Calvin should welcome DeVos’s donation: a response to ‘Mumblings’ series

By Ellie White-Stevens
Guest Writer

In the first two parts of her three-part series, Natasja VanderBerg vilifies Richard DeVos for some fraud claim made and paid before she or I were in kindergarten. The evidence that Ms. VanderBerg cited lacks contextualization. How can we know exactly what a memo several decades old was inferring? Moreover, should we care? The other accusations cast by Ms. VanderBerg referred to the “pyramid scheme” that Amway uses. She said that “97 percent of the distributors work but make no money at all.” Unlike some pyramid schemes, Amway is based on products.

Those 97 percent are still receiving Amway shampoo and other assorted household products. These are factory direct consumer goods, which make up for monetary gain that these “bottom distributors” are not receiving. CAS Professor Randy Bytwerk, who has studied pyramid plans, says that Amway isn’t one at all. He states, “Amway has had no great difficulty defending itself against legal claims that it is a ‘pyramid scheme.’ Amway uses multi-level marketing, which is open to abuses, but a visit to their plant out in Ada will find a lot more soap than pyramids being manufactured.” He even points out that Amway recently had an early retirement plan, in part because sales of actual products in the Far East dropped significantly after the economic crisis there. I’m not attempting to defend the economics of Amway to any great degree.

I am not educated enough in this field to have a truly informed opinion. I am willing, however, to justify the economical common sense of accepting money from Mr. DeVos. As a Calvin Alumnus, he has the same right to donate money to Calvin as any other student who has graced our hallowed halls for a semester or more. As for the morality of accepting money from someone who once pleaded guilty to tax evasion, I ask you “are any of us in the place to judge others for their sin?” Jesus himself had dinner at Zaccheus’s house. Despite his own perfection, he consorted with an infamous sinner.

The alleged “sin” of Mr. DeVos should not be reason enough for our disassociation from him. His confession, by pleading guilty, should give us even more reason to welcome him with open arms. Do we have to right to declare someone “unrepentant?” Whatever our view on DeVos’s guilt or innocence, our own sinfulness should keep us from judging him. The end result is that Calvin College needs a new communications building. I have seen the difficulty that the current system of scattered CAS offices has caused.

As a Senior CAS major, I see the new building as an answer to many frustrating problems in the department. Why not let Mr. DeVos donate his ten million? Mother Theresa was able to accept money from the dictator of Haiti. She realized that money, regardless of its history, could be used for a great deal of good. With a similar awareness, we could accept and use this Alumnus gift to better our campus.