The "God" Spin

There's often an attempt to link Quixtar with biblical morality, particularly by those pushing it. For example, one recent commenter remarker, after investigating Quixtar: "I don't like the whole 'good Christian' thing."

Another recent commenter asked:

I have a couple of concerns for anyone who can help me. I was involved with Quixtar and Britt World Wide for a number of years, unsuccessful I might add. I've recently left the business because of an overwhelming feeling that what on the surface seemed to be Godly, was not in fact of God. Now, I have nothing against Quixtar as a business. I think that if you have the ambition and persistence, an MLM can be successful. What I do have a problem with is the cult-like organization that BWW has become. My brother is still involved, and I'm worried about him. He strongly believes that BWW is God's calling for his life.

When I sat down with my would-be sponsor, she attempted to convince me that God's best purpose for my life was to consume and promote Quixtar knick-knacks, and that I was actually being disobedient to God by pursuing my (much more lucrative, it turns out) talents in the software industry. That $70,000+ college education? A waste -- because I wasn't selling Quixtar!

So, if you buy into the bible, then what's wrong with Quixtar?

1. IBOs are taught to violate the "Golden Rule"

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matt 22:36-40)

Let's say you were looking at getting involved in a business. What are the most obvious questions you should ask? Obvious candidates:

1. How much money could I expect to make?
2. How much money are other people who do this making?
3. How likely am I do to really well at this?
4. How much time would I be expected to commit?

What does it mean to treat others as we'd wish to tbe treated? It means that if I'm asking a guy to sign up for something, and I were in his shoes, I'd want my questions about the business to be answered.

Active Quixtar IBOs make an average of $115 per month. Only a fraction of a single percent of Quixtar IBOs "make" as little as $10,000 -- the other 99+% do much worse. (And I put that in quotes because that number is before expenses.) Your odds of becoming a millionaire in Quixtar are a tiny fraction of the odds outside Quixtar. And a prospect would be required, if he were ethical, to be personally responsible for refunding, out of his own pocket, lots of money to each downline they signed up, should they all decide to quit.

Don't you think a prospective IBO would want to know all that? If so, how can you then hide such information from them? Yet IBOs won't tell their "prospects" this kind of information, even when they know the prospect is wanting this kind of information to make a good decision, and their uplines talk them into behaving this way. This is violates Jesus's teaching to love your neighbor.

Look at it a second way: If the average active IBO makes $115/month, and puts in 40 hours a month, that means if you sign up any large number of people (or they do...), even if YOU do well, the average person you'd have signed up would be working for FAR LESS than minimum wage. So you could be wealthy. (At least that's the theory, right?)

So, again, how is it loving, even if you think YOU will be filthy rich, to be consinging the average IBO you sign up to work for far less than minimum wage? Again, this is greed, not loving your neighbor.

2. IBOs are taught to behave like people of darkness, not people walking in light

Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. (John 3:20-21)

My sponsor's upline and I were sitting down to lunch at a Wendy's near my home. (Normally, when a company interviews me over lunch, they pay for my meal and we eat at a nice place. Quixtar, you meet at a Wendy's and your supposedly "wealthy" upline makes you pick up the $2.34 tab. This probably should have been a tip-off.)

She asked me what an "ethical" company would be like. The answer seemed obvious to me: They would allow investors to look at their books. For example, any publicly-traded company gives clear statements of profit and loss. And ethical charities also allow people to see how much they're bringing in, and how much they're spending, how much goes to help people, etc. They invite auditors in ensure these numbers are accurate.

My would-be upline -- who described herself as a woman of Christian ethics -- looked like she was going to spit out her lunch. Clearly, I had given the wrong answer. A company, she implied, correcting me, was ethical if OTHER PEOPLE said it was. Then she proceeded to give some quotes from people which said that Quixtar, the corporation (not my would-be role as an IBO) was a good investment. (Which is not the same thing as being ethical, mind you.)

But this isn't what Jesus taught. You could know if something was good or bad, he said, by its fruit. If it produced a lot of wealthy people, without putting many in the poor house, then perhaps it was a good thing. If it involved deceit, and left a lot of victims behind, then it was a bad thing. It didn't matter if you could produce some quote from a friend of the company president.

I also was soon to discover that Quixtar IBOs are taught, in a million ways, to behave like people of the darkness, not like people of the light.

They show checks at meetings, implying that's how much money they make, when the truth is that they will have to share it with their downlines, and each will have to deduct expenses.

They tell you at a meeting you will only really have to spend 8-10 hours a week on this thing. But then you notice they're supposed to do six people a week, and they spent nearly 6 hours on you alone. It doesn't add up.

They won't tell a prospect the whole story up front. It changes as they get involved. At first, a small time committement is portrayed as fine. But then they're told they really must do more to succeed. At first, they're told they can run this business however they want. But then they're pressured to run things the way their upline tells them to. They're told NOT to give new people the whole story.

They're taught to DISTRACT, not ANSWER serious objections with glib misdirections.

They're told to dress, act, and talk in a way which implies they are wealthy, when the truth is that they're deeply in debt.

Many are not told that the tools are actually a major source of profit for the ABOs/QBOs, and instead it is implied this is just being sold to them for their own good.

They are told to only mention the "positive" and not tell anyone the "negative". If a group of five IBOs who are all deeply in debt get together, none of them will be able to tell his neighbor truthfully how he or she is doing -- only half the truth (that which reflects well on Quixtar) can be presented. And none will realize the true picture of what is happening to them all, collectively.

They will not tell you what you're getting into. If you ask if it's related to Amway, they'll lie and say: "No" despite the fact that you're dealing with the same group of people, and a renamed corporation (Alticor). They are told NOT to clearly label their business cards. They are told NOT to give you details until you've been to the meeting, etc. Hide, hide, hide.

And your wannabe upline, even a close friend, will NOT show you a simple, complete statements of their own profits and losses. Now in a normal company, this is not relevant: My boss doesn't hire me to do his job, but mine and he tells me clearly what salary I will receive, so I don't have to guess. But remember that IBOs are wanting you to (as Paul put it) "become like me [i.e. them]" [Acts 26:29] -- so it is important to know what that's like to be them. And yet they hide, misdirect, spin, evade and obscure rather than tell you the truth.

3. Quixtar violates Paul's commandment to work

He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. (Eph 4:28)

God's basic plan for human "work", as I see it in the bible, is that each one does something which benefits everyone else. Paul phrases this, almost offhandedly, telling people who didn't work they must do "something useful". Godly work is work which creates economic value, providing more wealth for everyone, and wealth to share with those in need.

In practice, I notice that all my friends who have done Quixtar -- even the ones who have been held up as "success" stories to others -- are deeply in debt. I'm not seeing that all the work they've put into this "system" has resulted in wealth to share with others. Instead, their friends are having to "loan" them money! As I point out in post after post here, Quixtar is, on average, is simply not profitable!

But worse, the whole underlying theory is flawed. One of the reason many Christians are opposed to gambling is NOT because you can't get rich that way -- some clearly can. (Casino owners, for example!) But the problem is that gambling doesn't create wealth: half the players in a card game come away wealthier, half come away poorer, but no new wealth was created. Four men may have spent the whole night playing poker, and money changed hands, but as a form of income, no NEW value was created.

Likewise, Quixtar does not create any wealth. The basic activity IBOs engage in adds no wealth to the economy -- instead, it burns wealth at a tremendous rate. The whole "system" simply moves wealth from downline to upline. A new downline, incurring debt, must burn a lot of wealth to pass that debt on, multiplying it as it goes, to many others. And so on.

4. Quixtar violates Jesus's teachings about loving money

Some of the godliest people in the bible were wealthy. Job, Abraham, David, and Solomon all had great wealth. Daniel had tremendous authority in Babylon. Despite their great wealth -- which can be a trap for so many -- these men were righteous because they loved God far more than money.

Jesus, Paul, the disciples, and the early Christians, on the other hand, were generally quite poor. But, once again, they had their hearts right.

The test, as Jesus taught it, was this:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6:19-21)

Where is your "heart" and thus whatever you consider your "treasure"? The next verse gives us another hint, saying: "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light..." Our treasure is where we focus our "eyes", i.e. our "vision."

If we focus this vision on material "dreams", we have a serious problem; that kind of focus always betrays the one who embraces it:

Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are the eyes of man. (Proverbs 27:20)

Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income...

As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owner
except to feast his eyes on them? (Ecclesiastes 5:10-11)

So where is your eye? I.e., what is your vision? If you know the story of Job, in the bible: Do you think Job's main vision was to be wealthy? No! Instead, Job is portrayed as making sacrifice after sacrifice to make sure that he and his family were pleasing God. That was his top priority, not wealth.

Yet at many Quixtar "business" meetings, participants are instead encouraged "visualize" material things in a way which, frankly, induces them to lust after such things. Instead of being given a love of God as being their top objective (or simply staying out of that philosophical arena altogether), they are, frankly, programmed to create and worship materialistic "dreams."

When I post some bible verse or argument that seems to undermine Quixtar corporation's money-making ability, what do I hear back? Are the comments focused on loving God, or on protecting and nuturing materialistic "dreams"?

"No servant can serve two masters... you cannot serve both God and Money." (Luke 16:13) If your top priority or guideline is "dreams", then it sure isn't God. Whatever our economic status, the "treasure" which occupies our minds and hearts should be the one in heaven, not here on earth. Techniques and arguments taught and used by Quixtar business organizations actively undermine that.

Closing

I suspect there are many more problems than these -- look on other sites, check the "Quixtar" topic on this blog, and look in the debates in many of the comments also. But these are a few of the top ones which spring to mind.

These aren't trivial matters. The key indictments against Quixtar is that it's against God's will for us and teaches us to behave in many ways which are contrary to biblical commands. We are to store up our treasure in heaven, yet Quixtar programs it's IBOs to guard their "dreams" of treasure on earth. We are to generate wealth, yet Quixtar simply burns it. We are to engage in profitable activities, yet Quixtar doesn't generate any profit, and leaves the average IBO in debt, not with extra to share. We are to be honest and open, yet IBOs are taught to deceive, twist, distort, spin and hide.

In short, Quixtar (and QBOs, like BWW) key failings are:

1. Our "dreams" and "vision" are refocused on earthly treasure, not God.
2. As an economic activity, the Quixtar "plan" is not profitable.
3. The mode of behavior taught and observed is not ethical, by biblical standards.
4. This organization produces much bad "fruit"

Again, these are serious problems that should be ample warning to any Christian who is thinking about getting involved with these people.