It is widely accepted fundamentalist dogma that women with children still living at home should not work outside the home. Exceptions to this rule would be positions as a Christian school teacher, church secretary, or a purveyor of multi-level marketing merchandise.
Whether it’s cutlery, plasticware, or little packages of vitamins, there will inevitably be at least one lady in every fundamentalists church who is hawking it for extra cash. Sign up now and you’ll get a cut from everyone who buys from you too! At least take this catalog home and look it over…
WWPTOWD? (What would the Proverbs Thirty-One Woman Do?)
We had a church-planting-bound couple selling vacuum cleaners. True story.
Melaluca was the one that was being pushed at my old Fundie church. I came close but never did sign up…I missed out on the cash, gold chains, and big house.
Our church had no less than one Pampered Chef, one Mary Kay seller, at least one (maybe two) Tupperware saleswomen, and a smattering of other such products that have come and gone. A visiting speaker we had once was also hawking glass balls that displayed a scrolling laser banner.
You also should have mentioned stamping parties.
You should also do one on life insurance salesman and financial advice gurus. Every IFB church has one or both. Sometimes they’re the same person. He’s the guy you avoid shaking hands between hymn stanzas. If you finally surrender and let him come over his opening sales pitch will be something like…”Pastor just bought a policy from me last week…let me show you…”
At the strong, controlling church I left, I don’t think there were any MLM-types. I was there a long time and never heard any approach.
At the current church, there is at least one, but very low-key. Seldom talks about it, not pushy at all.
I might have if I had any idea what they are.
Something like this…
http://www.stampparty.com/
or this…
http://www.ehow.com/how_4560713_event-family-member-stamping-party.html
I don’t know, perhaps this is a regional thing, but it’s quite popular where I’m at.
fortunately, my wife doesn’t get invited to many of these anymore – very annoying to have your ‘friends’ asking you to buy product
When we first started attending our church, we had a popular couple invite us over for a ‘fellowship’. We were so excited to get to know someone, finally! They presented a marketing concept, and when we didn’t bite, we never heard from them again. Oh, the crushing blow of reality.
Ugh. Don’t foget the Southern Living, some fancy candle company whose name escapes me, Arbonne, and Beauty Control parties. And since I mentioned it- what kind of company name is Beauty Control anyway? Ooo….better get that rampant beauty under control…
PartyLite perhaps?
I love partylite candles, I rarely buy anything else. They cost more but are far better quality than the stores. No I don’t sell them–I just buy them. 😀 I look for them on ebay now–I hate going to parties.
come on guys. it’s more than fundies who do this. My cousin does this stuff and she’s an atheist. Although the part about the church secretary and teacher are true observations.
[quote]come on guys. it’s more than fundies who do this. My cousin does this stuff and she’s an atheist. Although the part about the church secretary and teacher are true observations.[/quote]
The blog is not called “Stuff Only Fundies Like.” There’s a reason for that.
AHHH my mistake.
The problem was that this post characterizes all fundamentalists. if this was a site that said “Stuff Reformers Like” would everyone be so quick to state some of the things they did?
Nah, there are normal fundamentalists out there. It’s generally understood that “Fundies” specifically refers to the whackjobs in the movement. What you define as a “whackjob” is up for personal interpretation, which is what makes this site so wonderfully post-modern! 😀 Or you can simplify and say that a fundy is “anyone to my right.” Wait…isn’t that the definition of a legalist, too? I’m confused…
Also, “Stuff Reformers Like” would be a very interesting idea. Dig into the lives of Calvin, Luther, Knox, and Tyndale and see what kind of crazy stuff they did! I’m sure it would be an eye-opener for a lot of Fundies to open up the lives of those who prepared the way for there to even *be* Fundies nowadays.
I really detest these parties and made a hard and fast rule for myself a couple of years ago not to attend anymore no matter who was hosting and what they were hawking! My life has been much nicer (and more affordable) ever since.
The classic line is “You don’t have to buy anything, just come for the fellowship!”
Yeah I heard that a few times. But when I did come only for the fellowship the hostess always looked disappointed when I didn’t buy anything.
I don’t think selling these things really pays you much in terms of dollars and cents. Mostly your “pay” is in free products. And it can be time consuming to get involved in these things. If you host a party you have to serve coffee and cake so you’d be lucky to make a few bucks after deducting the cost of that, plus you have to clean your house top to bottom when ladies are coming over, I would just find it’s not worth the trouble. Oh and I think you have to pay for the catalogues you give people as well. 😕
I usually go when invited and perhaps buy something inexpensive (although that’s hard to find!), but I would never sign up to host a party. They always tried to pressure you into hosting your own party, but I think that my position as pastor’s wife makes it WAY too awkward to be asking people to come buy stuff. People are already giving in the offering to pay my husband’s salary; I can’t ask them to spend more money at my party so I can get a hostess’ gift.
“Nah, there are normal fundamentalists out there.”
Whew! *Wiping brow* There’s hope for me after all.
Over at PinkTruth.com (a website talking about the other side of Mary Kay), they share funny stories about women ducking under their pews with they see the MK lady in the church coming… ha ha.
Natalie, what a great site! I love it! MLMs…shudder.
And, I always grew up being taught that Amway was bad because it took people away from church.
We have several ladies in our church that sell for various companies like this, and I’ve even been to a couple of the parties. Thankfully, they aren’t at all pushy about it. They don’t really talk about it a lot, unless you ask them, and they don’t even try to pressure you at the parties (which are actually fun). So, I guess some of us got lucky! 😛
LOL If I had a dollar for every scentsy or “jewelry made from radiated lead from China” party, I’d be rich! Leave me alone fundy women! I do not want to finance your boredome!
Anyone else constantly get hit up for the $4,000 Kangen Water Ionizer scam? They claim it makes the water slightly basic….I’m always thinking, would that matter when the water hit my stomach ACID? To counteract that, it would almost have to be the PH of Drano.
The sad part is that the people claim to feel better and to be healthier, when the real reason they are having health improvements has nothing to do with the $4K machine but has probably more to do with the fact that they now drink 85 glasses of water a day..lol.
I got hit up for Reliv the other week…what turned out to be a $40 smoothie.
What I don’t get about these people is that they have no consideration of what it does to the gospel they are “selling” when they are selling scam products. If I was an unbeliever and someone tried to sell me some crap in a bottle that was really a pyramid scheme, am I going to take what they say about Jesus seriously?
Yep, Reliv is a scam. My grandmother got conned into selling that stuff. They are very tight financially and they got her to give them $5000 for her “starter kit”. When I heard that, I wanted find one of them and beat them up. I went to one of their meetings with her and they kept saying “don’t focus on the product, just focus on telling people how much money they’re going to make!” And yet they claim not to be a pyramid scheme. Makes me want to choke some people!!! 👿
We have the Reliv scam going on at our church. I finally had to get “firm” with the salesman because he wouldn’t leave us alone. The stuff is soy-based and my husband is a cancer patient (pancreatic). He was told to stay away from soy. But the pushers of this stuff set themselves up as smarter than doctors – you know, the “doctors are out to get you” line.
In my last fundy church, it was Premier Designs Jewelry. I paid about $400 for the starter kit, and never actually sold anything. 😕
I’ve always thought they were effectively shuffling money from one family to the next. Who was actually making money? Unless there was one woman out there who was smart enough to sell and not buy … but then she’d be frozen out and no one would ever buy from her again. So again I ask: Was anyone *really* making a profit in these endeavors?