Christian Marketing

[Doktor Avalanche]

In the words of the late William S. Burroughs:

If you're doing business with a religious son of a bitch, get it in writing. His word isn't worth sh*t, not with the good Lord telling him how to f*ck you on the deal.

[Brandybuck]

Why the Christian connection with MLM? I have no idea, but I suspect it comes form Rich DeVoss. When I did a bit of Amway twenty five years ago, there was a lot of talk about how it was the Christian duty to get rich. Some Amway meetings were indistinguishable from church services.

p.s. Amway was sad. They had great products, but no one ever bothered to sell them. For the effort of recruiting one person to downline you could have sold $5000 worth of product instead.

[GoldandSilverEagles]

Why the Christian connection with MLM? I have no idea, but I suspect it comes form Rich DeVoss.

I agree. The Devos and Van Andel were dedicated Christians.

When I did a bit of Amway twenty five years ago, there was a lot of talk about how it was the Christian duty to get rich. Some Amway meetings were indistinguishable from church services.

Very true. Fortunately times change. About 15 or so years ago, the leadership functions started including a non denominational service as a part of their Sunday agenda.

p.s. Amway was sad. They had great products, but no one ever bothered to sell them. For the effort of recruiting one person to downline you could have sold $5000 worth of product instead.

That all depended on the organization you were a part of. Some organizations, (the smarter and more profitable ones,) emphasized retail sales, while others ignored the requirement and turned the business/business opportunity into a wholesale buying club which was a violation of the Code of Ethics.

[Doc Bunkum]

And now we have...

Operation Promised Land - Your Pathway To Financial Freedom

... started in Florida by a pastor named Dr. Duane Broom for the Faithful!

You've just got to click on "The Guy" link to see Darrell (a colored guy) up on stage with all his generation charts and what not explaining why this is not a scam.

Absolutely a hoot!

[wserra]

That is a good one, Doc. Why, in the video to which you link, the guy even draws a convenient chart of a pyramid. Helpful.

How does one do it? Why, it's easy:

STEPS TO EMPOWERMENT

1. VIEW the video’s so you can embrace the vision and concept of COMMIT 2 COLLECT

2. If you see it, If you like it, If you want it, SIGN UP

3. Find 2 people that trust you and are trustworthy, SIGN THEM UP

4. Using your LINK, contact 3-5 people and send them to the website

5. Start the process again.

No product in sight. From this description, it's no more than an electronic chain letter.

[Doc Bunkum]

Then we have the team of Jason Breakey and Cameron Sharpe who started Ultimate Singles, aka Ultimate Introductions, who portrayed themselves as a Christian Dating Service.

A Former Employee comments:

I worked for this company for three days I was trained by Cameron Sharpe aka Barrett Stone, He was a very intimidating individual, still displayed himself as a very wealthy individual walking around in designer clothes, carrying around his brand new Apple Iphone and MAC laptop all over the place. He would have meetings with the staff twice a day saying that he was hired by Jason B. to trick us into making money. In every meeting he was very intimidating and always used very vulgar language. My third day I was sitting at my cubical where Barrett was standing talking with Jason about how they needed to go back to the bar and buy more drinks for the ladies so that they could get more pictures for their website. They were using pictures of hot girls so that they could make them profiles and use them or cities all over the country to trick men into buying a membership...

You only need search Ultimate Introductions or Cameron Sharpe to see the complaints and lawsuits over that deal.

Now Cameron Sharpe has graduated to iJango.

So bad is this one, that in fact even the BBB put out a warning about it - Better Business Bureau Warns about iJango, Possible Pyramid Scheme .