Xango

The purpose of this blog is to divulge wisdom I believe the Lord has shown me.  This post may sound(and may have strong elements of) like ranting but I’m going to extract wisdom from the situation.

I went to a meeting last night for an “Amazing marketing opportunity”.  It’s called Xango and they use a methodology called Iuvare.  It’s a network marketing system where you buy a juice from a strange asian fruit.

It is a pyramid scheme and a total crock.

The three words I would use to describe it:

1.    Manipulation

2.    Exploitation

3.    Distortion of facts

This woman came up front and began to explain what this whole dog and pony show was about.  She prefaced her schpeal by saying that Xango and iuvare is not a pyramid scheme…red flag number 1.  Here comes her distortion of facts…she explained a pyramid scheme as “a system set up that the only way for you to move up is for you to ‘climb’ over other people.”  The truth of pyramid schemes is that the pyramid is built through a series of sequential levels of new people joining below you on the pyramid, each of which enlist more people and with each person joining more money is given up the ladder or your “upline”.

      Example: I commit to buy juice from an ambiguous company from mexico for 250 dollars a month and get 3 other people to do the same.  The more people I get to sign the more money I make but more importantly, whoever told me continues to accrue wealth from the whole deal.

Manipulation: Asking questions like “Don’t you care about your future? With results like this, this has to be good right?”

Exploitation: trying to lure my 17-year-old brother into this crap.

Distortion of Facts: From their skewed explanation of a pyramid scheme to quoting research and statistics about health products that have NEVER been tested by the FDA or been through any clinical trials.

The last thing that she said that filled me with rage was when she said “There’s even a Bible verse that explains what we’re doing and why it works.  The message of the Bible is that if you do what is good and right that will in the end come back to you.”

      Lies…straight from the depths.

The prosperity Gospel says that if you put in good behavior through your life that God wants owes you.  He owes you a good life; simply, he owes you health and wealth.

      There’s one problem with this….namely; THE BIBLE.

Read scripture, read about Moses, Aaron, Jesus, the Disciples, Paul and most of the Apostles…it ends very poorly for them.

The truth of the Gospel is this:

Romans 5:8

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”

-While we WERE SINNERS.  We didn’t choose God, we didn’t seek him through good behavior…we are thoroughly rotten, we desperately need a savior.

Ephesians 2:4

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

His love, His mercy…He has reconciled us and paid our debt.

The message of Xango is what we all want to hear, that with minimal work we can hit it big.  Xango’s message is that if we work hard enough we can secure ourselves from harm, sickness and unhappiness.

I’m going to write a blog post about this soon but I can’t help but be amazed at the fear that has so captured these people.

People are TERRIFIED to get age…your body IS going to wear out…what will you do with your wildflower of a life?

May we learn to trade all we know about our security and ourselves for all that we know about Christ and his power to give us peace and security.