What a strange spam email.
Hey Friend,
(Resending this to make sure you saw it…)
We’re putting together a group of 12 Pastors/Church Leaders who want to GET RESULTS for a new LIVE cohort inside our FB Ads Bootcamp Coaching Program starting on Tuesday, February 7th:Specifically, we’re looking for:
You have at least 1 hour per day to devote over the next 8-10 week to implement our proven system to land high ticket clients
You’re Kingdom minded and feel called to being a Digital Tentmaker so you can support the Church
You want more time freedom AND financial margin
You genuinely want to serve businesses and help them grow
No marketing experience needed, but you’re coachable, take action, and are willing to get out of your comfort zoneIf that’s you, please hit reply to this email and I’ll send you more info and details on getting started.
We’re starting ASAP and space is limited to 12. So let us know if you’re in.
Cheers,
Jeremy & Alejandro
P.S. Yes this email is real, and yes, I will reply!
It’s kind of revealing, though, isn’t it? The message isn’t about spreading the gospel — it’s about landing high ticket clients, financial margins, and serving businesses. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that there’s some MLM scheme underlying it, too.
I didn’t reply to Jeremy & Alejandro, even though I felt like just sending them one image.
It’s funny that Jesus and an atheist can find common ground in scourging the venal profiteers in the church.
Yeesh. I never saw Kenny Loggins so mad.
Hm, Digital Tentmaking; http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lesdibXwyC1qfd6ajo1_400.png
I believe this refers to Paul of Tarsus.
The Paul who more or less invented xianity.
IIRC, Paul supported himself in his travels by being a tentmaker.
I don’t see that Digital Tents are going to keep the rain off of you though.
I’m sure this email is real.
It looks like a typical real affinity group scam.
These are common in xian and Mormon communities.
A new LIVE cohort inside our FB Ads Bootcamp Coaching Program?” WTAF does that even mean?! I mean, I know it’s a grift aimed at wannabee grifters, but I’m still kinda curious about what, if anything, that bit of MLM/Christianese/glurdge might mean…
Oh bugger, none of that was supposed to be italicized. Sorry…
Did we really need confirmation that much of Christianity is about money rather than God? 😁
How to love Jesus (or get rich tryin’)!
Tangential but thinking Xian scams and advertising, Rebecca Watson has this 15 min long clip exposing some very shady ads during a big game that apparently you can’t mention for fear of being potentially sued which also ..WTF?
@1: Those guys are on a highway to the Danger Zone. They better get Footloose, because Kenny will Meet (them) Halfway.
“It’s funny that Jesus and an atheist can find common ground in scourging the venal profiteers in the church.”
As an atheist, Jesus and I seem to find common ground on a lot of issues. For example:
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Let he who is without [sin/guilt] cast the first stone.
and so on.
Dude had a lot of good ideas, including his repeated exhortations for people to stop getting all worked up over material crap. Over things. Chasing wealth leads to evil, pure and simple. Just be, man, and try to be good to those around you. Forgiveness is a grace we can all give one another, if we’re just willing to be honest about our mistakes, and work to do better.
Paul, on the other hand… fuck that extortionist autocratic asshole.
I think you have the wrong address
What do “they have” that’s right?
StevoR @9: I’ve seen those ads too. They strike me as insulting and manipulative, like someone who doesn’t have a clue about any human suffering anywhere, personal or global, and doesn’t care enough to come up with anything else to say but “Jesus suffered too,” like that’s supposed to help anyone (whose suffering is clearly not being stopped or mitigated by this Jesus person). Maybe they’re intended to be off-putting to people like us, and attract people who are more easily manipulated.
Anyway, thanks to Rebecca for talking about this.
The money changers at the temple are one of the few moments in the NT where I think we might be dealing with something based loosely on reality. From something I read a few years ago…I think it was some old Italian religious scholar…pilgrimages were a big deal in the Roman world, and Herod and his family had turned Jerusalem into a Mecca. They built a temple, amplified if not outright invented a past for it, and proselytized the idea across the Mediterranean. People came from all over the Roman world…or perhaps if they were rich enough sent someone to do the duties for them. Many of these people were “unclean”, of course, and so was their money. (They were also uncircumcised but that was a different problem.) As I understand it, the money changers were there to trade unclean money for temple approved money…for a cut of course…so that the sacrificial animals could be purchased properly.
As far as I’m concerned, scams are at the heart of the Judea-Christian-Muslim tradition. That it keeps going is testimony to human gullibility even after two thousand years.
@ ^ robro : Agreed. ESp firts and last sentences.
Theres a youtrube video here by a Sam Aronow which might be worth checking out on this – 3 mins 31 secs long.
Checking the unclean money was certainly one thing and checking the circumcision status a whole other – & likely much less enforced and prioritised one!
Not again. Take II :
This time should be correct How did theJewish Temple work clip as intended – rushing, mea culpa.
@4, 5 I think this is the case that you are thinking of, raven. The latest one involves Mormons. Basically, it used the same methods as the Madoff Ponzi scheme–“I’m one of you, you can trust me” aka the affinity scam.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/02/01/mormon-ponzi-scheme-vegas-fbi/
“Authorities had long suspected Beasley of running a massive Ponzi scheme with his business partner, Jeffrey Judd, that mainly targeted Mormons, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are often called. The investment was pitched as a nearly risk-free opportunity to earn annual returns of 50 percent by lending money to slip-and-fall victims awaiting checks after the settlement of their lawsuits.”
““We started chatting, and he said, ‘We have this investment. My wife and I are going to be able to retire early because of it. We just feel so blessed,’” Gibbs said. “I did have my suspicions, but he said his family was in it. That just kept fueling me to add more.””
“Anderson, 38, who’d once worked with the whistleblower who tried to warn the SEC about Bernie Madoff, said he had immediately spotted the telltale signs of a Ponzi scheme. An online search showed neither Judd nor Beasley had liens listed under their names, which, in a legitimate endeavor, would have ensured legal recourse if the slip-and-fall victims didn’t pay back their loans, Anderson said.
The investment also had no website. Spread via word of mouth, it was reliant on the trust that came from a shared religious affiliation, known as an affinity scam.”
But if you act now, you can get in early on the latest Ponzi scheme and as such, maybe get your money back from the scammers when they take money from the second wave of suckers! It’s the later victims who never get their money back! /s
@11 I don’t have a problem with Jesus so much but his fans are creepy and the fan club is just weird.
google Digital Tentmakers and you’ll fine Jere & Alej
So you’re both hypocrites?
(I mean, look at the illustration in the OP. The very contrary of those platitudes)
Just revealed that the $3 billion “rebranding Jesus” campaign is a Hobby Lobby thang.
I recall reading an interpretation of some of Jesus’ supposedly peace-making that put another nail in him for me: He said turn the other cheek and give all your stuff away for the same reason lots of cult leaders have done similar things these days: everything in this earthly realm was going to be irrelevant once his vision came to pass. You won’t need your stuff, so give it away. The jerks who run things now? Their days are numbered, so just do what they ask for now. He did tell his club that he’d be returning in their lifetimes, so it makes sense that the trials and tribulations they might go through didn’t matter much. (I’ve always wondered why the editors of the 66 Books of Scamminess (BS) left that bit in; it’s not a good indicator of Jesus’ prophesying abilities. You’d think God on Earth would get the details right.)
Of course, this all assumes some truth and internal consistency in the BS.
@1 😂That Kenny loggins comment had me rolling
They broke the first rule of grift club.
Let he who is without [sin/guilt] cast the first stone.
My family had a version of that story:
After Jesus said that, a rock goes whizzing past his ear, and knocks the woman in question flat on her ass.
Jesus turns and says, “Mom, sometimes you really piss me off.”
Since when is “high ticket” a euphemism for “stupid”?
I get a ton of random spam on my work emil addressed to ‘Dave’ (not my name, obs)
Weirdly replying “Dave’s not here, man!” has never elicited a reply. (and more annoyingly the ‘Unsubscribe’ link fails to unsubscribe me)
My Golden Rule is “Thou shall not inflict thyself on other people, unless you have a really good reason”.
That, and the 11th Commandment…
“Thou shall not get caught”.
Pretty much covers it for me.
I’m Drewish by the way, please subscribe to my newsletter. (and tithes… I’m always open for tithes…)
Re: brucej @ #25….
On emails like those, the “unsubscribe” link just tells them that they’ve found an account someone is actually paying attention to. Makes selling the address on to the next scammer just that much more lucrative.
@24 Ahh, Mary. A nice Jewish girl who is just sticking to her story. ;)
@27 “I’m Drewish by the way”
Were you originally from Druidia by any chance? And are you moving to Montana soon?
What Eleventh Commandment? As per History of the World, Part I,
“I have these fifteen [CRACK] TEN COMMANDMENTS!”
@28, I know, I know…it just gives me a brief feeling of power to send out “Cheech and Chong” routines to the world. I long LONG ago realized that the easiest way deal with spam is the humble Delete key :-) I can delete a hundred spam messages in a mere minute or so.
I’ve often thought that, if Jesus would come alive and enter Washington DC on a donkey today, those who claim to be His most avid followers would be the first to crucify Him again.
“You’re Kingdom minded and feel called to being a Digital Tentmaker so you can support the Church
I believe this refers to Paul of Tarsus.”
I think it reflect a more intelligent primate of the early church, Saul the Tarsir, who emigrated to Corinth when the Greeks began importing pet cameleons from Madagascar via the Red Sea.