From The Front Lines Of The Localujah Revolution!

Great Changes Since WWJB

Rev - I just watched your video "What Would Jesus Buy". Very enjoyable - and very true. I've been preaching the same thing to my sons for years. Commercialism is ruining what should be a very special holiday - but its not only Christmas. Easter is just as bad - and the other holidays are getting nuts too.

I try not to buy anything at Wal-Mart - and I have found out that when I do need something - I usually go to a Salvation Army Family Store - or Goodwill. I figure that even if the item is from China - some body else bought it - and anything I pay for the item goes to a good cause. And yes, you get some great items at these stores. Mom and Pop stores are sadly becoming a thing of the past - I remember a mom and pop candy store we used to walk too as kids - long gone - another bit of Americana disappearing.

Keep up the good work Rev. - and your chorus sounds great!!

Jeff

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Dear Jeff - I'm glad you liked our movie, which now - three years old! - comes back to those of us who are in it as a pleasant surprise every shopping season. Now coming up on Labor Day and the fall, Buy Nothing Day looms. We won't be going off across the country in the same way as in the film, flying this time, but the great challenges (or we would say MORTAL SINS) of Consumerism and Militarism are still there. The great change that has taken place in this three year period is that the Earth has risen up and is enacting its sometimes deadly responses to our consumption... The Earth promises us that there is a Life After Shopping!

-- Rev

We All Shop Wrong Sometimes

Dear Reverend, I have a confession to make...

Yesterday, I don't know what came over me, but I did a horrible thing. Maybe it was the pressure of the economy, maybe it was the sadness that my bank account feels, maybe it was a moment of weakness and lack of self-respect... but, I actually shopped at a Walmart.

I know, I know, I feel extreme disgust with myself and haven't even stepped foot in a Walmart in years! I don't agree with the company and how they source their products, how they treat employees, and how they disguise the filth that they are into happy faces everywhere.

As I usually support my local businesses and vendors, I have no idea what came over me. I was uncomfortable the whole time. I knew this was not something I truly supported myself in doing. And even when I walked out, knowing I had handed my well-earned money over to this place, I was harassed outside by a Mickey Mouse kiddie ride that was blaring "It's a small world". And as I held back the vomit in my throat, I realized... it's not a small world! It's a large, beautiful world. But, I am only making it smaller by ignoring the fact that there are people all over the world trying to make a living. Craftsman, artisans and factory workers in third world countries that are being oppressed by corporations like this! I can't believe I did this!

I work for a democratically run, worker-owned, Fair Trade company who supports small farmers all over the globe. And to think, If I ever gave up on these farmers and bought cheaper, blood soaked produce elsewhere, what a horrible world this would be.

Please forgive me!

Jamie 

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Oh well Jamie we forgive each other in advance, you know, because we all shop wrong... thanks for writing and good luck with the discipline. Looks like your heart is in the right place. ---Rev
 

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PREVIOUS LETTERS

Not Trapped By Junk

Hi all--
My wife and I just saw the film "What Would Jesus Buy?", and I wanted to take a minute to thank you and encourage you. Years ago, I was a Trappist novice; the Trappists are a Catholic monastic congregation that follows the Rule of Saint Benedict. One of their monastic vows is a vow of poverty, and one of the great gifts a vow of poverty bestows on those who accept it is that it allows one to separate oneself from all the dross in one's life, take a deep breath and a step back, and experience one's completeness, and the truth of being made in God's image. There was nothing quite like the giddy freedom of selling all of my junk, giving the money away, and walking away from the illusion that my possessions somehow completed me. I hope that in your work you can help other people to experience this-- to turn from those mute monetary idols which can never love them back, and to seek the true God and the people he made who will love them.

Wishing you peace and joy,
--bart

Temptation On Steroids

Dear Reverend,

After a Christmas spent watching my eight year old daughter melt down in the American Girl Doll Store in Los Angeles because she couldn't decide how to spend the FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS she had received from my family, I saw the light. We are not a wealthy family, and that money could have gone to more practical things like clothing and a new windshield for our car. Pray for me and my resolution to think before I buy and to teach my daughter the same values.

Lisa

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Dear Lisa,
I sense that you're using the $400 outlay last year to push off into a better kind of (and less costly kind of) giving for the holidays. Just don't be down on yourself too much. Our experience is that guilt isn't a very high quality motivator, Amen? And yes we will pray for you and your daughter, Lisa, and we pray for ourselves too, because god knows this consumer-world is temptation on steroids and we're just human... --Rev

Come Happy

Dear Rev,

I heard about you from my boyfriend a few years ago and forgot about your whole movement. After seeing you on the news (loved what you did with the dirt, ha ha!), I began to really ponder the whole "stop shopping" thing. First off, you're right. I was fortunate to have parents that warned me of the evils of materialism, but it goes deeper than that.

I don't understand what possesses people to spend their entire lives working for the goal of acquiring more physical things. I used to work a full time job and I still bought a lot of stupid things. Now, I work from home and make 1/4th my old salary. All my money goes to rent, bills, and food. And you know what? This is the happiest I have ever been in my entire life. I have good friends, decent health, and a mind. Every day I am amazed at the mere existence of life in this vast universe. There's so much we don't know, and so much more to discover. But I digress.

I wish people understood where "profits" really come from. We live in a contained system with a limited number of resources. It seems to me, that in such an environment, that a profit can only really exist at the expense of another. Anyhow, you've got the right message. Preach on!

Best wishes, Liz

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Dear Sister Liz:

Well, you said it. Profits haven't helped. Maybe they did once long ago - but their killing us now. On my mind just now: There are whole towns in Mexico where all the men are gone. They are up here serving us food, cutting flowers and taking care of our yards. In this case, the "profits" are for the subsidized corn industry in the United States, which wiped out family farming in much of Mexico. We, unthinking, under-write this "free trade" with all the corn products we put in our mouths, in the plastic of our packaging, etc. etc. Meanwhile, these families are suffering that separation. This is efficiency? This is "good for the consumer?" No, it's just another distorted market with very rich people at the top. We nned to: "Stop Shopping!" Thanks for writing Liz, looks like you stopped... and got happy!
-- Rev

From New Mexico

Dear Rev: I was watching "What Would Jesus Buy?" and really related to the point made about people not hearing or not wanting to hear the message. It is a hard struggle to undertake to make sure that what you do makes any difference at all. I wonder all the time if any of the things I do to make sure that where I shop is local and that what I buy is from US workers paid a fair wage makes any differrence. But i decided recently that the only person I need to make sure I can stand to look at is the one looking back at me in the mirror. I have to work hard to make sure that a day doesn't come where I don't recognize that person as someone I respect. I just wish there were more people in the world like you and your group, people who are really trying to make a difference. -- Matthew (Robbin) in New Mexico


Dear Robbin: Yeah I definitely know that feeling of can-I-make-a-difference. And you're right, the answer must be that YES. Certainly the marketing juggernaut that comes down on us tried to persuade us that the big economy will move on anyway - that there is only one game in town. Every once in a while I feel the need to do something as dramatic as possible, and can't do it, can't pull it off sometimes. Now we're trying to let the mountain rise inside the bank that's financing it's demise, Chase vs. Appalachia.

Thanks for contributing to our mailbag - Blessings and Wildness! ---Rev

Just The Basics

I just watched 'What Would Jesus Buy' and I was blown away. I had heard of the Church's work in passing before, but I had never fully investigated it. My fiance and I are in the process of moving into our first house, and it was during the packing process that we both came the realization that we had FAR too much 'stuff.' Because of our crazy schedules (I am a graduate science student, he is a computer engineer), we found it necessary to move only the essentials at first. We lived for one week with our basics, and found ourselves laughing at the absurdity of our possessions one night over dinner.

The documentary was brilliantly done, and your message was beautifully conveyed. At one point in the film, Savitri D says that she really needs for their work to make a difference to someone. I would like to thank you, Savitri D, and the entire Church for your inspiring courageousness. The message has certainly reached me, and I am excited to tell others.

Wishing you and yours all the best,  Amanda

Join The USO!

I am the wife of a now retired military vet, and I'd love to see you get your message out to armed service personnel. Every military town I have visited (and in my travels as a tag along, there have been a LOT!) is filled with payday loan places, Wal-Marts and pawn shops because there is such ignorance about money. These are generally young families, and they deal with the stress of military life (and deployments especially) by shopping and buying things for the kids to make up for daddy or mommy being away. I know this from first hand experience-- my hubby got hazardous duty pay, separation pay, combat pay and other additions to his check when he was deployed, and we came out of it actually DEEPER in debt, and had nothing but shiny new trinkets and plastic crap to show for it. I finally wised up (no, new shoes won't make things easier, make me worry less, or keep him safe) but there are hundreds of thousands of military families who need to hear the stop shopping message. So, what do I have in mind? Why, I think that Reverend Billy should join the USO!!
Amy
 

I am a Wal-Mart employee

...in dire need of an exorcism. I have been with the company for over ten years and have watched our benefits and company policies crumble year after year in the name of profit. From the aggressive campaign to win the consumer over during times of recession and strife, to multiple layoffs weeks before the christmas season of desperate seasonal helpers, struggling to make ends meet. I personally have watched as positions have been eliminated for elderly associates in order to schedule them later and later. Respect for the individual and the open door policy exist in this world by name only. My testimony is a bit broken, but I have truths to tell. -Joe
 

The Rev Responds

Dear Joe,

We read your letter this morning in Brooklyn. It is very powerful and we know that you do have truths to tell. We will in our lifetime re-arrange our economy so that human values are not downsized for profits. We are still all getting on the same page, but more then ever Americans are ready to act. Do we have the faith? It starts by winning on the local level, and hundreds of Wal-Marts have been thrown out or not invited in - to communities aroused to its abuses. Change-a-lujah! -Rev

Dear Rev,

Congrats! May God bless you! Consumerism is a mask of Satan and you are ripping it apart in style.

We are based in Chennai India. India is also in the grip of consumerism and we need to do your act in India also. Could we link-up? Perhaps we need to do this in the local vernacular and rock the place....malls are creeping in every where and ruining the happiness of small enterprises.

We are also planning to offer a climate change consciousness certification program as a part of climate change management program to be done in industrialized nations and your unique method will surely reach the people and would like to associate in this regard also.

Our ethos is founded on the Gandhian principle of simple living and hight thinking.

yours truly,
Yaseva

 

Dear Rev Billy,

My husband and I worked in the corporate world making lots of money and we would go shopping all the time. We filled our home with stuff we never used or wore. We would buy stuff for hobbies we never had time for. Our quality time consisted of shopping together. After years of this, we felt empty. The holidays were more about stress than love and togetherness. We felt like there wasn't any meaning anymore.

On a business trip, I read an article about downshifting and we were hooked. We started to give away and donate all those useless items. We got rid of almost half our "stuff". We stopped shopping as much and really started to pay attention to where our stuff came from and our eco-footprint.

When the recession hit and we lost our high paying jobs, it was a GIFT. We're both poor full time college students now. We're working on getting our degrees so we can do what we really want to do in life vs doing whatever jobs will make the most money. Making money to buy "stuff" just isn't fulfilling enough anymore. We've decided that we can do a lot more with our lives with a whole heck of a lot less junk.

I saw your documentary on Netflix today and I just wanted you to know that even though we are non-Christian, I agree with your message and there are probably a lot of other people of other faiths out there who would also agree. It would be interesting to see you guys team up with a Jewish temple and an Islam mosque.

Keep preaching and keep getting the word out. What your church is doing is important in so many different ways. :)

Sincerely,
Liz

Hey Rev!

You are doing a really cool job! I walked by you the week before Christmas with a Macy's bag in Union Square. I kinda' hid out of worry that you'd shout me out. I think you just got there anyway cuz' it was the early afternoon. It was just one item and I should've gotten' the shouting anyway cuz' it's Macys. Thanks for fighting the good fight.

Thank you and Peace,
Javier

Hello Rev Billy and my greetings to the Choir...

I just have just finished watching the the WWJB movie. While I cannot honestly admit that viewing this film has changed my life, I can admit that it has reaffirmed some of my beliefs. I am so happy to know that groups like yours even exist. I thought that I was a freak. I made most of my Christmas present this year (and last), which was a truly weird concept to the rest of my family on the left coast. It felt truly original and sacrificial to do so, in the sense that I mean that it was worth the time spent creating them.

Please keep up doing what you are doing. Even if you reach only one soul in 10 thousand, you have reached that one soul and they are ready to listen.

Thank you all for doing the hard hard work. And please thank the choir for their great part in all of it. The message is never lost, but sometimes is is hard to deliver. Keep the faith my friends!

My best always,
Rayne

Dear Rev,

I really enjoyed your What Would Jesus Buy video. I would love to get a cd of all the songs, songs that aren't on the other cds like What Would Jesus Buy and a few others. The songs and the message is incredible but I would love to sit and play it all through the year and at Christmas.

Patrice

Hiya Rev!

Just watched the movie What Would Jesus Buy? and thought it was great!

My family this year did not buy presents we just visited friends and shared a lunch together as a family.

Please keep up your good work and god bless

Regards,
Shane

Dan in Kansas writes:

I just watched What Would Jesus Buy? and was thoroughly embraced by a warm and holy feeling.

I would like to inform you of my attempt to celebrate my first shopping-free Christmas. I have informed friends and family that I will only accept home-made gifts and will only be giving the same (art, music mixes, food preserves). Although I always try to give meaningful and creative gifts, I always seem to receive products made in third world countries.

In the movie Savitri voices frustration that it seems you are not making a difference. I assure you, you are! Perhaps you aren't getting through to the true shopaholics, but preaching to the choir is important. I often feel alienated from this society, as though I am the extremist, as if caring where a product is made and the effects of purchasing it have is irrational. After getting to know you all I feel as though I am part of a movement. A holy crusade of conscious consumerism!

Now I must preach to my mother, a queen shopaholic. The domino effect is at work here.

Keep up the holy crusade.

Love and blessings,
Dan

Alex in Colorado writes:

I just finished watching "What Would Jesus Buy". I have to commend you for your courage and taking a stand against injustices and other bad things that human beings have brought upon each other. It's unfortunate that good things, such as Christmas, get manipulated and twisted because of our greed. You are on the right path and what you are doing is making a difference. I'm sure there are times when it feels hopeless. Don't give up. You are our voice. You are making a difference. I thank you for your hard work in shedding light on this subject. I will do my part to spread the message. Keep up the fight! Hallelujah!

-Alex

Christmas 2009 from Allison in Pasadena, California

Dear Brother Billy,
Thank you for your good work, and great film What Would Jesus Buy? My gifts to family this year included two photographs I took and gifts in their names to World Vision: soccer balls, medicine for children, and mico loans to single mothers. There are few reminders in our current culture of the humanity of Christmas--your work is a relief in this Bosch-like vision of hell, brought to you by WalTargetDisneybucks.

I will help you spread your gospel of Life After Shopping. There will come a time when we will reject the artifical light of a megastores and step outside to the sunshine--leaving behind the bags, goods made by children, and things we don't need in the consumerist coffin.

Changealluah Brother, we will need it for 2010.
Sincerely,
Allison H.