Sep 12, 2019

CultNEWS101 Articles: 9/12/2019




Jehovah's Witnesses, Sogyal Rinpoche, MLM's, Ku Klux Klan 
"After decades of silence, John Michael Ewing and Heather Steele spoke publicly for the first time ... describing years of sexual abuse at the hands of leaders in the religious group they grew up in, The Jehovah's Witnesses."

"A British charity founded by a disgraced Buddhist guru, who died last week after he was accused of sexual misconduct towards some of his followers, faces further controversy after it emerged that one of its trustees was found responsible for covering up abuse.

Patrick Gaffney was a trustee of the Rigpa Fellowship, which was founded by the Tibetan guru Sogyal Lakar, known as Sogyal Rinpoche, who died aged 72 in Thailand on Wednesday after going into hiding following the claims.

Weeks before Lakar's death, Gaffney – the guru's right-hand man who co-edited his bestselling The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying – was banned by a watchdog from working with charities for eight years."


" ... Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a method of selling a product through a network of distributors, who receive financial incentives for recruiting others. It is common for someone to make as much money from recruiting people just as from selling the actual product. Examples of companies that use this business model include Arbonne, Avon, LuLaRoe, Nutrimetics, and Mary Kay.

Dr Máire O Sullivan, a lecturer in advertising and marketing with a focus on gendered consumption at Edge Hill University, has previously referred to MLMs as "legal pyramid schemes".
"I think that the structure itself is flawed and as soon as recruiting becomes the focus, you are entering pyramid scheme territory," she says, adding that she believes the only way to properly regulate them is to prohibit the incentive to recruit.

Many women pay to sign up just to receive the product discounts offered to distributors, or to get the enticing start-up kit that contains everything a person needs to advertise the products to others. Unfortunately, it often isn't as easy as buying one kit and getting out with your dignity intact."


"PayPal suspended a Ku Klux Klan fundraising account last week after it was criticized for allowing the white supremacist and antisemitic group to accept donations through its service, according to BBC News.

PayPal suspended the account used by the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan on Friday, six days after it was first flagged by activists on social media, the British news outlet reported.

The San Jose-based company had pledged two years ago to "evaluate all sites" that used its service to fund the KKK and other organizations advocating racist views."




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