Back in the 1990\u2019s Rev Billy noticed a more overt method of marketing products that was being pushed into people\u2019s lives and as a vulnerable consumer it
\n engaged him by appealing to his status and power, good looks and youth \u2013 and he was tricked into it. And it kept turning his head.<\/p>\n
Then somehow with the help of friends and teachers and the fortune of the luck of the draw - he decided to resist! He was just tired of getting rolled
\n over by the glam and whizz bang of seduction and the dazzle of neon super models when he walked through New York\u2019s Time Square. So out of these circumstances
\n he emerged out of the pavement - as a preacher on the Broadway sidewalks of Times Square.<\/p>\n
And with help of some cohorts created a theology in which Mickey Mouse was the antiChrist. Then he placed himself in front of the Disney store and began
\n to encourage and exhort people, that if they entered the Disney store and shopped - they would be sinning! You will have to listen to Rev Billy rage
\n against the machine \u2013 \u2018that they are all sweatshop products\u2019 \u2013 and that type of preaching would go on for hours and hours . And he received all sorts
\n of different responses … and he got better at it. And he got what preachers got … your whoop \u2013 yes your whoop! …. And after some
\n months he got his whoop up to speed and that he could preach at a thousand bored listless tourists, drifting like cattle and get them to consider to
\n go into the Disney store - OR NOT. And this is when Billy\u2019s Ministry began.<\/p>\n
It began in his own self-defence, but also a willingness to appear foolish and he encourages all his listeners (he laughs) to be foolish and we have to
\n cross-over from that character that we have been \u2018conditioned\u2019 to be.<\/p>\n
The American comedian Steve Martin in the movie \u201cLeap of Faith\u201d came up and Billy said that he was influenced in this role by comediennes, rock and roll
\n and jazz. He would also go to Evangelical and Pentecostal \u2018performances\u2019 where there would be grandmothers passing out on the altar and people screaming
\n - and then he states that many of those churches were right wing in their content. So he turned off the content and just learned how to preach. Listen
\n to Billy, wind up and show how it\u2019s done!<\/p>\n
Yet Billy did not really want to be a preacher, because he was brought up by abusive right wing Christian parents. However he in the end could not resist,
\n because having the backup of a choir and great music made the message even more compelling. So when he really got good at it \u2013 the Church of Stop Shopping
\n had to have a choir \u2013 and he found many people who agreed with his contention that consumerism is the devil \u2013 starting to sing his lyrics. \u2013 He doesn\u2019t
\n really know how it actually happened - he said he was lucky \u2013 it was a blessing - out of the blue \u2013 it just became.<\/p>\n
Surmising that it was partly persistence, stubbornness and the willingness to let go and be foolish.<\/p>\n
Billy states that we have to be open to the mysterious and the earth telling us in whatever subtle ways we can perceive - that the indigenous peoples have
\n been telling us from day one that consumerism and everything that it entails is not the way forward in our relationship to our great sustainer, our
\n planet. It is not the indigenous people way to just make money and conquer nature.<\/p>\n
Listen to Billy tell us what happened up in Standing Rock in North Dakota where he took his Stop Shopping Choir and that so many other indigenous tribes
\n from around our planet had converged in support of the First Nations of North America. He finds himself with the Aotearoa NZ Maori and in particular
\n their haka - he realised that they had a deep connection to the earth. Listen to here his tell his story.<\/p>\n
He said all other tribes were singing water related songs that were so very moving \u2013 that he and his Choir started crying.<\/p>\n
He mentioned that the songs seemed to have Beethoven\u2019s 9th beat - that he felt his life changing …<\/p>\n
And right next to him and the Savitri D were 15 Maori who when they dropped into their Karakia (prayer) followed by a Haka \u2018it scared the hell out of Billy
\n and his group\u201d … that knowing about other first peoples from around the world makes a huge difference to how he saw life.<\/p>\n