The 'MLM' racket has been feeding stolen money to 'dominionist' groups

From 'The Universal Identifying Characteristics of a Cult' (Axiom Books, copyright David Brear 2005)

Deception. Pernicious cults are presented externally as traditional associations. These can be arbitrarily defined by their instigators as almost any banal group (‘religious’, ‘cultural’, ‘political’, ‘commercial’, etc.). However, internally, they are always totalitarian (i.e. they are centrally-controlled and require of their core-adherents an absolute subservience to the group and its patriarchal, and/ or matriarchal, leadership above all other persons). By their very nature, pernicious cults never present themselves in their true colours. Consequently, no one ever becomes involved with one as a result of his/her fully-informed consent.

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Numerous  'Amway Diamonds' have been core-adherents of the 'Assemblies of God,' and/or an organization known as the 'Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI).'

In the past, the 'Amway' racket fished many of its American victims from within the many congregations of the 'Assemblies of God' and other 'neopentacostalist/dominionist' churches, where 'Multi-Level Marketing' was openly sold as an 'entirely-ethical Christian Business Opportunity' by members of the 'FGBMFI.' Indeed, many 'Amway' victims were already conditioned to defer unconditionally to the imaginary moral and intellectual authority of their Ministers. As such, in its original American version, 'Amway/MLM'  can be described as a 'neopentacostalist/dominionist affinity' fraud, perfectly-tailored to fit the existing 'Prosperity Gospel' beliefs of its economically-aspiring, mostly-white, male, Protestant victims.

Richard and Helen DeVos

Dick and Betsy DeVos

The DeVos clan, has been one of the most-important financial backers of 'dominionism' in the USA. This extensive transfer of stolen money has been largely-conducted through the 'Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation' and the 'Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation.' 

Betsy DeVos is the sister of 'fundamentalist Christian' and  'dominionist,'  Erik Prince, the instigator of 'Blackwater.'

Luis Palau

As well as the Ministry of televangelist, Luis Palau, 'Dominionist' groups listed as being in receipt of 'Amway' cash include:

-  The Coalition for National Policy

-  Focus on the Family 

-  Traditional Values Coalition

-  Foundation for Traditional Values

-  Campus Crusade for Christ

-  Prison Fellowship Ministries

-  Gospel Communications 

-  Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services (a 'dominionist'-run 'mental health' facility)

 - Ave Maria School of Law (a dominionist law school)

-  Coral Ridge Ministries

In 2005, it was reported that 'DeVos Foundations' had officially given more than $5 millions to 'dominionist' groups. 

'Amway Diamond,' Dexter Yager,  has been another important contributor of stolen cash to 'dominionist' organizations. 

Pastor Doug Wead with President Bush

Pastor Doug Wead  c. 2010

'Assemblies of God Amway Diamonds' have included, Pastor Doug Wead, who at one time was a White House adviser to President George Bush. Wead is credited with teaching Bush how to identify with 'dominionist' voters and with introducing Bush to 'dominionist' leaders.

Pastor Leo Mark Godzich

Jean or John Godzich

It is interesting to note that US-based 'dominionist' groups have been in receipt of cash stolen from all around the globe. So-called 'MLM direct selling' companies have also been used as Trojan Horses to recruit non-Americans into the 'Assemblies of God.' Doug Wead has been a long-time associate of former 'Amway Diamond' Jean (or John) Godzich and his brother, 'Assemblies of God Pastor,' Leo Mark Godzich. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1T657rMOiY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbhlUnzEA2g&feature=related

Currently, Doug Wead and Jean Godzich are promoting an 'Amway' copy-cat 'MLM income opportunity' racket known as 'Xango' in which an endless-chain of victims have been persuaded to hand over regular payments in exchange for an effectively-unsaleble fruit juice (promoted as a 'health tonic'), and to recruit their social contacts to do the same. 'Xango' seems to have been particularly active in Russia, where Doug Wead and Jean Godzich have been making regular visits.

Pastor Leo Mark Godzich baptizing a French 'GEPM' adherent, 1994

Jean Godzich ostensibly ran the same 'dominionist/MLM income opportunity' racket in France during the 1990s behind a corporate labyrinth known 'GEPM' or 'le Groupement.' A media investigation revealed that numerous core-adherents of 'GEPM' had also been persuaded to buy over-priced tickets to fly to the USA where they were secretly baptised into the 'First Assembly of God' by Pastor Leo Mark Godzich in Phoenix Arizona. Previously, Jean Godzich had been an 'Amway Diamond' in France and 'GEPM' was originally formed by approximately 8000 followers of an 'Amway Network' summarily-excommunicated from 'Amway' after being described as a cult by the French media. However, since 2007, an international arrest warrant has been outstanding for Jean Godzich, after he was convicted (in absentia) and sentenced to 3 years prison in France, and fined 500 thousands Euros, for illegally transferring around 6 millions dollars of his 'GEPM' company's social funds to the USA prior to it being declared bankrupt by a civil tribunal in 1995. 'GEPM's' capital assets were deemed insufficient to cover its debts after it had been successfully sued by a substantial group of destitute former 'Independent Business Owners' on the grounds that it was a fraudulent pyramid scheme. Mysteriously, all criminal charges of fraud against 12 'GEPM' leaders were first dropped after a brief trial held in the city of Evreux, Normandy, in 2000. However, one of the legal advisers to the prosecution was a representative of the so-called 'French Direct Selling Association,' of which 'Amway' was a member. Tellingly, Jean Godzich (who held French and American passports) had already fled to the USA (from where he cannot be extradited) in order to avoid being held to account in France. 

French media analysis of the 'GEPM' labyrinth
 (published 1994, under the title 'A Business with the Flavour of a Cult')

Despite the result of the trial in 2000, between 1987 and 1995, approximately 300 thousands French and Belgian citizens were churned through the 'GEPM' closed-market swindle and related advance fee frauds a.k.a. 'tool' scam. The illegal profits (which were secretly exported by Jean Godzich and his 'GEPM' associates, via a labyrinth of corporate structures, to Doug Wead and his 'Amway Diamond' associate, Dexter Yager, in the USA, without payment of tax) certainly totalled hundreds of millions of dollars, but no rigorous criminal inquiry has ever been pursued into what actually lurked behind 'GEPM.' 

In the face of media investigation and exposure (triggered by complaints gathered by the French cult advice Association for the Defence of the Family and Individuals, ADFI), in November 1994, approximately 1500 paranoid 'GEPM' adherents, including some employees of 'GEPM,' descended on ADFI's offices in Paris. The building was occupied for several hours, documents stolen and a senior ADFI volunteer, Matthieu Cossu, was obliged to make a video statement that 'GEPM' was not a cult. Prior to these disturbing events, Jean Godzich had tried to give a 'donation' of one million French francs to ADFI. When this was refused, he financed the creation of a reality-inverting association to 'campaign against mental manipulation.'

Yet again, when the wider-picture is examined, the 'MLM income opportunity' fraud known as 'GEPM,' and Jean Godzich's attempts to obstruct justice and isolate his US-based bosses from liability, are revealed as being only a small part of a pattern of ongoing, major racketeering activity (as defined by the US federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 1970, and clarified by subsequent US Supreme Court judgements).

In plain language, 'GEPM' was just one of a herd of corporate,Trojan Horses used to bypass the rule of law in individual states around the world, and steal billions of dollars from tens of millions of ill-informed victims, whilst the gang of narcissistic American thieves who directed the construction of this vast and mystifying criminal enterprise, and who continue to distribute a proportion of its illicit profits to their de facto criminal associates within the American political and religious establishment, have (so far) not been held to account.

David Brear (copyright 2012)

'Amway/MLM' has been 'Dominion Theology' dissimulated as an 'income opportunity'

From 'The Universal Identifying Characteristics of a Cult' (Axiom Books, copyright David Brear 2005)

Monopoly of information. The leaders of  pernicious cults seek to control all information entering not only their adherents’ minds, but also that entering the minds of casual observers. This is achieved by constantly denigrating all external sources of information whilst constantly repeating the group’s reality-inverting key words and images, and/or by the physical isolation of adherents. Cults leaders systematically categorize, condemn and exclude as unenlightened, negative, impure, absolutely evil, etc. all free-thinking individuals and any quantifiable evidence challenging the authenticity of their imaginary scenarios of control. In this way, the minds of cult adherents can become converted to accept only what their leadership arbitrarily sanctions as enlightened, positive, pure, absolutely righteous, etc. Consequently, adherents habitually communicate amongst themselves using their group’s thought-stopping ritual jargon, and they find it difficult, if not impossible, to communicate with negative persons outside of their group whom they falsely believe to be not only doomed, but also to be a suppressive threat to redemption.

False justification. In pernicious cults, a core-group of adherents can be gradually dissociated from external reality and reformed into deployable agents, and/or de facto slaves, and/or expendable combatants, etc., furthering the hidden criminal objectives of their leaders, completely dependent on a collective paranoid delusion of absolute moral and intellectual supremacy fundamental to the maintenance of their individual self-esteem/identity and related psychological function. It becomes impossible for such fanatics to see humour in their situation or to feel pity for, or to empathise with, non-adherents. Their minds are programmed to interpret the manipulation, and/or cheating, and/or dispossession, and/or destruction, of inferior outsiders (particularly, those who challenge their group’s controlling scenario) as perfectly justifiable.

'Assemblies of God' meeting

'Assemblies of God' baptism

The 'Amway' racketeers have dissimulated, and propagated, a frighteningly-familiar fiction entitled 'Dominion Theology' taken from 'Neopentecostal Churches;' particularly, the 'Assemblies of God.' 

According to 'Dominion Theology,' Satan stole dominion over the world after the fall of Adam.' Adherents of this typically- two-dimensional plot-line believe themselves to be 'God's Army' on a divine mission to 'reclaim dominion' over all things physical and spiritual. Thus, behind the apparently banal commercial label of 'Amway, Multi-Level Marketing, direct selling, income opportunity, business,' etc. we find the pernicious game of make-believe known as 'Name it and Claim it' a.k.a. 'Blab it and Grab it' a.k.a. 'Confess and Possess' a.k.a. 'Prosperity Gospel.' The most fanatical 'Amway' followers have totally-believed that they are morally and intellectually superior beings who can take what they desire simply by 'naming and claiming dominion' over it. However, at first, this has been presented to 'Amway' recruits in the non-religious terms, of 'self-betterment, positive thinking, visualisation, dreaming, goal-setting,' etc. 

For decades, the 'Amway' racketeers have used a labyrinth of (apparently independent) corporate structures to peddle millions of copies of the works of Napoleon Hill, E. W. Kenyon, Robert Schuller, Norman Vincent Peale, Don Gossett, etc. - essentially-identical, so-called 'self-betterment' authors/speakers who all found fame and fortune by transposing, and updating, the ancient religious concept of 'entering paradise through prayer and blind faith' into the more contemporary terminology of 'obtaining health, wealth and success through visualisation and 100% positive thinking,' but who also employed selected passages from the 'Bible' (taken out of context) in a practice known as 'scripture twisting.'

In this way, the 'Amway' racketeers have employed the deceptive tactic known as 'stealth evangelism,' or 'bait and switch evangelism' in which they have offered a demonstrably-fake 'income opportunity' which they have steadfastly pretended to be based on friendship and trust, and on 'helping others to achieve success,' but which has actually been designed to convert ill-informed individuals to a self-perpetuating, non-rational, esoteric, ritual belief system for the clandestine purpose of their exploitation       

At the dark heart of the 'Amway' labyrinth has lurked the classic, paranoid, cultic model of reality that all humans are either part of the group and for 'God,' or outsiders for 'Satan.' 

'Pastor' Dexter Yager and wife, pedlars of the 'Prosperity Gospel'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cppcVaATRDg

Some of the most-disturbing evidence regarding the true nature of 'Amway,' has been available on the Net for years. This comprises an apparently absurd video of Birdie Yager (wife of the demonstrably-psychopathic 'Amway Network Leader,' Dexter Yager), in all seriousness, explaining to the most-deluded 'Amway' faithful how she has regular conversations with 'God.'

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From 'The Universal Identifying Characteristics of a Cult' (Axiom Books, copyright David Brear 2005)

Repression of all dissent. The leaders of the most-destructive cults are megalomaniacal psychopaths (i.e. suffering from a chronic mental disorder, especially when resulting in paranoid delusions of grandeur and self-righteousness, and the compulsion to pursue grandiose objectives). The unconditional deference of their deluded adherents only serves to confirm, and magnify, the leaders’ own paranoid delusions. This type of cult leader maintains an absolute monopoly of information whilst perpetrating, and/or directing, evermore heinous crimes. They sustain their activities by the imposition of arbitrary contracts and codes (secrecy, denunciation, confession,justice, punishment, etc.) within their groups, and by the use of humiliation, and/or intimidation, and/or calumny, and/or malicious prosecution (where they pose as victims), and/or sophism, and/or the infiltration of traditional culture, and/or corruption, and/or intelligence gathering and blackmail, and/or extortion, and/or physical isolation, and/or violence, and/or assassination, etc., to repress any internal or external dissent

David Brear (copyright 2012)

'AMWAY / MLM,' WHERE 'CREATIONISM' MEETS 'ECONOMIC CREATIONISM'

From 'The Universal Identifying Characteristics of a Cult'  (Axiom Books, copyright David Brear 2005)

Young children’s unconscious acceptance of ‘Santa Claus’ as total reality, stems from a fictitious scenario reflected as fact by the traditional culture in which they live. Up to a certain age, children are not equipped to challenge the model of reality offered to them by authoritarian figures within their family groups; particularly, their parents. Therefore, once children have been converted to a self-gratifying, non-rational belief in ‘Santa,’ the truth (that they are actually being deceived by the people whom they instinctively trust and follow) is unthinkable. The scenario can then be expanded to modify children’s behaviour — ‘Santa’ has magical powers… he can see and hear everything they do at all times… he will reward them for unquestioning belief and punish them for dissent. Only when they attain the necessary level of intellectual/psychological development, can children begin to use their critical and evaluative faculties and come to realise that ‘Santa’ is merely a game of make believe. If you think about it, what I’ve just described is the most elementary form of self-perpetuating, non-rational/esoteric, ritual belief system - perfectly tailored to fit infantile minds, and reliant on the maintenance of an absolute monopoly of information presented using a constant repetition of reality-inverting key words and images combined with pseudo-scientific mystification and closed-logic.


When analysed with the same level of intellectual rigour, many of the basic procedures and conditions required to establish cultic groups turn out not to be a mystery at all. They are revealed as only more-sophisticated versions of those which also propagate the benign ‘Santa’ deception. As such, they are frighteningly easy to replicate. However, the instigators of cults are anything but benign and, interestingly, many of their most-deluded subjects and convincing apologists turn out to be well-educated adults who have simply become incapable of facing the ego-destroying reality that they’ve been fooled by what is merely a game of make believe. No sane person would ever suggest trying to ban ‘Santa,’ and everyone lies to their children at some time to modify their behaviour, but consider the variety of destructive behaviour that an authoritarian adult (with hidden criminal objectives) could get dependent children to follow by exploiting their unconscious acceptance of the same imaginary, but nonetheless emotionally and intellectually overwhelming, narrative as total reality. The unpalatable truth is that, just by perverting the closed-logic rules of the game, anything - from theft by proxy to sexual, and/or violent, abuse - becomes possible.




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In the 'Bible,' a story is told of how: Jesus (a benign superhuman being, half man and half God) created matter from nothing, feeding 5000 believers with only enough food for a family picnic; and how: many baskets of left-overs were gathered after the event.


However, in the 'Biblical' story of culinary 'creationism,' all Jesus asks his diners for in return, is total belief. Even in its benign, original form, to rational thinkers, this closed-logic, non-rational story is merely fiction presented as fact; for according to the laws of physics, a finite quantity of matter cannot be infinite. However, in the USA, the Constitution guarantees everyone the right to believe almost anything, provided it is labelled 'religion.' Unfortunately, without an accurate deconstructed explanation in law of what is actually meant by the ethnocentric word, 'religion,' the US Constitution can easily be a used as a license to commit serious criminal acts, and then silence victims by using closed-logic to blame them and load them with guilt.


Obviously, the authors of the US Constitution never imagined that, one day, gangs of sanctimonious charlatans, steadfastly pretending moral and intellectual authority, might register labyrinths of corporate structures which would then peddle an endless-chain of tens of millions of hungry people infinite shares of their own finite money, presented as 'the opportunity' to earn sufficient income to feed themselves for the rest of their lives, but, at the same time, convince them that destitution and starvation was entirely their own fault, because they didn't believe totally. 


Once this is understood, it is not difficult to see how 'MLM income opportunity' cultism can be described as 'economic creationism,' but then, all Ponzi schemes or closed-market swindles are based on propagating the absurd, but nonetheless pernicious, non-rational belief that a finite quantity of money can be infinite. I have previously described criminals like Charles Ponzi, Bernie Madoff and Reed Slatkin as economic 'Alchemists,' but economic 'creationists,' is equally appropriate.


Sadly, what many casual observers of cultism still refuse to comprehend is that core-cult adherents' total belief is quite genuine, but the essentially-identical self-gratifying scenarios they totally believe in, are wholly-imaginary, always exploitative and sometimes deadly. Core-cult adherents have been intellectually castrated, in that their critical and evaluative faculties do not function. Whilst they remain under the malign influence of their groups, core-cult adherents' minds systematically categorize, condemn and exclude as unenlightened, negative, impure, absolutely evil, etc., all free-thinking individuals and any quantifiable evidence challenging the authenticity of their imaginary scenarios of control.

'Van Andel Creation Research Center,' Arizona

Ironically, in 1991, 500 thousands dollars stolen by economic 'creationists' was used to create a project known as the 'Creation Research Society Van Andel Creation Research Center' ('CRSVACRC') located in the vicinity of Chino Valley, Arizona http://www.creationresearch.org/vacrc/vacrc.html . By 2012, the amount that this project had received from the Van Andel clan, totalled several millions dollars.


David Brear (copyright 2012)