Heavenly consumption

America’s culture of Mammon is
examined in What Would Jesus Buy?

SOUL SAVINGS: Reverend Billy

by MATTHEW HAYS

Like this week’s other agitprop feature-length doc I.O.U.S.A., What Would Jesus Buy? feels strange precisely because its prophetic warnings have come so true. This doc follows the performance artist Reverend Billy on his road trip across the USA, as he warns people of the horrors of a culture built on conspicuous consumption. Of course, now we’re watching the film as capitalism is having its very own End of Days.

Thankfully, that doesn’t detract from much of the fun here. Director Rob VanAlkemade guides us through various publicity-inducing stunts by the good Reverend, in which he warns of the coming Shopocalypse—an epic, biblical end that will come due to people spending way too much money on things unnecessary.

Sometimes Billy’s stunts are particularly hilarious. When the gang go Christmas carolling, the expressions on people’s faces as they listen to re-jigged lyrics are telling; one teen lad, in particular, seems rather concerned that the moral of this song might sink in with his parents, meaning he won’t get the stuff he so badly wants. Other stunts simply get repetitive; in order to gain valuable media attention, Billy falls back on one strategy: go to Wal-Mart, Toys R Us or some other retail giant, begin railing against the capitalist machine through a bullhorn, get arrested, move to the next mall or establishment and repeat.

WWJB? takes us deep into the heart of childhood, showing clearly how Christmas is essentially a consumer boot camp. Experts testify to the number of hours children are exposed to ads targeting them. A solid global connection is made when the filmmakers venture to developing nations, to illustrate that many of the toys American children consume are made by other children in alarmingly inhumane conditions. Here, the film could have used another international detail: in some Scandinavian countries, advertising aimed at children has been banned outright.

WWJB? culminates in a visit to Disneyland—a fitting pit stop in a country where establishments built for consumption have supplanted the church. But unlike a Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock film, WWJB? lacks the running gag, the through-line, that a doc of this sort requires. Ultimately, it’s an astute, if imperfect, critique of a national culture of greed.