(Trailer can be downloaded for QT and MPG formats)

I had the opportunity to talk with Bill Talen, the actor whose Reverend Billy persona is central to the film What Would Jesus Buy? While he approaches the problem of materialism from a secular point of view (although using religious imagery), I was interested if there was a spiritual aspect to his work as well. Some excerpts from our conversation shed some light on the way that even a person coming from a secular perspective understands the spiritual nature of the problem.

We have found that “backing away from the product,” as we say repeatedly in our songs and in our sermons—if you are able to pull away—back away—that your soul, your body, gives you a signal almost immediately the way that things change when you fast or when you’re addicted. And that’s a good metaphor because shopping is addictive for so many people. When you’re not on your drug of choice for 90 days or a year and you find yourself walking through the park and suddenly you’re bursting into tears, something is happening because of this new freedom you’ve given yourself. We find that when we back away from consumption that memories and relationships and dream fragments and things from when you were a child that you forgot—down in your body, down in your soul, suddenly there’s a signal that goes out, “It’s okay; we’re home clear.” That’s what we call the fabulous unknown; that’s the Mother/Father/Creator. We find that when the people that we counsel, who come to our services, who email us, when that has occurred, a transformation can take place—a post-consumer life can begin.

I experienced this myself long ago and that is a message I bring to other people.

Because of the religious imagery, I asked if this was offensive to some.

We have significant support from the evangelical community, as well as the sorts of Christians associated with Sojourners magazine. That has been gratifying. We sit in the audience together and we respect the challenge of the work of resisting consumption in 2007. We have that in common.

I think that there have been some people who have been offended, but there haven’t been as many Christians offended as corporate types who see a broad critique of the big corporate agenda. I think they see that their religion is being directly attacked. I’ve never had a person who felt there is sacrilege in our using religious imagery. I’ve never felt the same anger from any Christian as I have from a Wal-Mart manager, for instance. He considers himself as a priest (or she considers herself as a priestess) in that new church—the High Church of Retail as we call it. And they’re really upset. They think we have run up on their altar and become blasphemous.

At the end of the interview, in talking about what is going on with The Church of Not Shopping this winter, he reflected a bit of the religious underpinnings of challenging consumption and materialism, even though he clearly wants to be seen as not religious.

I believe that there is a gathering of people from many cultural and religious backgrounds to guard their personal faith—to grow their personal faith—by the rejection of the golden calf. I sense in the many people of faith that we encounter that they each have their own throwing the moneychangers out of the temple parable. I think there’s an opportunity. There have been a lot of religious wars lately. In resisting consumption, which is a worldwide phenomenon, it might be a unifying kind of love that crosses many borders. Amen.