N.Y. Activist Preaches Deliverance From Retail

"It's gotten to the point where to have an experience, you have to buy something," he said.

Christian groups have offered mixed interpretations. Brett McCracken in Christianity Today wrote, "Yes, it's condescending. Yes, it cheapens Christianity." But, he added, the Rev. Billy's whole argument "is that our commodity culture has already cheapened Christianity."

Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann wrote in this month's Sojourners magazine: "Rev. Billy is a faithful prophetic figure who stands in direct continuity with ancient prophets in Israel and in continuity with the great prophetic figures of U.S. history who have incessantly called our society back to its core human passions of justice and compassion."

That didn't help the Rev. Billy here yesterday, on the high holy day of his church. Across the country, people camped out and lined up in the dark in front of retail stores to spend, buy, consume. In Manhattan, some people were so excited to be shopping before dawn that they ran from store to store, whooping and waving their bags.

The Rev. Billy had come with green-garbed elves who picketed and chanted ("What do we want?" "Nothing!" "When do we want it?" "Now!") and a red-robed choir singing a sweet-voiced backup ("Stop shopping!" "Stop shopping!").

He prayed and proselytized until he was freezing and losing his voice, but by sunup, he got not a single convert. "It's just push, push, push," he said.

As his choir paraded up Broadway, passersby swayed with the singers, proclaimed the Rev. Billy a man of God and agreed with him about the ravages of consumerism -- "It's true!" said Abraham Riera, 38, a dentist visiting from Honduras. "But we like it," said Riera, entering the Toys R Us store.