The Preacher and the Billionaire - the Battle for New York's soul

From John Steinbeck's Preacher Casey to Father Barry in On the Waterfront to real-life spiritual leaders like the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the downtrodden and powerless have turned to men and women of God for help in times of struggle. While he would no doubt reject such comparisons, the Reverend Billy Talen is cut from the same cloth. His message of humility and rejection of the cult of shopping we are so deeply caught up in makes him one voice with a message most spiritual women and men would agree with...if they had the backbone.

Now, in a modern day David Vs Goliath, the Good Reverend is taking the battle against run away consumerism to the Big Apple. Refusing to just give in, roll over and play dead as the Michael Bloomberg mayoral machine pushes everyone and everything aside in search of a third term, Rev. Billy Talen has announced that he will take on Bloomberg this fall as the nominee of the Green Party.

Bloomberg seems to see New York City as one big economic machine, damaged by deep recession and criminal activity on Wall Street. He willingly signs up for millions of taxpayer dollars to build baseball stadiums for the Mets and Yankees while cutting such basic human needs as education, homeless services, healthcare and environmental protection.

The Rev. Billy by comparison sees New York City as a city of neighborhoods. From West Brighton to Jamaica Hills, from Battery Park City to Bedford Stuyvesant, from Astoria to Bensonhurst, each neighborhood has a special quality and special needs. While Bloomberg believes that dollars, mostly from taxpayers, can fix any problem, Talen believes that the inner goodness of people and the values New Yorkers hold dear are the source of real solutions to their problems.

One might ask, how will a bask-to-basics preacher with a Pompadour hair style and a televangelist ring in his voice get his message out to the voters against a billionaire news mogul? One way is to take advantage of his "weakness" and find the people where they live. In their neighborhoods. In their streets. In their bodegas, mom-and-pop stores and in their parks. He will also reach them, and a world wide audience, on Internet Radio.

The weekly Internet radio show Green Party Watch Radio, an interview program from Green Party Watch, will webcast a special interview with Rev. Billy Talen March 14th at 5 PM East Coast Time. The program, which will be retained as a podcast at GPW Radio after 6 PM that same day, will give Rev. Billy a chance to explain his goals for the campaign, the ideas behind the Church of Life After Shopping, why New York City is really a city of neighborhoods, and will answer the age old question, "What would Jesus buy?"