Christian Social Justice Tactics - Rags to Riches Stories

Okay, so when you're in the market for a car, and you walk onto the lot of a used car dealership, most people, if they have a good head on their shoulders, most people have their guard up a little bit, because they know they're going to be sold.

They're salespeople at the dealership, obviously. Used car salesmen have a reputation for being a little bit sleazy, and obviously not all of them fit that reputation.

There's nothing wrong with being a salesperson. There's nothing wrong with being a used car salesperson. There's nothing wrong with selling used cars.

Sales is not a dirty profession. Sales is necessary for being a human being, essentially.

If you look at the parables of Jesus Christ, so many of them involve economic activity. God invented economic activity.

He invented it as a way to distribute products and goods and stuff like that. And there's nothing wrong and dirty about money either.

It's the love of money that's the root of all evil. Money is not the root of all evil. Money can be a tool for good or evil, depending on the person.

And likewise, sales and sales strategies and pitching can be a tool for good or for evil, depending on the person.

There's no question about it. And so when you walk into a used car lot, you know you're going to be sold, and so you have your guard up a little bit.

And it's sometimes very easy to know that you're being sold a bill of goods. I mean, you'll get some used car salesmen.

These are the less talented ones. And they'll say stuff like, oh, yeah, you'll get all the ladies with this car.

When you hear someone say that, I mean, it's so obvious and transparent that you're being sold a bill of goods.

And so you act accordingly. But the best salespeople, you don't even know you're being sold.

And what I want to do is I want to talk about some of the pitch strategies, the sales strategies and tactics that are used in evangelicalism when they're writing articles about social justice and race relations in particular.

And, again, there's nothing wrong with selling or using some of these strategies. It all depends on the reason why you're doing it.

It all depends on whether or not what you're offering actually does have value. If something is valueless and you're using great sales tactics in order to sell it, you still might be a good salesperson, but you're doing it for shady reasons, for sleazy reasons, sometimes even sinful reasons.

And likewise, when you're using really good rhetoric and good sales copy in your pitches of social justice advocacy and race relations and stuff like that, it could be

OK, or it could be extremely sinful if you're promoting sinful ideas using very effective strategies.

And so what I want to talk about today is a sales classic. This is something that if you've ever seen a salesperson maybe at like a seminar or like a making money kind of thing, a webinar or something like that, they pretty much all use this, and this is the

Rags to Riches story. The Rags to Riches story is an American classic.

It is extremely effective when done well. It can be done in a very ham -fisted way, which we will explore in a moment.

But in order to find a way that I think is very effective, and I'm not telling you my opinion on this guy.

That is for someone else to do, another video. I don't want to get sued, bro. So this is just a very effective pitch is what this is.

And this is a two -minute video by a guy named Dan Lok. You probably have seen his content because he advertises on YouTube all the time.

Just take a look. This is the Rags to Riches story. In fact, he calls it Rags to Riches. He's very open about what this is.

Wow, this brings back a lot of memories. I want you to just stop right here.

We're going to watch this. But look at this. It's very high production value.

You get the music, the very serious music. This is kind of like contemplative music.

It's not fearful or anything like that. It's just a very kind of like remember this and that kind of thing. It's raining.

Everyone's kind of in dark suits. It almost looks like they're at a funeral almost. And he's talking about his humble beginnings.

Just listen to this. This is someone who is pitching you. But you might not know it just watching this video.

Check it out. That's where I used to live right there, the second floor. You see that that's the one bedroom apartment.

My mom and I, we were renting there. And I would sleep in the living room and my mom would sleep in the bedroom.

I was 14 years old. When I first arrived, I was so terrified and so afraid.

Just so afraid of the world, so afraid of the new environment that I wouldn't get out of my house.

I didn't get out of my house for three days. And by the fourth day, I was brave enough just to walk around.

This driveway, that's as far as I would go. It took me a week, a week to get that far to the bridge.

And it took me a month to walk around this entire block. And it's in that one bedroom apartment that when

I was 16 years old, my mom was having a conversation in that exact room.

She was having a conversation with my dad. And that's when we got the news that he went bankrupt in Hong Kong.

And my mom was crying on the phone. She was just crying, crying. After the conversation, I knocked on her door.

I said, Mom, is everything okay? And she opened the door and she said, Yeah, it's fine.

Don't worry about it, son. And that look on her face,

I'll never forget. At that moment,

I made a commitment to myself. It's okay to let myself down. It's not okay to let my family down.

All right, we're going to stop right there. So you can see this is tastefully done.

I don't know about you, but I was feeling emotional watching this. This is intended to elicit an emotional response from you.

And I'm not telling you that's legitimate or illegitimate. All I'm saying is this is one part of a multi -part pitch.

What he's trying to do by this rags to riches stories, he's putting himself in that position where I came from nothing.

I was an immigrant. I didn't speak any English. I was scared. My family was in a difficult financial position.

And at that moment, I told myself I wasn't going to let my family down anymore. What he's doing is he's trying to get you to identify with him.

Chances are, if you're watching this video, you're interested in making money. Maybe you've even had a situation where you didn't come from money.

Because if you're listening to someone like Dan Lok, you're probably a regular person. You didn't come with a silver spoon in your mouth.

Because if you did come with a silver spoon in your mouth, probably you have this knowledge already. And so he knows that.

And so he's identifying with you. And therefore, what he's about to tell you has more validity because he's just like you.

Well, at least he was at one point. Now he's flying in private jets and he wears Armani suits or whatever it is.

But he used to be just like you. And so what he's about to tell you is going to have more validity because he's just a guy like you.

And I'm not saying this is wrong. I'm just saying this is a sales tactic. This is a very effective sales tactic because you could watch this and not know that you're actually being sold to at this point.

Now, whether or not this is legitimate or not depends on what he's selling you. So if he's selling you something that is very valuable and he's going to give you these products or these ideas or this information that's going to help you in your life and it actually does have value, what he's selling you, this could be a very effective and legitimate sales tactic to say,

Hey, look, I'm just like you and I can do this and I can use the information that I'm giving you.

And if I can do it, then you can do it. But if what he's selling you is snake oil, then it's very shady, right?

It's sleazy. It's illegitimate in that way. And so it all depends on what the product is, right?

Whether or not this is sleaze bucket or really effective and good sales.

It's effective either way, I think, because this is a very tastefully done video. But it all depends on what he's selling.

We do this kind of stuff as well. In the evangelical church, we have these kinds of things as well. Let me show you a video from John Piper that has a lot of similarities.

And this is about race. I have not watched this whole video. And I think that's better because I can evaluate this for what it is as opposed to what he's selling you.

Because we have to understand this, guys. Even if we're actually not taking money from someone, we're always selling something.

We're selling ideas. We're selling a following. We're selling something. Even if John Piper is not asking you to spend money on his thing.

Maybe he is in this. Maybe he's trying to get you to buy his book. I'm not sure. But just look at the similarities between what we just saw from Dan Lok and what we're about to see here.

One of the great sorrows of my life and one of the reasons I love the gospel of Jesus so much is because I grew up in this home as a full -blooded racist.

It was an ugly time. Look at the similarities here. The production quality is really good.

It's raining. It's dark and dreary. He's speaking to you about what he once was.

He was a full -blooded racist. Now, again, I have not watched this whole video, so I don't know if he's actually talking about a real racist or if he was just in the system of racism.

Let's watch a few more seconds and we'll get the idea of the things he's talking about. It wasn't beautiful.

It wasn't separate but equal. It wasn't respectful. Separate motels.

Separate restaurants. Separate churches. Separate restrooms.

Separate drinking fountains. Right beside each other on the same wall.

We couldn't even drink from the same fountain. What was that supposed to communicate? Separate public swimming pools.

It was a cesspool of sin. And I was swimming in it.

So, see, this is why I say I don't know if he's talking about that he was an actual racist or if it was just the system that was racist, but that's kind of beside the point.

This is the beginnings of a rags -to -riches story. Do you see what I'm saying? Like, he's not selling actual riches, but what he is saying is,

I used to be in this situation that maybe a lot of you are in right now, or maybe you used to be, and now

I'm not this way. Let me tell you about that, and let me sell you this idea, this story.

And in this case, at least, let's let him finish. Let's let him finish the thought. So I love the gospel.

Amen. I love the gospel because it cleanses me from sin, forgives my guilt, imputes to me a righteousness that's not my own, gives me the

Holy Spirit that begins to put to death the old racist nature and open up a whole new possibility of life and hope and joy and justice.

So he's selling the gospel here. He's presenting the gospel to you, and he's telling you that the gospel is the solution to what

I used to be. Now, again, it all depends on the details, because if he's talking about these fake systems of oppression that exist today supposedly, but he's trying to relate that to what used to exist, and it was definitely systemic oppression back then, okay, then we can talk about that's more like the snake oil side of this, and this is a very deceptive sales tactic.

But you can see how this is a very effective story, this rags -to -riches story.

In fact, many of our testimonies, when we talk about our testimony and we are witnessing for the Lord, we talk about how

God changed our lives, what God did for us. Now, we need to be careful here, because when we're presenting the gospel to someone, we need to make sure that the story is not about us, right?

It's not about how great my life is now that I know God and everything that's great about me.

We often tell our story that way. I've done it. I mean, I'm sure you've done it as well when you're witnessing about Jesus Christ.

So we need to be careful that we actually make the story about who it's about. It's about the Lord. It's about what he did on the cross.

It's about how he conquered sin, how he led that exodus, all that kind of stuff.

We need to be careful, because listen, I'm guilty of this. I'm guilty of this. I've told the rags -to -riches story when presenting the gospel, so we need to be careful that we're not abusing this emotional technique, this sales tactic.

Let's just be honest with what it is. It is a tactic for having a conversation. It's rhetoric, right? So you can see that I'm not making a determination on whether or not using this kind of a rags -to -riches story to get an emotional response.

I'm not saying that that's wrong. What I am saying is, though, that it can be abused, and it is often abused in social justice.

Now, I'm not going to talk about John Piper here, because, again, I have not finished this video. I don't know exactly what he's saying.

But you can see how it could go sideways quick, because if he uses all of this emotion to sell you a bill of goods about equity and how every person should have the same money and how every person should have the same result and there should be equal numbers of black pastors and white pastors, like we know that that's evil from the

Bible, so then this is a very manipulative tactic. However, if he's talking about truth, right, if he's actually selling you something that has value, right?

Because this is the point. If Dan Lok is selling something with value, then this is a very excellent sales strategy.

This is a good video. But if he's selling you snake oil, then this is a very manipulative video, because what he's actually doing is setting you up to essentially rob you.

And likewise, if Piper here is going to sell you something with value, if he's going to actually present the actual gospel of Jesus Christ with God's actual justice in mind, then it's very effective.

But if he's about to sell you Marxism under the guise of Christianity, then it's very manipulative.

Do you see what I'm saying? Let me give you an example of this manipulation, because this guy, Dave Miller, who we went over his article yesterday, it's a big rags -to -riches story, and it's a very manipulative one, because he's trying to get you to say being woke is great, and the whole way through he's manipulating you.

Look, let's find the article where he starts here, because I'll show you this. He talks about how conservative he was.

Let's see here. I'd been a loyal Republican all my life, moral majority adherent, a reliable right -wing vote.

And then over here he calls himself a hardcore conservative pastor. It is an apt description of my journey on racial issues.

I want to share my testimony on these issues and explain how a hardcore conservative

Baptist preacher ended up getting regularly called woke, a liberal, a Democrat, and all of these things.

And the thing is what Dave Miller is telling you is illegitimate. It is not the case that in order to be faithful or in order to be not a racist or in order to be not an evil bigot and all this kind of stuff that you have to get woke.

That is not the case at all. In fact, that is the opposite of what you should do. You should not get woke.

This is the snake oil. And this whole story is he's like, Well, I talked to some black friends.

I met Dwight McKissick. I read a book that changed my life. Here it is. And then

I talked to my deacon friend. It's a rags -to -riches story. The rags were when I used to be a conservative right -wing voter and stuff like that.

The riches are now I get the privilege to be called liberal and woke and social justice warrior and all of that stuff.

And this is a bogus, very manipulative rags -to -riches story. He's trying to sell you a bill of goods.

None of it has any value. All of it is against what Christ has said in his word. All of this woke stuff down to each individual point, each distinctive of the woke church is actually upside down, is actually against what biblical justice really is all about.

And so he's selling you a bill of goods, and he's doing it with this rags -to -riches story. Now, I want to just wrap this video up with one more reminder that this rags -to -riches story is not evil in and of itself.

And none of the sales tactics that I'm going to tell you about in this series are evil in and of themselves.

But what I do want you to do is when you start to watch the John Piper video and you hear that same similar kind of music that Dan Lok was using over here, you see the same kind of motif.

It's raining. It's dark and dreary. These videos are very similar in many ways, at least the first section that I listened to here.

What I want you to do is I want you to have your guard up. I want you to try to do your best to kind of cool it with the emotions a second and objectively look at what is being sold to you.

That's what you need to do with Dan Lok. When you see this stuff, it's like, okay, what is the objective value that he's providing for me?

Is this worth what he says it's worth? Because just because I can identify with him, I'm a conservative

Baptist right -wing voter too. Just because you can identify with him, does it mean that what he's telling you is actually valuable, is actually worth it?

You need to cool with the emotions a little bit. I'm not saying emotions are wrong, but they can rob you of your reason if you let them.

Emotions are good if they're harnessed for truth, if they're harnessed for things that are valuable.

And there's nothing more valuable than Jesus Christ. And when we are ambassadors for Christ and we teach everyone to observe all that is commanded, that part is extremely important.

We have to have the right Christ and we have to have the right teachings in order for us to not be manipulating someone.

If you use the gospel of Jesus Christ as a means to your Marxist ends, your socialist ends, your ends that don't come from the

Bible, you are actually manipulating people using the gospel of Jesus Christ. May God forbid us to ever do that.

Do not manipulate people with these sales tactics. You got to make sure that when you hear the emotions, when you hear this kind of stuff being used, the rags to riches story, get your guard up.

Get your guard up, slow down, and use your mind that God gave you to make sure that what's being presented to you is actually so.

That is a very noble thing. The Bereans always did this. They searched the scriptures to make sure it was so.

They didn't believe the emotional presentations. They looked at the scriptures to make sure that it was actually valuable.

Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful. God bless. Let me know if you want more of these.

I'll keep doing these. There's a lot of sales tactics used by social justice warriors. If you found value to this, please share it, please like it, and comment.

All of that helps the algorithm so most people will see it, and it'll signal me to do a lot more of these videos. God bless.