But I’m also very much aware of the reality that Mormon culture breeds these kinds of companies for a variety of reasons. Here are ten:
Insularity. Mormons tend to be trusting, especially of other Mormons. We tend to want to believe that other Mormons are good, because surely if they know and believe in the gospel then they want the best for other people and aren’t trying to cheat people out of money.
Money as a blessing. Mormons may not know what the phrase “prosperity gospel” means, but many believe in the principle that if someone has money then they must be blessed by God.
An unusually high number of SAHMS. Mormons encourage women to stay at home, but these days that leaves many families to struggle for any extra income. It also means that Mormon stay-at-home moms use their time to try to make money for extra things.
Easy mobilization. Mormons have a built-in network, complete with phone numbers, physical addresses, and emails. They may not think twice about using this information to send out invitations to their “parties” about a new product/brand that is also an MLM, even if using ward lists for business purposes is against the rules of the church.
Door to door experience. Former Mormon missionaries are used to sales techniques. They’re not afraid of rejection and they are sometimes very aggressive.
The personal touch. Mormons are used to hearing testimonials and connecting that to “deeper” truth. Some might argue this means Mormons are particularly vulnerable to anecdotal evidence.
Big claims. Mormons often hear people scoffing at our religious ideas, our founder, and our scripture. Because we’ve grown accustomed to that, we may be more likely to shrug off criticisms even when we shouldn’t.
Top-down structure. Mormons are comfortable with a hierarchical institution where people at the top know more than people at the bottom, and to paying money “up-stream.” I know this may sound like a crude way of describing tithing. But looking at it from the outside, there are certain similarities.
naïvété. Mormons have a tendency to believe that they are “chosen” or “special,” and may be more easily led to believe that an opportunity has come to them from God rather than dismissing things that are “too good to be true.”
Skimming the surface. Sadly, Mormon church meetings do not lead Mormons to ask hard questions. Instead, we may be more vulnerable to being led to ask the questions that people want us to ask. If a question/answer format is offered, we may not think more deeply.
It’s such a big problem that LDS apostle Dallin Oaks wrote a book about Mormons and Get-Rich-Quick Schemes in 1988, when he worried that members of the Church may be “specially susceptible to materialism.”
More recently, multiple news organizations have also written on the topic (see here and here). But as far as I can tell, there aren’t any significant changes happening.
My Mormon friends, this has to stop. If you are selling something, please don’t confuse that with our church. Don’t use our ward list to target people. Don’t sell your product over friendship with people. You might think it’s not a problem, but it is. I guarantee that you have friends who are pulling away because you are pushing this too hard on them and are having problems distinguishing the gospel from your MLM solutions.
I am sure most of you are unaware but there is anecdotal evidence that the 116 lost pages revealed that Moroni was also a peddler who would simply ask his clientele to pray about the quality of his goods.
"Any over-ritualized religion since the dawn of time can make its priests say yes, we know, it is rotten, and hard luck, but just do as we say, keep at the ritual, stick it out, give us your money and you'll end up with the angels in heaven for evermore."
MLMs should be outlawed or at least discouraged more by the church. Instead the church promotes these a$$es to higher positions like the Nu Skin idiot Lund https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Lund
"Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology." - Kishkumen
You should see how often the convention center in SLC is packed with MLM conferences. My wife and I often go to the Maverik downtown to get coffee after we hit Planet Fatness and I think we've noticed six MLM conventions this year.
Poor guys. Their upline is killin' it and they just throw money at these things. You'll see HUGE office buildings in the valley with their MLM signage and after seeing these conventions it all makes sense. Think about how these businesses are raking in to afford 10 or 15-story office buildings. It's crazy.
- Doc
Last edited by Guest on Wed Jun 21, 2017 7:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:You should see how often the convention center in Salt Lake City is packed with MLM conferences. My wife and I often go to the Maverik downtown to get coffee after we hit Planet Fatness and I think we've noticed six MLM conventions this year.
Poor guys. Their upline is killin' it and they just throw money at these things. You'll see HUGE office building in the valley with their MLM signage and after seeing these conventions it all makes sense. Think about how these businesses are raking in to afford 10 or 15-story office buildings. It's crazy.
- Doc
Overhyped product sold hyperaggressively through conformity, family manipulation...sounds familiar...
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: My wife and I often go to the Maverik downtown to get coffee after we hit Planet Fatness and I think we've noticed six MLM conventions this year.
Over on the other thread weren't you saying something about how your straight maleness is so red-blooded it goes all the way back to when you were eight? So, between eight years old and now when did you get your balls removed?
Planet Fatness is the crap. I can get cardio done and simultaneously watch homeless people meander up and down 400 South (downtown SLC for non-locals) for 20 bucks a month.
- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
To help Mormons who were losing their money to scams, a senior Mormon Leader (Oaks) wrote a book about it and then....sold it to them...
Do I have that about right?
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
I have a question wrote:To help Mormons who were losing their money to scams, a senior Mormon Leader (Oaks) wrote a book about it and then....sold it to them...
Do I have that about right?
You have quite a talent for highlighting the real essence of an issue.
David Hume: "---Mistakes in philosophy are merely ridiculous, those in religion are dangerous."
DrW: "Mistakes in science are learning opportunities and are eventually corrected."
Mak noted Oaks comment It’s such a big problem that LDS apostle Dallin Oaks wrote a book about Mormons and Get-Rich-Quick Schemes in 1988, when he worried that members of the Church may be “specially susceptible to materialism."
Delicious irony from a head of a multi-billion buck church......
Dr CamNC4Me
"Dr. Peterson and his Callithumpian cabal of BYU idiots have been marginalized by their own inevitable irrelevancy defending a fraud."
