands of self-centered individuals." Nearly as high is Beth Moore, with her Believing God--"Beth asks the tough questions concerning the fruit of our Christian lives," such as "are we living as fully as we can?" Other titles include Humor for a Woman's Heart, a collection of "humorous writings" designed to "lift a life above the stresses and strains of the day"; The Five Love Languages, in which Dr. Gary Chapman helps you figure out if you're speaking in the same emotional dialect as your significant other; and Karol Ladd's The Power of a Positive Woman. Ladd is the co-founder of USA Sonshine Girls--the "Son" in Sonshine, of course, is the son of God--and she is unremittingly upbeat in presenting her five-part plan for creating a life with "more calm, less stress."

Although there is nothing inherently wrong with reducing stress and the other things mentioned in the above quote box, McKibben notes that the more radical teachings of Jesus to focus on others, especially the poor, are being ignored. In fact, the bestsellers listed above mirror the bestsellers in the secular culture, and that's the point. Remove the quotes from the scripture from these books and they will still serve their purpose. That's McKibben's thesis. Three quarters of Americans believe that a Ben Franklin quote - "God helps those who help themselves" --- is Holy Scripture and that this uber-American value, rather than the teachings of Jesus, "guides our current individualistic politics and culture."

Many Christians focus on the plight of the poor and criticize the self-indulgence of our culture and the commercialization of Christmas, but they seem to be in the minority. It's ironic, though, that one of the most vocal critics on the national stage is Reverend Billy, who is not a reverend but an actor. Reverend Billy has a more authentic message than some real preachers. It's a paradox indeed!

Here are links to Reverend Billy's web site as well as more of my photos from his visit to the Twin Cities.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Kossacks!