WHERE WOULD JESUS SHOP?

"Christmas is so last week - now comes the real meaning of the Season, the January sales - starting in December!" Yup, the consumerthon continues. Debt crises, globally and locally, be damned! But there are sceptics around, and one of the most vocal is wonderful US actor and activist Bill Talen, a.k.a. 'The Rev Billy' of The Church of No Shopping. Recently, Talen and his wife Savitri Durkee discussed consumerism at a special Sojourners screening of 'What Would Jesus Buy?' (a YouTube film available here). See also A profit without honour? and Start Your Own Church: Retail Interventions. (By the way, Christmas goes on until 6 January... and in a non-consumable sense, isn't for 12 nights. It's for life. Er, read all about it.)

Pic: No, not satire - believe it or not. It's the cover of a "prosperity gospel" teaching CD. The hobby horse of the apocalypse, perhaps. This stuff sells millions, terrifyingly enough.