AmWay/Quixtar/Alticor

AmWay Corporation (official website/Wikipedia entry) is a multilevel marketing company that is controversial in at least three separate ways relating to dominionism--firstly, widespread concern that AmWay's "business motivational groups" are coercive groups in and of themselves; secondly, concern that dominion theology may be promoted within AmWay seminars and AmWay uplines may be used as a form of "co-recruiting" by dominionist churches; and thirdly, the substantial amounts of money that the DeVos Foundations contribute to dominionist causes.

Controversy regarding BMOs and "cult" status of AmWay

AmWay--or more properly, its "Amway Business Motivational Organisations" used in "downlines" of the company--is frequently cited as a prototypical example of a "coercive business group"--that is, a business organisation that operates much like a coercive religious group.

Multiple "exit counselors" and researchers into coercive groups have expressed grave concern regarding Amway BMO's and particular downlines. Steven Hassan, a professional "exit counselor" who operates the Freedom of Mind Institute, has listed the Amway BMOs as coercive groups according to the BITE model of "abusiveness" of groups; other groups that have expressed concern include FACTnet, Cult Awareness Information Centre, and Rick Ross Institute.

There is at least one site dedicated to documenting abusive practices within AmWay (link).

Controversy regarding promotion of dominion theology within AmWay motivational seminars

Many AmWay downlines--in particular the Dexter Yager downline--are known to promote specific types of dominion theology popular in neopentecostal circles, in particular within the Assemblies of God?.

Specifically, AmWay has promoted the concept known alternately as "Name It And Claim It", "Blab It And Grab It", "Confess and Possess", or "Prosperity Gospel". ("Prosperity Gospel" is actually based on a variation of dominion theology that teaches that Satan "stole dominion" over the world upon the fall of Adam and Christ was tortured (or, in some versions, wrestled the devil) for three days in Hell; it is also explicitly taught that the Saved or Elect are "God's Army" (or "Joel's Army") and that they are literally on a mission from God to "reclaim dominion" over all things physical and spiritual. "Prosperity Gospel" is essentially a subset that teaches that one must "name and claim" what one desires to "claim dominion" over it and seize it.) In particular, AmWay motivational seminars have been known to promote the works of specific authors well known in the "Prosperity Gospel" and "Word-Faith" circuits (including E. W. Kenyon, Robert Schuller, Norman Vincent Peale and Don Gossett) and have been known to quote Bible verses out of context (a practice known as "scripture twisting") in identical manner to "Prosperity Gospel" churches.

In addition, AmWay motivational seminars (in particular, within the Dexter Yager downline) have promoted specific deceptive methods of recruitment into religious groups--specifically, a tactic known as "servant evangelism", "stealth evangelism", or "bait and switch evangelism". The concept in general involves striking up a business relationship, false friendship, etc. for the explicit purpose of gaining enough trust to begin religious hard-sells to the target person--with the explicit knowledge that the target will be unaware until it is too late that the entire purpose of the relationship was to gain a convert.

AmWay is also known to promote concepts relating to neopentecostal concepts of "deliverance ministry" and in particular concepts relating to "Serpent Seed" theology--the concept that all humans are either literal sons of God or literal sons of Satan (persons refusing to buy from AmWay are described as the latter and as being used as "tools of Satan" to oppress AmWay salespersons).

Multiple persons who have left AmWay have reported heavy pressure to convert to dominionist and specifically neopentecostal forms of faith in Business Motivational Organisations; in other words, there is a very strong possibility that AmWay may in and of itself be used as a front to recruit people into dominionist churches. Quite a lot of Diamonds in AmWay are known to be members of the Assemblies of God and/or the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International; notable Assemblies Diamond-level AmWay members include John Ashcroft and Doug Wead, both of whom have had very close links with George Bush; Wead in particular largely coached Bush in regards to "learning to speak dominionist-ese" and largely introduced Bush to dominionist leaders. (Of particular note, Ashcroft is very influential in Assemblies of God circles; his father is founder of Chi Alpha, an Assemblies "fraternity front" targeting college-age students.)

Likewise, there is considerable evidence that AmWay in large part may be promoted as a type of "MLM affinity fraud" within Assemblies of God churches in particular--hence the two groups are essentially acting as "co-recruiters". (It is of note that AmWay is often promoted by FGBMFI members as a "Christian Business Opportunity" to audiences in dominionist churches.) It is of particular note that often Diamonds linked with neopentecostal dominionist groups are quite high up in the hierarchies of both church and AmWay (for example, Diamonds who are deacons or even assistant ministers in churches).

One of the most infamous urban legends around--the claim that Proctor and Gamble's "man in the moon" symbol is a Satanic symbol and/or that the head of P&G is a practicing devil worshipper--may well have gotten its start within the neopentecostal AmWay member community. The "P&G man in the moon is a Satanic sign" urban legend has had currency within Assemblies of God circles since at least the mid-seventies; snopes.com dates this (from outside of the neopentecostal community) from approximately 1980, indicating the urban legend may have both been developed to hurt P&G's profits within neopente circles and to promote AmWay specifically as the "Godly alternative". (Of note, Proctor and Gamble have recently won damage settlements against AmWay distributors promoting this urban legend. The book Merchants of Deception has detailed similar smear campaigns targeted at the Clinton family which were actively promoted in AmWay business motivational meetings.

AmWay and funding of dominionism

AmWay's founder, Richard DeVos, is probably the largest corporate funder of dominionism in the United States.

Funding of dominionist groups occurs through the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation as well as the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation; Media Transparency has written on several of the groups funded. A partial list of groups known to be specifically funded 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 (in fact, DeVos is co-owner along with Salem Communications), Assemblies of God televangelist Luis Palau, Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services (a dominionist-run "mental health" facility), Ave Maria School of Law (a dominionist law school founded by the former Domino's CEO Tom Monaghan), and Coral Ridge Ministries (link/link 2). Media sources have noted that the DeVos Foundation is probably one of the top two corporate funders of Focus on the Family (along with Truett Cathy of Chick-Fil-A); Rolling Stone has noted that the DeVos foundations contributed over (US) $5 million annually to dominionist groups as of 2005.

According to multiple media reports, Richard DeVos himself is a member of the Coalition for National Policy; the CNP is a group that is invitation-only and largely operates as a "five year planning committee" between dominionist and purely political neoconservative groups. Multiple sources have stated that the DeVos foundations are one of the primary funding sources for the CNP.

Richard DeVos has close links in particular with Coral Ridge Ministries, a virulently dominionist group run by James Kennedy (including grants of $5 million annually in similar fashion to Focus on the Family funding). Many Focus on the Family affiliated groups tend to get heavy funding--possibly due to Elsa Prince's position in Focus (see below).

As noted, DeVos himself also has very close links with dominionist groups due to the "co-promoting" of AmWay and dominionist (and specifically Assemblies) churches with each other; several Diamonds are very politically influential or have been in past, and Dick DeVos recently attempted an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in Michigan running on a dominionist platform.

DeVos was a major funder of efforts to fight Michael Schiavo in court (in Mr. Schiavo's efforts to discontinue life support for Terri Schiavo) per bioethics.net.

Richard DeVos is in fact surprisingly influential in regards to political dominionism; an ACLU Washington article largely attributes organisation of the modern dominionist movement to DeVos and to Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ (this dating back to the early 70's, the beginnings of the modern dominionist movement outside of the Assemblies).

Reportedly, Dexter Yager (operator of one of the four major "downlines" of AmWay) is a major contributor towards dominionist causes including Liberty University. In addition to known links with Assemblies and AmWay-affiliated leaders John Ashcroft and Doug Wead, there is evidence that the Dexter Yager downline was explicitly used for electioneering to promote the candidacy of George W. Bush. AmWay is known to have contributed at least $1.3 million to Republican presidential campaigns in the 2000 election, with an additional $760,000 donated by Dexter Yager.

Of particular note to political dominionism and links with the administration, the DeVos family has close links with Elsa Prince (specifically, as an in-law); Mrs. Prince is also a major contributor to dominionist groups and is a standing board member for Focus on the Family (link/link 2). Elsa Prince has apparently also been a board member for the Family Research Council and is also a known CNP member; her son (and Betsy DeVos's brother) Erik Prince is co-founder of the Blackwater mercenary squad. (Blackwater has been accused of, among other things, gross human rights abuses and possible war crimes as well as wartime profiteering. The group was the subject of the critical movie Iraq For Sale.)