Children should be with their parents at Pentecost
Children should be with their parents at Pentecost. The Twelve Tribes want to celebrate the feast of Pentecost because it is so important for them and their children. Therefore, they have requested that children who are currently in foster homes must now go home.
Twelve Tribes in Klosterzimmern
Seven families went to district court director Helmut Beyschlag on Monday morning at his court office in Nördlingen. I’ll decide promptly if the daily court operation would allow for that said Beyschalg. In mid-April the Twelve Tribes requested that their children be allowed to visit during religious festivals such as Passover and Easter. Just a side note – The community does not celebrate Easter! These applications were rejected.
Main Religious Festival
The feast of Pentecost in Hebrew is “shavuot” and is one of the three main religious festivals. A family holds “an everlasting order” according to the Twelve Tribes in a letter to the court. In recent years, their children would have participated with zeal and great joy in preparation of the feast. This year a procession was planned through the monastery rooms in the morning. Later in the day, she wanted to play games together, eat and finish the day with circle dances, music and song.
Celebrate with Family
Therefore, the Twelve Tribes requested that the children come on Sunday, the 08 in their letter. On June 10 at 8:00 p.m. the children can celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the family in Klosterzimmern. The recently returned children made headlines when the parents refused to send them to public schools.
Complaint against agency employees
Members of the Bible-based cult made complaints in mid-March against District youth office Stefan Rössle. The Twelve Tribes blamed the staff claiming they committed serious crimes against the children when they removed them from their communal homes. They also called for the immediate agency employee suspension.
For this reason the Twelve Tribes submitted a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor in Augsburg.
The Twelve Tribes accused the courts of holding the children without decision. The Twelve Tribes claims that the children were taken into foster care on September 5, 2013 and that no decisions were available from the Nördlingen District Court. These children were also taken to the District Office and held for several hours. The Twelve Tribes claims in a press release that the children were deprived of their liberties.
The Twelve Tribes also claim the authorities lacked legal basis for their actions. The community accused the authorities that the medical examination in the District Office lacked legal basis. Another complaint: the authorities had children who ran away from youth centers, returned thither again using physical violence. The Twelve Tribes claims the police also carried out unlawful apartment searches. Furthermore, the youth office neglected to supervise the children in the homes and as a result the children were bullied several times.
Background: Twelve Tribes members want custody
Some members of the Bible-based cult want parental custody of their children returned to them. Their children were taken away in early September 2013 due to alleged beatings. Since then, five Twelve Tribe children are in homes and foster care. The court, however, has no decided that they must return to their parents because the court feels they will not be beaten.
Girl had run away in February
No agreement with Twelve Tribes father
The twelve year old Nechonah Pfeiffer fled at 10:02 from the home and went to see her parents. The child would actually like to return to the parents home, but the Bavarian Higher Regional Court rejected the request. Conversations between youth ministry and the child’s parents have so far not led to any agreement.
Origin of the Twelve Tribes in the U.S.
The Twelve Tribes controversial religious community originated in the 1970s in the United States. The Bible-based cult emphasizes love and reverence for God (Yoneq or Elbert Eugene Spriggs), family and friendship. “Their love for each other is conditional based on strict obedience to the teachings of Elbert Eugene Spriggs,” says a former member. Critics, however, see that the community is tightly organized and punishes children with rods.
At the age of 14, the children are no longer disciplined with the rod.
The parents appealed to the Nördlingen District Court because of the withdrawal of parental rights. Another father disciplined his son although he was 14 years old. After this age, the children reportedly are not beaten.
Was contact with the parents prevented?
One reporter for Bayerischer Rundfunk managed to track down the girl while the police were looking for her in vain. The twelve year old has not been happy at her foster home so she took a train and escaped and went to see her parents. The other children in the foster home have grown up without rules and boundaries, she says.
This is often difficult for educators. “I was yelled at daily and it was shocking to me.” I’m not used to this. My parents in Klosterzimmern never yelled at me. I’ve missed this peaceful atmosphere.
The Interview with the twelve year old.
Twelve Tribes Farm Shop
Girls of the Twelve Tribes
I have missed the peaceful atmosphere. In addition, she hardly enjoyed any contact with her parents and was separated from her brother because she influenced him too much. Because she had to wait for a court decision, she decided to escape from her foster home.
Stubborn Parents
Employees of the Danube Rieser youth ministry talked with the Twelve Tribe parents and tried to convince them to return their child to the home. But neither the parents nor her daughter were obviously willing. If the police came, the girl announced she would hide.
Several children have already fled.
Two infants in Middle Franconia have returned to their parents.
Justice Palace – Nuremburg
The Higher Regional Court of Nuremburg has decided that two babies in the Franconia Bible-based cult of Wörnitz can return to their parents. Parallel to this ruling, the court rejected a complaint from 4 sets of Twelve Tribes parents. They complained they were wrongly deprived of parental custody.
Police Operation in the Bible-based cult
On September 5, 2013 the police removed a total of 34 Twelve Tribes children from their families. A family court ordered access to the police. Previously accepted evidence of child abuse had been circulating for years. The case of the RTL – journalist (Wolfram Kuhnigk) who documented the punishment of the children with a hidden camera, has now been set. Members of the Twelve Tribes cult, however, defended their methods of education in mid September before the court in Amtsgericht Ansbach.
