Reverend Billy: “Let us CHASE the Devil Out of Mountaintop Removal!”

By scott parkin

We’ve got some friends in New York joining the campaign to end mountaintop removal.

Today, I got the following email from Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping:

Our new song “Mountain-top” begins with this re-questioning from Dr. King’s last sermon:

Have we been to the mountain-top?
Did we do all we could do?
JP Morgan rains down rock
Exploding loans from the Devil came due…

We are joining thousands of activist citizens who have opposed the removal of peaks in Appalachia for “dirty coal” mining. In resisting Consumerism, there is always an earth-justice motive, right in front of us. We remember leading Iceland citizens into their own super malls to oppose the big dams and aluminum smelters; and we recall opposing the super ferry in Kauai; and also singing to tree-sitters up in the redwoods.

When you start with such a general plea as “Stop Shopping” – your work can go in so many directions. Now, mountaintop removal, the shopping for energy that murders citizens living on the streams below and poisons the air at great distances – now this must be our cause.

The mountain activists are welcoming us because there is a role for New Yorkers – with JP Morgan Chase headquartered here, the branch bank chain store that kills off our indie shops. We will chase Chase out into the open. We promise our Appalachian friends that this city will not protect the bank that finances most of this violence against the mountains.

-Reverend Billy and the Life After Shopping Church

Sounds like Rev. Billy and crew are joining our crusade to save the mountaintops. You may not live in the coalfields, but as Rev. Billy can attest you can still fight to end mountaintop removal from wherever you are.