{"id":15626,"date":"2018-02-28T03:47:27","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T09:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/?p=15626"},"modified":"2018-02-28T05:23:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T11:23:26","slug":"overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/","title":{"rendered":"An Overlapping Venn Diagram: Christianity and Multi-Level Marketing Schemes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Lately we\u2019ve been talking<\/a> about multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs)<\/em>\u2013how dishonest they are, how predatory they are, how much of a losing bet they are. Lately I\u2019ve been reminded anew about just how big the overlap is between MLMs and fundagelical-style Christianity. Today I\u2019ll show you some of those similarities\u2013and we\u2019ll see how easy it is for someone to escape one false and harmful group only to land smack-dab in the middle of one that\u2019s just as bad or worse,\u00a0all because of indoctrination points shared by both groups.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
(oliver.dodd<\/a>, CC<\/a>.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Venn Diagram Near-Juxtaposition.<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Click to embiggen. Of course, these are really generalizations; some MLMs do operate right within churches<\/a>, for example.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019ve been saying for a while now that MLMs enjoy such popularity among Christians because the two mindsets are so similar. That\u2019s why people joke that MLM<\/em> stands for\u00a0Mormons Losing Money,\u00a0<\/em>a nod to the fact that Mormons are seriously over-represented<\/a> in the ranks of people who join an MLM hoping their investments will mean money for nothin\u2019 and chicks for free<\/a>, eventually.<\/p>\n

One needn\u2019t head over to Utah to see tons of people involved in MLMs, though.\u00a0Any<\/em> group that features those basic indoctrination points is going to have members who are very vulnerable to the come-ons of a scam.<\/p>\n

In fact, if we made a Venn diagram of the similarities between the mindsets of people in MLMs and Christianity, we\u2019d end up with two circles that were very nearly printed one on top of the other!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that Christianity itself isn\u2019t the problem\u00a0so much as the ideas that undergird the religion.<\/em> If a Christian deconverts tomorrow, they still might fall into a similar deception by Saturday if they don\u2019t figure out what led them to that religious group in the first place and (even more importantly!) start addressing those vulnerabilities.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019m not going to just point and laugh at the poor silly Christians in their many hundreds of MLMs flogging their\u00a0cheap-ass books<\/a> and terrible makeup<\/a> on social media. I\u2019m going to do something far, far worse. I\u2019m going to paint a clear arrow from one group to the other.<\/p>\n

Important Questions That Aren\u2019t Allowed.<\/h2>\n

The message is always perfect<\/a>, in a broken system. Any time we see this belief in a group, we need to consider that a huge red flag. Alas, in both Christianity and MLMs, the people involved are taught\u2013and largely believe\u2013that\u00a0the system works, as long as you work the system<\/em>. That means that as long as they are fervent, diligent, and sincere enough, then they will be successful with the system they\u2019ve bought into.<\/p>\n

The people who get sucked up into these groups simply aren\u2019t allowed to ask how they can know that this system works the way its salespeople say it should. They won\u2019t be allowed to set a cutoff date or victory\/defeat condition for their involvement with this system. There\u2019ll\u00a0be<\/em> no \u201cIf at (a reasonable deadline, not the 2-5 years<\/em><\/a> one MLM guy suggested) I\u2019m not doing considerably and tangibly better than I am now, then I\u2019m walking away from this group.\u201d The mere suggestion of such a test will have people in both groups up in arms! Such a brave soul will be lectured about how they can\u2019t\u00a0possibly<\/em> set a time limit on success, or else upbraided for daring to test<\/a> the Powers That Be.<\/p>\n

In a way this process looks a bit like how a gambling addict thinks of the big payoff<\/a>: it\u2019s always just a little bit down the road, but when it comes, oh honey<\/em>, it\u2019s going to be\u00a0big<\/em>\u2013and it\u2019ll totally make everything perfect. When the payoff doesn\u2019t happen in a reasonable timeframe, though, neither Christians nor MLM participants are allowed to decide that the experiment has concluded\u2013especially if the results aren\u2019t kind to the broken system.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
I\u2019m sure this will be a totally nuanced examination of people\u2019s motivations.. oh wait. From an archived screenshot<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, when the participants leave anyway, the MLMers and Christians left behind in their groups will insult, malign, and belittle those quitters. From the post where I found the above image<\/a>, one excuse cited was \u201cMy dog is sick.\u201d We\u2019re given no context whatsoever for that odd excuse (and no evidence that he really ever heard it from anyone directly), but it\u2019s very clear that the creepy guy up there with the Uncanny Valley grimace\/grin is telling us this reason because he wants us to think the person giving it was wrong to leave his MLM because their dog was sick. In similar fashion, Christian leaders are also very fond of policing people\u2019s reasons<\/a> for leaving their groups\u2013and they also don\u2019t think that there\u2019s ever a valid reason for doing so.<\/p>\n

Seriously. Watch out for any group that simply never allows for any virtuous reason to leave.<\/strong> Watch how they treat those who leave, and how they talk about those who have already left.\u00a0That\u2019s how they\u2019ll be talking about you, if and when you leave. <\/em>Same goes for anyone who rejects the group<\/a> without joining at all.\u00a0<\/em>Remember that it is not anyone else\u2019s right<\/a> to criticize why or when or how you leave any group, and your reasons aren\u2019t anybody\u2019s business but your own.<\/p>\n

Distrust of Reality and Genuine Experts.<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cSuccessful Stay At Home Moms<\/a>\u201d is the Christian mommy blogger type responsible for this one. (Imgur<\/u><\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People who get involved in wackadoodle religions and MLMs aren\u2019t all dumb. They\u2019ve got cell phones just like everybody else. They can easily look up debunks of whatever it is they\u2019re considering investing their time and money into.<\/p>\n

They just don\u2019t<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every single person attending Mark Driscoll\u2019s new church in Scottsdale, Arizona goes into their building only\u00a0after passing demonstrators holding up signs<\/a> to tell them that Mark Driscoll is a terrible human being and an incredible hypocrite. They\u00a0know<\/em>. They could certainly find out more if they so chose. And yet they walk into Trinity Church anyway and, presumably, give this guy money with some sort of reliability.<\/p>\n

In similar fashion, the people getting into MLMs could easily discover that almost every single soul who gets into one of these scams is going to lose massive amounts of money at their fake \u201cbusiness.\u201d This information<\/a> is very easily<\/a> found online<\/a> in multiple<\/a> places<\/a>; there are even entire blogs written by people<\/a> who\u2019ve escaped this or that<\/a> MLM and have the battle scars to prove it.<\/p>\n

But when hope and desperation take hold of someone who already deeply distrusts what critics have to say about anything, then the pie-in-the-sky promises of both MLMs and Christianity start sounding really good.<\/p>\n

Little wonder MLMers often entwine their religion and their \u201cbusiness\u201d<\/a> and talk about how their scam is a \u201cblessing\u201d<\/a> to both themselves and anybody they can persuade to play along with it (or just manipulate<\/a> or even coerce<\/a> into it). Obviously Christians feel that their religion is a \u201cblessing\u201d to everyone and don\u2019t mind manipulating or coercing people into playing along with their Pretendy Fun Time Game<\/a> with them\u2013since it\u2019ll be to those folks\u2019 benefit<\/a> in the end, amirite? They, along with MLM participants, literally don\u2019t get why anybody thinks anything else about their group!<\/p>\n

People can only get to that point by deliberately bypassing a whole lot of contradictory evidence in the real world\u2013and to do that, they need to have a handy, easy way to discount that evidence. They have to be able to negate it, hand-wave it away, minimize it, even ignore it\u2013and they have to be able to do this every single day, maybe many times a day. The more fervent the Christian or MLM participant, the more likely they are to be deeply-indoctrinated to distrust real experts and to put misplaced trust into people who aren\u2019t experts at all<\/a>, but rather are just as ignorant<\/a> as they themselves are.<\/p>\n

(We could sure talk here some more about authoritarian followers<\/em><\/a>, but I think we\u2019re good already as it is.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll just say this:<\/strong> if I were going to scam a group, I couldn\u2019t possibly ask for better marks than a population trained since infancy<\/a> to look away from real-world evidence of any kind if it contradicts<\/a> their indoctrination, to look down on critical thinking, and to avoid questioning leaders.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
HAW, HAW! SHE IS SO FUNNY, YOU GUYZORS! (Imgur<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Usually X is Bad, Yes. But My<\/em> X is a Good<\/em> X.<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The rules of a buy\/sell group on Facebook\u2013note Rule 5a. (Imgur<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The increase in cultural attention being paid to both MLMs\u2019 and fundagelicalism\u2019s destructive natures has resulted in a weird sight: people who loudly declare that yes, they know that this X is often very predatory and results in nothing but misery for the participants involved, but that\u00a0their\u00a0<\/em>X is one of the few good ones and of course that is why they are involved with it and not one of those ickie ones. And like these other situations, this one happens in both MLMs and Christianity.<\/p>\n

When a sweet, wide-eyed Christian from one of the really awful groups shows up to tell everyone that yes, they know that their group is bigoted, sexist, homophobic, and one of the worst and most regressive social clubs in the nation (a situation they will usually describe<\/a> as having its flaws<\/em>), but they\u2019re still an active part of it for whatever reason, they\u2019re saying something really uncomplimentary in the long scheme of things. (Yes, I\u2019ve encountered this personally. Often.)<\/p>\n

In a similar way, when anybody in any MLM tells us that yes, they\u2019re aware that fewer than 1% of participants\u00a0will even break even<\/em><\/a> in their chosen scam,\u00a0but that they themselves\u00a0<\/i>are\u00a0successful at it so they\u2019re sticking with it, that\u2019s a person we need to avoid like the plague<\/a>. That\u2019s someone who is okay with spreading and causing misery as long as they benefit from it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click to embiggen. This is not a place where we can \u201cagree to disagree.\u201d Nope. (Imgur<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That said, they don\u2019t want to be judged by the company they keep. First, it\u2019d make them sad for others to think poorly of them, sure. But second and more importantly, they may still want to make a sale with us, even if it happens at the expense of the other people in their tribe.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t trust a salesperson who tells you that they\u2019re totally aware of all the sketchy aspects of the group they\u2019re in\u2013but that\u00a0their<\/em> little corner of that sandbox is great.<\/strong> A broken system is broken throughout. Also, that is someone who is\u00a0willing to throw their tribemates under the bus<\/a> if it means maybe making a sale.<\/p>\n

This point of indoctrination is also lurking behind both MLMers and Christians\u2019 perfect willingness to try to score sales<\/a> from those who are even more desperate<\/a> than they are. And I\u2019m not okay with that either.<\/p>\n

Something For Nothing.<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s where it all comes together.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve talked off and on in comments for ages about Christians\u2019 fascination with instant forgiveness, their eagerness to find \u201cthe angle,\u201d and their trouble with delaying gratification. For all that blather about self-sacrifice and charity, the average Christian is not even vaguely interested<\/a> in any of that. Veruca Salt<\/a>\u00a0would adore them!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click to embiggen. Bear in mind that she\u2019s still apparently in 4 other MLMs. (Imgur<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When someone who lacks the ability, experience, or skills to gain a desired result considers their options, therefore, they see a couple of avenues. They can either gain those requisites through time and effort and then go after the result they desire, or else they can somehow instantly come into that result through some quick-fix scheme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most of us wouldn\u2019t even consider the scheme because we know they don\u2019t work and are often hideously unethical even so. That\u2019s why none of us has a white-hot career right now as ex-atheist faith healers.<\/p>\n

The person who gravitates to the instant scheme is someone who\u2019s been indoctrinated to ignore expert opinions about how unworkable that scheme is; who\u2019s okay with participating in a purely predatory system as long as it\u2019ll benefit themselves; who truly believes that something can come from nothing;2<\/sup><\/a> and who doesn\u2019t feel like they\u2019re allowed to even think about asking uncomfortable questions about the scheme\u2013like even if it really actually works at all.<\/p>\n

(It\u2019s also why we discover so often that someone involved in one of the manifestations of this indoctrination is either dishonest and greedy<\/a>, or else totally desperate and afraid<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the indoctrination we have to defeat in ourselves when we deconvert. Those are the underpinnings that make us vulnerable to scams and conspiracy theories. Otherwise we\u2019ll just be like this lady having what the r\/antiMLM subreddit<\/a> called a \u201cLuLaMeltdown\u201d when she realized just how much money she\u2019d lost in her time as a LuLaRoe distributor<\/del> victim: feeling betrayed, angry, even disconsolate\u2013and yet she\u2019s still involved in<\/em>\u00a0four other MLMs that she\u2019s not<\/span> quitting!<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s it for today! The second-to-last part of this miniseries involves someone who walked away from being a \u201cBible-thumper,\u201d as he puts it, into something far, far more rational and intelligent (sorry, I can\u2019t keep a straight face: gang, he\u2019s found a way to turn the Ancient Astronauts hoax into a conspiracy theory<\/em>\u2013and it\u2019s even more awesomely wackadoodle than it sounds). And last of all we\u2019ll look at someone who\u2019s found a way to morph his involvement in the Satanic Panic into something more acceptable to modern-day fundagelicals. Old scams never die; they just put on new unicorn leggings<\/a>. See you soon!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Facebook: JUST like Rodan and Fields. (Imgur<\/a>) This exact meme is a huge favorite with MLM scammers. I found it (or the text in it) in hundreds<\/em> of sites and groups and pin-boards. I\u2019m betting the reality isn\u2019t much like the meme makes it sound though.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

<\/a>1<\/sup> Christianity just gathers up all those awful indoctrination points into one nauseating bundle of joy, is all, and then extends its grabby hands outward to try to gather\u00a0everyone in reach into its grasp, so it\u2019s a lot easier to see\u2013and push back against\u2013that tribe.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/a>2<\/sup> Which makes Creationism all the more laughable! The idea that something can\u2019t possibly come from nothing<\/a> is one of their criticisms<\/a> of the accepted scientific consensus regarding the origins of the universe\/Earth\/life\/etc, but their worldview is based entirely on this idea.<\/i><\/p>\n

Endnote: I\u2019m not actually a contributing member of the r\/antiMLM<\/a> subreddit. I just lurk there\u2013and highly recommend it. Sometimes it\u2019s really helpful to see how religious indoctrination points play out in non-churchy contexts.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Come join us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Tumblr<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, and our forum at\u00a0rolltodisbelieve.com<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n

If\u00a0you like what you see, I would love to have your support. My\u00a0PayPal is captain_cassidy@yahoo.com<\/a>\u00a0(that\u2019s an underscore in there) for one-time tips, and I also welcome monthly patrons via\u00a0Patreon with Roll to Disbelieve<\/a>. Thanks! <\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lately I’ve been reminded anew about just how big the overlap is between MLMs and fundagelical-style Christianity. Today I’ll show you some of those similarities–and we’ll see how easy it is for someone to escape one false and harmful group only to land smack-dab in the middle of one that’s just as bad or worse,\u00a0all because of indoctrination points shared by both groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2237,"featured_media":15674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11,12],"tags":[239,3014,1442,3011,1997,2328,549,2573,722,2295,2774],"class_list":["post-15626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides","category-religion-2","category-the-games-we-play","tag-christianity","tag-christianity-as-a-big-ole-mlm","tag-diagrams","tag-didnt-you-know-facebook-is-just-like-an-mlm","tag-greed","tag-happy-pretendy-fun-time-games","tag-indoctrination","tag-life-after-deconversion","tag-mlm","tag-money-makes-the-world-go-around","tag-scams"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Overlapping Venn Diagram: Christianity and Multi-Level Marketing Schemes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There's a reason why some people keep getting sucked into one MLM after another--and why so many of those people are Christians.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Overlapping Venn Diagram: Christianity and Multi-Level Marketing Schemes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There's a reason why some people keep getting sucked into one MLM after another--and why so many of those people are Christians.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Roll to Disbelieve\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-28T09:47:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-28T11:23:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/541\/2018\/02\/Hes-cute-but-hes-still-a-jackal-e1519806451600.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Captain Cassidy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Captain Cassidy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"13 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/\",\"name\":\"An Overlapping Venn Diagram: Christianity and Multi-Level Marketing Schemes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-28T09:47:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-28T11:23:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/#\/schema\/person\/760481cb427a4143bc34d1e29fcd9c84\"},\"description\":\"There's a reason why some people keep getting sucked into one MLM after another--and why so many of those people are Christians.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"An Overlapping Venn Diagram: Christianity and Multi-Level Marketing Schemes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/\",\"name\":\"Roll to Disbelieve\",\"description\":\"Grab your 20-siders. We're going in.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/#\/schema\/person\/760481cb427a4143bc34d1e29fcd9c84\",\"name\":\"Captain Cassidy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2646e788c3322c9aa771812be27cfaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2646e788c3322c9aa771812be27cfaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Captain Cassidy\"},\"description\":\"Cassidy was raised Catholic, converted to Pentecostalism in her mid-teens, married a preacher, and deconverted after college. She blogs about religion, deconversion, video and tabletop gaming, psychology, modern culture, and other such topics at Roll to Disbelieve. If you like what you see, Cas welcomes your support at both PayPal and Patreon--thanks! You can find the Captain on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr--or at her community's official forum at RolltoDisbelieve.com!\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/author\/cmcgill\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"An Overlapping Venn Diagram: Christianity and Multi-Level Marketing Schemes","description":"There's a reason why some people keep getting sucked into one MLM after another--and why so many of those people are Christians.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"An Overlapping Venn Diagram: Christianity and Multi-Level Marketing Schemes","og_description":"There's a reason why some people keep getting sucked into one MLM after another--and why so many of those people are Christians.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/","og_site_name":"Roll to Disbelieve","article_published_time":"2018-02-28T09:47:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-02-28T11:23:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":550,"height":368,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/541\/2018\/02\/Hes-cute-but-hes-still-a-jackal-e1519806451600.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Captain Cassidy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Captain Cassidy","Est. reading time":"13 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/","name":"An Overlapping Venn Diagram: Christianity and Multi-Level Marketing Schemes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-02-28T09:47:27+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-28T11:23:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/#\/schema\/person\/760481cb427a4143bc34d1e29fcd9c84"},"description":"There's a reason why some people keep getting sucked into one MLM after another--and why so many of those people are Christians.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/2018\/02\/28\/overlapping-venn-diagram-christianity-mlm\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"An Overlapping Venn Diagram: Christianity and Multi-Level Marketing Schemes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/","name":"Roll to Disbelieve","description":"Grab your 20-siders. We're going in.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/#\/schema\/person\/760481cb427a4143bc34d1e29fcd9c84","name":"Captain Cassidy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2646e788c3322c9aa771812be27cfaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2646e788c3322c9aa771812be27cfaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Captain Cassidy"},"description":"Cassidy was raised Catholic, converted to Pentecostalism in her mid-teens, married a preacher, and deconverted after college. She blogs about religion, deconversion, video and tabletop gaming, psychology, modern culture, and other such topics at Roll to Disbelieve. If you like what you see, Cas welcomes your support at both PayPal and Patreon--thanks! You can find the Captain on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr--or at her community's official forum at RolltoDisbelieve.com!","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/author\/cmcgill\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rolltodisbelieve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}