<P> The Choir often write songs that draw attention to the environmental and consumerist campaigns championed by the Church of Stop Shopping . They have accompanied Talen into the lobbies of multinational banks such as JP Morgan Chase or research facilities belonging to Monsanto, dressed as golden toads and honeybees, singing songs in support of the day's sermon . One of their best - known songs is The First Amendment, an incantation of the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution, sung rapturously by soprano Laura Newman . </P> <P> In addition to protest performances throughout a given year, Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping have organized various campaigns focused on consumerist or environmental issues, often highlighting a particular company they feel best symbolizes the issue . The group stage actions in public spaces near the targets of their actions, or in the lobbies, halls, and plazas of the building owned by the companies they protest . Their sermons and songs routinely draw the attention of police and security forces assigned to those spaces, leading to arrests and significant media coverage . Talen and Savitri D have been arrested more than 50 times during their actions, though their charges are almost always reduced or dropped . </P> <P> Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping staged numerous actions around New York City in their formative years . In 2000, after performing a Christmas show the New School's Tishman Auditorium, Reverend Billy led the congregation and members of the audience from the stage to the Poe House on West 3rd Street in Manhattan's West Village . There, the Reverend held a protest reading of "The Raven" atop the scaffolding over the soon - to - be-demolished home where Edgar Allen Poe had finished writing the famous poem . After the reading, Talen was arrested and jailed . </P> <P> After September 11, the Church and Choir met routinely in the Path Station near Ground Zero and sang the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution into their phones as commuters passed by . The crowd of singers sometimes reached up to 200 participants . </P>

Rev billy and the church of stop shopping