At first it’s hard to take seriously a young, very blond, apparently fundamentalist Christian preacher named “Reverend Billy,” who, with his Stop Shopping Choir and the rest of the Church of Stop Shopping, leads demonstrations at Starbucks and other hotbeds of consumerism.

But this does not appear to be a gimmick. The Reverend really wants to help people break their compulsion to shop, get free of the consumerism that plagues us and often ruins our lives, and help us reconnect with what’s really important.

It is important to me that the Church of Stop Shopping exists, because I need to know that there is at least one group of people standing behind me as I begin the route of “stopping shopping” in my own life.