Reverend Billy is a spiritual leader and political activist from New York City. The "Church of Stop Shopping" is led by its director Savitri D and the church's 40-voice gospel choir and band are also New York City residents. From there they launch campaigns to protect neighborhoods from chain stores and the big box invasion. Starbucks and WalMarts - but any of the "sweatshop companies" - are Devils in the church, while the Saints are the hard-working proprietors of independent shops. Last year's hit feature documentary, What Would Jesus Buy?, produced by Morgan Spurlock, is based on Reverend Billy's movement and is being released on DVD in time for the holidays.

Blog Entries by Reverend Billy

Early This Morning

Posted November 13, 2009 | 07:42 AM (EST)


Sounds in all the trees! The wintry wind in the old park. This is the earth's version of a fantastic New York neighborhood. The back and forth up inside an old oak is like the cussing wind in a happy bodega. I stand there in the darkness under it, and...

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Glad I Ran

1 Comments | Posted November 3, 2009 | 03:06 PM (EST)


I feel closer to solving the riddle of activism in 2009. We've known how conservative the Democrat/Working Families and the Republican/Independent parties are. It's Coke and Pepsi, it's McDonald's and Burger King. The two party system enforces a strict censorship. We had to experience first-hand the harsh silence of it....

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Sad I Ran

Posted October 29, 2009 | 10:55 AM (EST)


I'm personally confused by what happens to us. We make a terrible agreement when we are in subways together, out in traffic or on bicycles, going to work, tending to our children. I try to catch the sales job as it hits us, but I miss it. Everyone in this...

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A Good Mayor

1 Comments | Posted October 21, 2009 | 04:20 PM (EST)


We have myriad emergencies in our city. What would a good mayor do?

What needs to change is how we live. That's the point of change. We are already standing on our movie set. The drama, the make-or-break, is right here. There was once a phrase,...

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The Heckler

2 Comments | Posted October 15, 2009 | 05:11 PM (EST)


Three weeks to go to the election. Two nights ago I interrupted Mike Bloomberg's opening statement in the debate. We're trying to poke through the $65 million TV screen that weighs down on us in Gotham City. My prayer for bravery was posted with you earlier yesterday, "...There is something...

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On the Obama Peace Prize

4 Comments | Posted October 10, 2009 | 03:41 PM (EST)


Now we have to change all our words around.

I never thought of Peace as a word that was moveable. All our words have been shifted by Consumerism and Militarism. Democracy is gone, America and Freedom are gone. Peace always stayed there in one place.

Peace patiently waited for...

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A Peace Activist Thinks About G-20 Again

1 Comments | Posted September 28, 2009 | 05:10 PM (EST)


We're flying home for a labor rally in front of Goldman Sachs as G-20 continues Friday afternoon. The last 24 hours in Pittsburgh leave me with a shudder. The miles of concrete and steel fencing, and the thousands of Robo-Cop imitators -- have come into all of us. We deal...

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The Stranger in Everyday Life

Posted September 23, 2009 | 06:31 PM (EST)


Seated by my window as the sun rises. Monk's Dream on the blaster on top of the fridge. Our neighbors are arguing. Their voices, an Irish father and a Dominican mother, rise into notes of the birds and the jazz in our backyard of air.

Last night's "Jane Jacobs Night"...

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Thinking About The G20 Meeting In Pittsburgh

Posted September 23, 2009 | 04:39 PM (EST)


The nation-states act like adolescents. Every diplomatic vowel that comes from an open mouth has the shout of peace in it, but the leaders can't hear this. Are the ministers jealous of peace? Are they angry that it sustains us every day, more than any weapon or corporation? They act...

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Harlem -- Night Before The Primary

Posted September 16, 2009 | 06:14 PM (EST)


The Harlem Committee for Ethical Politics hosted a candidates' forum at St. Mark's the Evangelist Church on 138th Street. My friends from Picture the Homeless were there in force: Lynn, Carlos, Cynthia and Premo. Mayoral candidate Tony Avella came, and Public Advocate hopeful Norman Siegel, too. As the Green Party...

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Changing History Was Never Like This

1 Comments | Posted September 5, 2009 | 01:54 PM (EST)


Many of us believe that change comes from the marketing of a faster, bigger computer, a product that comes over us like a soft tsunami. More billions of us believe that the most basic change must come from a fundamentalist God, who will kill us or resurrect us. And so...

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It's Our Democracy, Stupid!

1 Comments | Posted August 24, 2009 | 05:25 PM (EST)


Sometimes I'm asked how is it that our odd candidacy is catching fire for voters in New York City.

Its because we have one great wedge issue. We've seen abortion, prayer in...

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New York's Consumerism

2 Comments | Posted August 10, 2009 | 11:24 AM (EST)


Consumerism is a deadly invention that came over our American culture in the last 30 years, dating back to Ronald Reagan, but getting much worse in the Clinton and Bush eras. It's how most of our society is organized. Our church defines Consumerism in the classic way: It is economic...

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The Singing Manifesto (Dedicated to Joan Baez)

Posted July 31, 2009 | 07:09 PM (EST)


We are all erotic politicians. We use our bodies to break into public space. Then we open our mouths. It's what people do who know how to control powerful institutions while standing on the ground outside. Here in the Apple, we are warming up our voices, growing the volume of...

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Michael, Diana, John and Yoko

Posted July 10, 2009 | 02:22 PM (EST)


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The end of MJ's memorial, with Germaine Jackson singing "Smile" by Charlie Chaplin - said it all. When we have a figure that through luck and talent and tenaciousness gets out on that stage in front of us, with handlers like corporations and governments...

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Freedom and Broadway

Posted June 24, 2009 | 09:22 AM (EST)


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It is right and necessary to protect the most basic American rights in a famous commons like New York City's Times Square. Free speech and the right to gather peaceably should not be limited by gun-carrying police, or "renta-cops" hired by private agencies, or...

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Democracy On The F Train!

Posted June 10, 2009 | 01:30 PM (EST)


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My campaign for the office of Mayor of New York City is now in its third month. I am the Green Party nominee, and our 40 voice Life After Shopping Gospel Choir, is fervently faithful. Its as if our whole community is the candidate....

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The Case of the Compassionate City

Posted May 5, 2009 | 07:33 PM (EST)


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What does an illegal bull-horn in Union Square have to do with a chain store booting out an old diner in West Queens? We work for the Compassionate City and we need the answer.

This investigation starts with a hunch: If I stand in...

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The Reverend Billy Position Paper On Banks

Posted April 19, 2009 | 10:22 PM (EST)


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Register the bank branches/ATMS with the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia!

The Reverend will release a new report that shows that there are so many identical bank logos everywhere that New York City children are getting lost walking home! "It's...

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Gateway to the Final Shopocalypse

Posted April 8, 2009 | 03:10 PM (EST)


This lost soul, Brian Lindstrom, calls his brain-scanning of the minds of religious people the key to the "Future of Branding." He apologizes for offending someone -- but that is the plot's McGuffin, a head-fake. What this guy is doing is smoking out the last remaining independent humans. He...

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