Weekend Economists Deck the Halls Christmas Day 2013

[Demeter]

45. The Church of "Stop Shopping": Meet the Man Leading An Uprising Against The World’s Biggest Banks

http://www.alternet.org/activism/church-stop-shopping-meet-man-leading-uprising-against-worlds-biggest-banks


Reverend Billy is no stranger to the law. Recognizable by his trade-mark attire: a white suit, black shirt and clerical collar, the activist performer known as Bill Talen has been arrested alongside his activist choir group, The Church of Stop Shopping, more than 70 times in his decade-long crusade against consumerism, corporate commercialism and militarism. The Reverend has graced sidewalks, banks, parks and businesses world-wide passionately preaching political satire since he moved to New York in the 1990s upon where his character Reverend Billy was born - a hybrid of a street evangelist preacher and Elvis Presley. Talen appeared as a sole performer preaching anti-consumerism in Times Square, before expanding his one-man performance act in 1999 to a 40-person choir and 5-person band.

Since then, Talen has written extensively on economic systems and environmental practices, has been featured in Morgan Spurlock’s film, “What Would Jesus Buy?”, and built a performance empire on community action and catchy gospel hymns performed by The Church of Stop Shopping's choir such as “We are the 99%”, “Revolution” and “End of the World”.

In recent years, the group has shifted its focus away from consumerism and towards large corporate banks which Reverend Billy argues are responsible for global warming, based on a five-year study by BankTrack.Org. The research found that big banks such as JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Deutsche Bank and HSBC create climate change by actively paying money to companies that pour carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir's latest show, ‘The Extinction Resurrection Campaign’, which premiered in New York in November, projects a pretty straightforward yet powerful message: the banks are destroying the earth and thus must be held accountable. The Reverend weighed in on his latest environmental crusade to AlterNet following his performance.

“We’re trying to invent a new kind of activism that comes right from Sandy and Haiyon and tornados, droughts and fires. We’re trying to take the earth’s message into our bodies and souls by venturing into the banks and going into the corporations that are creating climate change which our research indicates includes Chase, HSB and Citibank. There are also big hedge funds that are more mysterious that we can’t get at right now, but we’ll find out who they are. The bottom line is we have to go there in person. We have to educate the people who work there. We have to rise up and invent a new type of activism,” he said.

Rev. Billy and his 'Church of Earthalujah' are intent on stopping these banks through this campaign, alerting people to the climate crisis and the destruction of diversity by haunting the “big banks through extinct animals”, specifically by staging a number of demonstrations where group members perform as various extinct animals, thereby connecting biodiversity to the banks and the climate change crisis on earth.

“Coal-fired power is responsible for about 40 percent of greenhouse gases. New power plants costs billions and so are dependent on banks. Banks are business partners in Big Coal and Big Oil. Beyond the fracking, tar sands, deep sea-drilling and leaky pipelines, are the aluminum smelters, the hydro-dams, copper and gold mines. Throughout the earth, carbon dioxide emissions increase each month, as the storms, droughts and fires grow more and more tragic…as the extinction of life forms grow worse,” Reverend Billy stated in his performance pamphlet.

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Watch Reverend Billy invade Chase bank with his audience on Nov 24: