40 abused children rescued from a German branch of the Twelve Tribes cult

Some people just need to be beat. They just need to be locked up and kept out of society for the rest of their lives.  There is nothing that justifies allowing child abusers to get personal gratification for thumping children.  They get no protection when they spout deviant religious nonsense.

In Germany, 40 children were rescued from the Bible-based cult called “The Twelve Tribes.”  This worldwide cult pushes the practice of striking children with rods on the Bible and God.

The cult owns two farms, one in Klosterzimmern, Germany where 28 children were rescued in a dawn raid.  A similar raid found 12 children at a farm in Wornitz.  The children ranged in age from one and a half to seventeen years old.

The German elder is 54 year old Detlev Markell who, like any other child molester or abuser, insists that he is innocent.  He will face court next week.

The Twelve Tribes is the twisted idea of Elbert Eugene Spriggs.  He founded the cult in 1972, setting up his operation in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  He claims his flock is descended from the early Christians as if the early Christians go off on mauling their kids to excess.

The official group spiel is this:

“Desiring to be good parents, we do not hit our children in anger, nor with our hand or fist….We know that some people consider this aspect of our life controversial, but we have seen from experience that discipline keeps a child from becoming mean-spirited and disrespectful of authority.”

That is a lie.  Those children are flagellated for the pleasure of certain adults who get off on pelting children while keeping them secluded and out of public schools.

The Twelve Tribes has other operations around the world and claims to have thousands of members. This is frightening.  In 1984 Vermont State troopers raided theTwelve Tribes Island Pond homes and removed 112 children.  Judge Malady ruled the raid unconstitutional and soon the children were returned to their parents.  The judge also said that the children had “been subjected to frequent and methodical abuse from community members for disciplinary infractions.”  Also in 2000 a Connecticut Twelve Tribes couple were found guilty of third-degree assault for cruelly disciplining their children with a thirty-inch rod made of tough fiberglass.

The Bible says:

Jesus said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!  It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the depth of the sea.”  Mt. 18:6