Radical Christianity

Savitri Durkee was born in New Mexico. She directs the radical performance community known as The Church of Stop Shopping and lives in Brooklyn.

The Church of Stop Shopping is an activist performance group based in New York City, led by Reverend Billy (stage name Bill Talen). Using the form of a revival meeting, on sidewalks and in chain stores, Reverend Billy and the gospel choir exhort consumers to abandon the products of large corporations and mass media; the group also preaches a broader message of economic justice, environmental protection, and anti-militarism, protesting sweatshops and the Iraq War. While it continues its street theater activities, the Church has also appeared on stage, has toured internationally, and most recently was the subject of a feature length film by Morgan Spurlock called “What Would Jesus Buy”.

Zack Exley is a founder and president of the New Organizing Institute, and also works with ThoughWorks as a consultant to organizations, businesses and leaders. He directed the online campaign for the British Labour Party’s 2005 re-election, and was Director of Online Organizing and Communications at Kerry-Edwards 2004. Before that, he served as Organizing Director at MoveOn.org, and was an adviser to the early Dean campaign. Zack spent the 90’s working as a union organizer. He blogs at the HuffingtonPost and ZackExley.com. In September 2007 he launched RevolutionInJesusland.com, where he blogs from the road, scouting “the fourth Great Awakening”. This evangelical “revolution” is the fastest growing and most surprising of American social movements today. From mega churches to tiny country churches, evangelical Christians are rediscovering the “gospel of the God of the oppressed.”