I looked twice when I saw that Reverend Billy was scheduled to perform his “Earthalujah” show as part of the Centro Hemisférico and FOMMA’s series “Diálogos Hemisféricos” in San Cristóbal de las Casas this week. Then I looked again.
Reverend Billy? The protagonist of the 2007 documentary “What Would Jesus Buy?” The OBIE winning artist/activist behind “The Church of Stop Shopping” and its many forays into free speech via satire and gospel music? ¡No puede ser!
Oh yeah. Puede ser.
Billy Talen, known publicly as Reverend Billy, performed “Earthalujah” at FOMMA in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas on Thursday, August 4, 2010 to a house full of young artists and tenured activists, many of whom traveled to Mexico for the Hemispheric Institute’s course on “Art and Resistance,” taught, in part, by the Reverend and his wife, Savitri D.
As of January, the Church of Stop Shopping is now the Church of Earthalujah and, as Billy announced to his audience in Chiapas, they have 80-90 congregants in their home of New York City—members from all over the world who are “agnostic or…recovering from organized religion.” (We laughed.)
The Rev’s not-quite-religious work goes back to ’99, when he preached all by his lonesome in Times Square about the demons of consumerism. Today, under Savitri’s direction, the Church of Earthalujah boasts a 40-person gospel choir who sing about social and environmental responsibility and accompany their fearless leader on tour/in protest, frequently blurring the line between the two. (Reverend Billy and the Choir recently “exorcised” the Tate Modern in London to “cast out the demon” of the art museum’s BP oil sponsorship.) Unfortunately, the Rev couldn’t haul his choir down to southern Mexico. But, like a good shephard who misses his flock, he frequently referred to them during the service as if they were there.
Talen isn’t a caricature—the Rev is real. When you enter the space, he is there, greeting you like any traditional evangelical pastor might: “Welcome to church.” But there is no organ to be found here—the “church-goers”/audience members jam to salsa, R&B, pop. Some congregants choose to dance in the aisle before the service starts—the Rev joins them.
When the performance finally begins, people are ready to worship and Savitri starts the service with a generous thank you to the women of FOMMA and master artist/Hemisférico faculty member, Jesusa Rodriguez, as well as the students, artists, and thinkers in the “congregation.” Reflecting on the sacred mountains of Mexico, Savitri bestows a warm blessing on the crowd, telling us, “I hope you radicalize your dreams, your hopes, your futures” and, although I have not participated in the Hemisférico course, I feel as though I have been invited to be part of a community for the next hour or so.
“Earthalujah!” Reverend Billy says powerfully, with his hand raised to the heavens, and he proceeds to explain the Church’s mission. “At this church we are mindful that the life of this Earth is endangered.” He invites congregants to make Earth sounds. Immediately, the space erupts into a thick jungle of howls and chirps. Earthalujah. Praise be.
What follows is a well-known tradition in Baptist churches across North America—Reverend Billy asks the congregation for “God sightings” or stories from the Earth that surprised or unnerved us. “It’s testifying time!” he shouts breathlessly and people slowly begin to share testimonials, their sightings ranging from sunflowers and butterflies to dirt under one’s fingernails, and white bread on the roof of one’s mouth. (I want to shout “Amen!” but I’m not about to confess my guilty enjoyment of white bread.)
Before the Reverend takes the pulpit, Savitri recites what seem like well-worn lines, affirmations of the Church’s beliefs: “We believe in the sacred science of the seed,” she says with prayerful solemnity. “And we believe that love gives us courage and courage makes love.” We repeat along with her. Love gives us courage and courage makes love. Earthalujah.
Now the plato fuerte—the sermon, which lives up to every fire and brimstone pulpit pounding I have ever seen (and I have experienced spirited Baptist church services all over the United States of America). Only, instead of proselytizing about the “Elvis Presley” of Christianity, as he calls Jesus Christ, Reverend Billy shouts and sweats about big banks, mountaintop removal, and the First Amendment. And he does it through the prism of the church in San Juan Chamula, located just a few miles outside of the city.
The Reverend was impressed by how the Mayans in Chamula placed John the Baptist, not Jesus Christ, at the center of their church’s altar—a powerful symbol of resistance, especially according to a guy who was raised by people who, as he said, “strapped Jesus to my face.” Nope. The Mayans, Reverend Billy tells us, sidestepped J.C. and opted for the crazy guy in the river. Bringing the parable home, he charges us to “do to the corporations and the big banks what the Mayans did to the Spanish god.”
As the sermon reaches its height, congregants offer up genuine Amens and Earthalujahs. Indeed, the Reverend speaks the truth. His is not an empty schtick but a very real profession of faith—faith in life, love, and the First Amendment in the midst of what he calls “the extreme degradation of the Earth.” There is an urgency to this faith, an urgency that the Reverend also points out in the push prayers uttered by the worshipers in Chamula, and, as he concludes the service, he vows to carry their spirit with him as he returns with his family to Brooklyn.
Reverend Billy, Savitri D, and Lena
Were the Choir present, I’m sure we would end the service with a hymn or musical benediction, but, the sweat-glazed Reverend simply concludes his sermon and dismisses church-goers, who immediately proceed to “fellowship”—another familiar church tradition.
As a child of the Christian church, I found Reverend Billy’s Earthalujah service to be quite comforting, especially in the heart of Chiapas, such a long way from home. But, the truth is, I was expecting more spectacle and less spirit. What I got was more of a religious experience than I’ve had at a “real” church in years. Back when I was a Bible believer, Sunday morning served to energize and focus me on what I believed mattered most. Today, as an activist and a concerned citizen of the Earth, Reverend Billy’s “show” did just that. I left the space eager to re-devote myself to the “activism that is required of us by the Earth” and I felt buoyed by my new community of friends and Earth lovers who, for one special night, worshiped together in the rainy streets of San Cristóbal de las Casas, remembering the other Earth lovers who started a revolution there 17 years ago.
Earthalujah. Praise be.
Wow, this sounds incredible. Thank you so much for sharing this. I was a little unsure what this post was going to be about first of all as I’d never heard of Reverend Billy or his work and saw the word ‘Reverend’ and (as an atheist) was a little put off. But it sounds like and his choir do some pretty amazing stuff.
Hi Ceri–I think a lot of people grate at religion but the Rev is genius in how he uses the whole evangelist schtick to create a TRULY spiritual experience in his services. The message is the Truth! Love! Earth care! Non violence! Human rights! Earthalujah