Praises! Just in time for Black Friday, it’s Reverend Billy’s big screen debut, What Would Jesus Buy?

Reverend Billy is the alter ego of the surprisingly soft-spoken Bill Talen. But, in character — a cartoonish salute to the stereotypical, bouffant-headed evangelical minister — Reverend Billy calls down hellfire upon the consumerist excess of modern living.

Talen and his performance group, the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, turn up at Wal-Marts and Starbucks stores across North America, speaking out against corporate labor abuses, the demise of small, community-owned business, and commercial culture. He’s stopped traffic and shopping from sea to shining sea. Now and then, Reverend Billy gets himself arrested.

What Would Jesus Buy? is drawn from the Church of Stop Shopping’s 2005 tour. It opens in limited release this week, a not-so-coincidental juxtaposition with the biggest shopping day of the year.

Need a quick shot of that Old Time Anti-Consumerist Religion before venturing close to the mall? This YouTube search shall lead you in the path of stop-shopping righteousness. Amen, and amen.

Link: The Church of Stop Shopping; image by Fred Askew