What Would Jesus Buy??

Ok for those of you who do a lot of blog hopping for Green ideas, you've probably run across this documentary before.

I watched this documentary after seeing it on No Impact Man's blog and the title quirked my interest.
Being that I'm a Christian I was expecting to be offended, but I wasn't too offended. Mostly I was a bit taken back by the message of the documentary.

The main point of the documentary is consumerism and how it effects us during Christmas. Here's a quick synopsis of the film from their website,

"What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt!

From producer Morgan Spurlock (SUPER SIZE ME) and director Rob VanAlkemade comes a serious docu-comedy about the commercialization of Christmas. Bill Talen (aka Reverend Billy) was a lost idealist who hitchhiked to New York City only to find that Times Square was becoming a mall. Spurred on by the loss of his neighborhood and inspired by the sidewalk preachers around him, Bill bought a collar to match his white caterer's jacket, bleached his hair and became the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. Since 1999, Reverend Billy has gone from being a lone preacher with a portable pulpit preaching on subways, to the leader of a congregation and a movement whose numbers are well into the thousands.

Through retail interventions, corporate exorcisms, and some good old-fashioned preaching, Reverend Billy reminds us that we have lost the true meaning of Christmas. What Would Jesus Buy? is a journey into the heart of America – from exorcising the demons at the Wal-Mart headquarters to taking over the center stage at the Mall of America and then ultimately heading to the Promised Land … Disneyland.

Will we be led like Sheeple to the Christmas slaughter, or will we find a new way to give a gift this Christmas? What Would Jesus Buy? may just be the divine intervention we’ve all been searching for.

The Shopocalypse is upon us … Who will be $aved? "

For those of you who know me personally, you all know I'm a BIG Disney fan and worked for them for nearly 5 yrs. While working there, I did come to realize that the products were being made in sweatshop factories and made mostly in 3rd world countries. It was just a tad uncomfortable. So watching that part of the film was hard--especially seeing Mickey nailed to a cross. THAT I found offensive.

My only critisim of this documentary is Rev. Billy while his message is AWESOME and I think SO important for consumers to understand, but he gets so crazy-preachy that he ends up sounding so out there that people in the film tune him out. Rev. Billy is one of those people who want to spread a message that is very valuable, but then its drowned out by all his yelling and rantings that it just gets harder to make out or want to hear. Sort of like the preachers standing on the street corners screaming about how you are going to hell. You just start to ignore it after awhile. However, because he has his own choir and band he draws more attention then a solitary person.

The film made me think a lot though. Some of the statistics they said was we (being American's) spend less then ONE HOUR a WEEK at church and over FIVE HOURS shopping on average and America has enough shopping space to hold everyone in North America, South America and Europe. That is EVERY man, women and child in them people! Does that just BLOW your mind like it does mine??? I mean, that is just WOW. I makes me really sad to think that we have THAT much shopping space.

The documentary I highly recommend you see--if for anything to educate yourself about consumerism and how it effects us during the holidays. It really made me think about this upcoming Christmas.
This is NOT a video preaching about Jesus. The whole idea of him being a preacher is part of his show and presentation. They do have on their website resources for christians if you are wanting that.

If you are a big Starbuck and Wal*Mart lover (*sigh*) you will be uncomfortable with this film. They do believe Wal*Mart is the biggest problem with consumerism. I don't put blame on Wal*Mart. I put blame on people. We need to change our way of thiking when it comes to "stuff." Rather then wanting to shut down places like Wal*Mart we need to educate people about WHY they need to THINK before they shop. Yes, I do agree we should support our local businesses and I try to do that as much as possible. More on that in a later post.

If you have Netflix it is a Instant Watch film you can watch on your computer. That was how I watched it. No need to wait for the DVD! Man I LOVE Netflix (I know, shameless plug).

More on consumerism later folks. Go watch the film and if you HAVE seen it, I'd love to know your thoughts! Thanks!