The Man Behind The "Shopocalypse"
In the hectic holiday season, as we charge up billions in credit card debt, everyone is urging us to buy, buy, buy.
Everyone but Rev. Billy, CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason reports.
"Stop shopping!" Rev. Billy says. "We are all sinners!"
In passionate sermons, backed by the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Chorus, he urges us not to yield to temptation.
"I want those credit cards in the air!" he shouts.
He exorcizes evil credit card demons, by taking them into his body. But Rev. Billy is not a real minister.
He is, in fact, Bill Talen, an actor and performance artist, whose shows are part political activism, part street theater.
"Your shows are almost comical sometimes," Mason said to Talen. "But you're not kidding around, are you?"
"I don't believe that spiritual people need to be super serious and boring," he said.
As Rev. Billy, Talen is also the star of a new documentary film attacking our consumer culture, called: "What Would Jesus Buy," in which his antics get him escorted out of the Mall of America and arrested … at Disneyland.
"You don't change anything without trespassing. You don't change anything without being in a place people didn't want you," Talen said.
How many times has he been arrested or had the police escort him out?
"It's in the area of 40 or 50," he said.
But the street has become his stage. The choir is all volunteer. His wife, Savitra, is the producer. Donations and grants pay for the rest.
As for Talen, Rev. Billy has become more than just a job. It's a crusade.
"It's the shopocalypse," he said. "Stop shopping!"
