« Prospecting Sucks! | Main | Happy New Year! »
December 31, 2003
'Are They Selling Jesus With the Soap'
By QBlog in
Found an article from The Triad World about Quixtar, Christianity and the motivational organizations. The article, "Are They Selling Jesus With the Soap," primarily focuses on the Sunday morning Christian worship services offered at many of the motivational rallies.
Most people don’t want to get involved in anything like Amway or Quixtar; going door to door to sale and recruiting new distributors.Turns out The Triad World is a Christian newspaper, owned and run by the "largest Christian newspaper business in America, "World News Publishing. While the journalism in this article isn't quite New York Times caliber it makes for an interesting read nonetheless.But one of the aspects of the Amway/Quixtar business that most people don’t complain about is the overt Christian emphasis that is displayed at the rallies, events, and in the motivational material.
Some will tell about their Christian faith; how it changed their life, and that they view their Amway/Quixtar business as their ministry for God.The reporter, Nathan Ray Thomas, contacted Quixtar public relations and asked if Quixtar was "blurring the lines between Christianity and retails sales."
“Yes and no,” according to Robin Luymens, Manager of Public Relations for Quixtar. IBO (Independent Business Owner) Rallies are held and financed by top IBO’s: Crown Ambassadors (the top), Crowns (next down), Triple Diamond, and so on. “Quixtar doesn’t sponsor any conferences,” he said.Thomas even got a quote from Robert FitzPatrick:“We try to separate Christianity as much as possible from Quixtar,’ but he cautioned, “[Quixtar] doesn’t necessarily know every detail of what [the IBO’s] are doing. When people call in to complain, we get back to the IBO.”
When the pilgrims arrived here, he explained, they not only had religious freedom, but economic freedom as well. Fitzpatrick said that along with the freedom, the virtues of responsibility, honesty, and charity went hand-in-hand with free enterprise.The article ends with a quote from a woman who has a somewhat negative view of Christians as well as MLM businesses:“But now, the MLM’s have taken away the responsibility aspect,” and all that is left is the money-and God.
Dean thinks the wedding of Christianity and MLM’s promotional pitches cannot all be laid at the promoter’s feet.Anyway, go read the article. Is it great journalism? No. But it's a good read and provides a bit of insight into the "Christian perspective."“The reason Christians are so attracted to these things is because they are selfish and greedy. The organizations are simply tapping into that greed.”
Is it? Seems pretty damned one-sided to me. I'd say this is more of an Op-Ed than actual Journalism, but yeah, that's all the New York Times is, anyway, so whatever.
I love how the writer puts words in the Manager's mouth.
' [The reporter] contacted Quixtar public relations and asked if Quixtar was "blurring the lines between Christianity and retails sales."
“Yes and no,” according to Robin Luymens, Manager of Public Relations for Quixtar. '
That's not what the Manager said. Not at all. The manager said that Quixtar doesn't sponsor meetings and doesn't know all of what the speakers are saying. And I wouldn't be surprised if they don't care, either.
But this guy apparantly doesn't seem to care about what his interviewee was actually saying nor the truth of the matter. He's got an agenda and it's plain as friggin' day. His sources were, what? From what you've posted it looks like two negatives and one positive. Way to be balanced there.
Yeah, I wouldn't go so far as to say this is a "Christian perspective" or even a "Christian Newspaper." Looks more like one liar trying to jab at another liar and holding no punches.
Well let me tell you a little story about a Kettle named Black.
Posted by: Dwighty | December 31, 2003 10:57 AM