Monday, July 17, 2017

MLM and Televangelism/John C. Maxwell

Today's blog post is about televangelism and how it has similar features to MLMs and their major functions. Televangelism first started with radio broadcasts in the 1920's, and the first major radio evangelist was S. Parkes Cadman (Samuel Parkes Cadman). With the advent of the radio, evangelism shifted from preachers traveling the country during The Great Depression by foot to broadcasting their message through short wave radio. S. Parkes Cadman was the first major radio evangelist, and his message was spread to over 5 million people through his Sunday afternoon program. In the 1950's radio evangelism was starting to shift to the popularly recognized televangelism of today, and by the 1980's Oral Roberts had a program that reached "80% of the potential television audience". This became the most effective way to spread the word of god, and it also became a great way to make money.

Today, televangelism is still effective in making large sums of money as preachers from megachurches, such as The Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove California, can spread their word to millions of viewers. The Crystal Cathedral has been running their own television program, "The Hour of Power" since 1970, and even though it has suffered some recent complications with bankruptcy, it still exists today.

Image result for The Crystal Cathedral

One of the most prolific preachers from The Crystal Cathedral is "Dr." John C. Maxwell. John Maxwell has been involved in preaching and televangelism since the early 1970's after receiving a master's in divinity and a doctorate in ministry, and no those are not degrees from Hogwarts. His original mentor, Robert Schuller, was the founder of The Chrystal Cathedral, and John Maxwell has done sermons for his "Hour of Power" television show.

Image result for John Maxwell

John Maxwell has had a long career involving his "teachings" and is a self-regarded "Leadership Expert". He has written over ninety books, and believes there is still more leadership to be taught and written. He is also an avid MLM proponent and has done many speaking engagements at MLM functions. Although he has "retired" from the evangelism, he is still regularly hawking his services as an expert in the field of MLM training, and continues to overlap the word of god with MLM.

It is my opinion that John Maxwell is a fraud, and he uses his religious training to help perpetuate his criminal enterprise. He is another "Prosperity messiah", similar to Eric Worre, and he has made a career, and many millions of dollars, selling himself as the answer to people's problems. He, much like Worre, is a narcissist of the highest degree. He has no training in business and entrepreneurship, therefore his ability to teach in anything related to business, including MLM, is not going to be trustworthy. He has been studied by other biblical scholars, and they have found errors in his understanding and his interpretation of the scriptures. He has combined two criminal "businesses" into a major profit machine, and at the ripe age of 70, he isn't done yet.

MLM and televangelism share the same recipe for deception. They utilize the thought stopping rhetoric of religion to promote fake and or criminal teachings in an effort to extract dollars from people's wallets. John Maxwell was trained by Robert Schuller, a founder of the major televangelism movement, and has found his own technique for deceiving many millions of people. He, much like Schuller, has taken the word of god as a means to an end for profit. Instead of performing at The Crystal Cathedral, you may see John Maxwell at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and instead of promoting scripture, he may be promoting leadership and the "MLM gospel".

Below is John Oliver's special on televangelists.


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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Maxwell

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televangelism

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_of_Power

Source: http://www.johnmaxwell.com/

Source: http://midwestoutreach.org/2016/04/10/some-concerns-about-john-c-maxwell/

Source: http://theaquilareport.com/ten-reasons-john-maxwell-is-wrong/

9 comments:

  1. Maxwell is what is referred to as a prosperity preacher. He uses and twists the Gospel message to get people to bite into the pitfalls of MLM while be is grinning ear to ear as he goes to the bank.

    People should notice how he promotes and makes his bank off MLM audiences but he's accomplished nothing as an MLMer.

    I believe many diamonds probably reached the level and then got a lot of mileage selling functions and training even if they are no longer diamonds because Amway recognizes the level forever - once a diamond, always a diamond.

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    1. Joe,

      I completely agree. The first time I heard about Maxwell was around the time I was prospecting for Amway, and I didn't think much of him at the time because I didn't read any of his books and he wasn't at any of the functions. Yet, that would not be the last time I would hear the name Maxwell.

      The second time I heard about Maxwell, I was actually at a friend's birthday party and one of the friend's sisters was going on and on about Tony Robbins and Maxwell. When they asked my opinion, I boldly said they are frauds and the twisted look on her face was something I hadn't seen before. It was like I destroyed her narrative and created a massive trauma. She said something to the effect of, "Oh that's an interesting opinion" and then you could see the denial take over as she went back to her happy place. That was when I realized these guys were worse than I imagined.

      Maxwell is a true evil in this world, a wolf in sheep's clothing. I harbor no remorse for writing negative things about him, and am truly disgusted with the way he has made money. He has gone above and beyond to abuse the trust of others in the name of greed.

      I'm not a religious person, and I actually am against organized religion as a whole, but I would rather see people find purpose and community through religion than through a cult or MLM. The fact that Maxwell linked the two for the sake of earning an extra dollar is despicable.

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  2. Sorry but Crystal Cathedral is now owned by the Catholic Diocese

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  3. In 2018, Jim Bakker, one of the USA's most notorious charlatan television preachers (and there have been plenty), is still kicking around. He's lately begun preaching that Donald Trump is a latter-day King annointed by God.

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=STcgXcxOhNc

    Yet, almost 30 years ago in 1989, Bakker was convicted of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. He was fined $500 000 and sentenced to 45 years federal prison. In effect, Judge Robert Potter ruled that, although Bakker and an associate had been fêted as philanthropic millionaires and exemplary Christian conservatives by an alarming number of unthinking observers in the US media, and the political and religious establishment, the pair had unlawfully obtained at least $158 millions by peddling ‘future accommodation’ in largely non-existent hotel rooms. In his defence, it was claimed that Bakker had reinvested most of these vast ill-gotten gains in his Christian Theme Park, ‘Heritage USA,’ and that he’d only received a $200 000 'salary' and kept $3.7 millions ‘bonus’ for himself. However, Bakker’s lawyer accepted that his client had deliberately attempted to conceal his illegal activities by maintaining two sets of accounts.

    Bakker is known to have been influenced by 'Amway Diamond' Dexter Yager and at one time Bakker was an important 'Amway' shill himself.

    Before he was led (in chains between two US Marshals) to a waiting car, Bakker was found crying and whimpering on the floor in the foetal position. He later claimed to have been experiencing hallucinations in which the crowds outside the courthouse had ‘transformed into demons and wild beasts.’ As Bakker tried to hide from reality on the back seat of the Marshal’s car, a small group of his most-bedazzled followers tried to throw themselves in its path. For a while, it was feared that there might be a collective suicide.

    In 1991, Bakker’s appeal against conviction for fraud and conspiracy was denied by another federal court, but his original sentence and fine were deemed too severe, and waved. At a later hearing, he was re-sentenced to 18 years federal prison.

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    1. David --

      Thank you for that detailed summary of Jim Bakker. I recently heard about him on "Howard Stern", but I haven't followed his activities as closely. I believe he has been known to sell end of the world kits as well as shovels. The way in which he sells these products closely resembles his influences from Amway. He focuses a lot on the psychological impact of god ending the world and other nonsense. This guy needs to be locked away forever.

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  4. John - The full story of Jim, and the late Tammy-Faye, Bakker is both outrageously funny and sordid.

    I started to investigate the Bakkers when I discovered their connections with Dexter and Birdie Yager and with 'Amway' and the 'Assemblies of God.'

    Jim Bakker married young, but lived his early adult life as a closet bi-sexual. According to his own later writings, he was the victim of sexual abuse as a child.

    Bakker was only held to account for fraud in 1989, because he tried to double-cross another Charlatan Preacher, Jerry Falwell, who himself was trying to double cross Bakker.

    Probably via his confessions to another 'Minister,' Bakker's many secret sexual, and financial, sins were common knowledge amongst his fellow tele-evagelists.

    This juicy intelligence was used against Bakker as part of a twisted plot to destroy Bakker and take over his valuable Television flock.

    A voluptuous young woman called Jessica Hahn ultimately described to the media how Bakker had had sex with her in a hotel room, before performing drug-fuelled sex acts in front of her, with a male 'Minister.'

    Both Bakkers began falling apart - allowing Falwell initially to take over Bakker's empire , but when Bakker tried to speak out, Falwell turned on Bakker eventually handing over inside information about Bakker's criminal enterprise to federal agents.

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    1. David --

      Wow! I guess the expression, "No honor among thieves" applies here. The idea that these "men of the cloth" could be so evil makes it that much worse. I'm not a particularly religious person, and I believe it can be a refuge for the weak-minded, but I also believe religion is a necessity for keeping a social fabric. People, in general, need some sort of moral guidelines, or chaos will immediately ensue. It's frustrating because the United States gives very special advantages to religions and their practices, since the United States was created under these foundations. But, these advantages also allow charlatans to have an easy path for deceiving others.

      It's very similar to capitalism. Religion is the best bad way to create a basic script of moral principles so people don't go around robbing, raping, and murdering each other.

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    2. John - I presume you are accepting that religion (non-rational ritual belief) is a human-made means of control and that it can be used for both benign and evil purposes, depending on who leads it.

      That said, I very much doubt that the Israelites believed that it was perfectly OK to commit heinous crimes, until they were suddenly given commandments to the contrary.

      History proves that wicked sociopaths, psychopaths, etc, have always existed and that they will always try to commit heinous crimes, but if you want to get otherwise moral and rational persons to commit heinous crimes, then you first need to shut down their critical, and evaluative, faculties and convert them to a non-rational closed-logic ritual belief.

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