The Twelve Tribes Community is a cult

These are some of the oppressive rules of the Twelve Tribes Community (cult).

1.Members can not think for them selves.  In the cult members must

       blindly follow what the leaders (‘shepherds”) say.

2.    I asked an elder once if they ever agree to disagree but love each

       other anyway.  He answered and said “No.”  Also, they don’t

       believe they can live in peace with other religions, even

       Christians.  Two shepherds stated that everyone would have to

       follow them and their theology.  This is crazy since all of their

       communities are located in countries that allow freedom of

       religion.

The community teaches that love is submitting to authority.  This is their main teaching.  TheTwelve Tribes does not emphasize the qualities of love such as compassion, kindness, gentleness, affection, understanding and non-judgment.

I asked them, “If I have different beliefs from you, could I stay here and we can just love each other anyway?”  They responded with “No.”  The elders countered and said “You must be saved from your false beliefs.”  This means that I cannot hold my own beliefs.

I was also told many times, “You must give up all of your opinions.”

It’s their way or the highway on everything.

3.   Members must give up their free will to God because He is the

      way to salvation.  Once again, the member must blindly

      follow.

4.    Members are not permitted to go to the library (usually).  The

       elders don’t want the sheep reading anything other than tribally

       produced literature.  Community members also do not watch TV,

       read newspapers or magazines, go to theaters, read books or

       connect to the Internet.

5.  Members cannot build muscle although most members perform

     hard, physical daily labor.  Elders never gave me a real answer to

     this crazy oppression.  Building muscle helps fight against obesity,

     diabetes, aging, and muscular-skeletal problems.

6.   Members are not allowed to use slang.  They are very superficial

      and pompous about the use of words themselves and not the real

      meaning behind them.

7.  Members cannot talk unattended walks.  The elders confronted me

     several times for simply taking a walk.  The elders watch every

     move the member makes.

8.  Members are not permitted to socialize with people outside of the

     cult.

9.   Community members cannot have pets.  When I was living in the

      community, they obtained a kitten and I couldn’t show it any

      affection because the purpose of the kitten was to catch mice.

      They didn’t want me to be a bad example to the children.  The

      elders and Spriggs brainwash members into believing it’s a place

      of love but they always rebuked affection for the animals.

10.  Females must wear “sus” pants or a long dresses or jumpers.

11.  Men must grow beards and wear their hair in shoulder-length

       ponytails.

12.  Members cannot swear or even say damn or darn it.  It’s more

       pompous, superficial bullshit.  If one confronts an adult with no

       children around and say “There is a lot of bullshit here,” then they will correct the member for using the word “bullshit” instead of

       addressing the real issue which is all the bullshit.  LOL.

13.  Members are not allowed to take prescribed medications.  I

       approve of alternative medicine as it has helped me a lot.  The

       elders interrogated me because I brought a member to the

       hospital because he was suffering from a gallstone attack.

In the community, a toddler developed a case of pneumonia and the methods that the cult tried failed to work.  As a result, the father gave the child antibiotics and the child recovered.  However, many cult members became disturbed when the child became well.  Many cult members responded and said that antibiotics hurt the child’s immune system (as if pneumonia was better).  The woman who told me this couldn’t explain how it hurt the immune system.  Despite the woman’s inability to explain the drawbacks of antibiotics, she continued to preach its drawbacks.  Probiotics anyone?  Members promote topics which they don’t know about or understand.  They just blindly follow.

Community members give alternative medicine a bad rap because they think they know what they are talking about but sadly they don’t.

14.  Members are not permitted to show physical affection to members

       of the opposite sex unless one is married and this must be in

       private.  Members cannot have a boyfriend or girlfriend outside

       the community and cannot date without the elder’s approval.

15.  Members must follow the low protein and high carbohydrate

       community diet unless a member has a food allergy or diabetes.

       I was often rebuked for avoiding certain parts of the meal that I

       knew would bother my stomach.

16.  Members must drink Mate (usually but not always).  Mate is an

       herb the community sells which is an alternative to coffee

       (caffeine).

17.  Members usually (but not always) change their names to Hebrew

       ones upon baptism.

18.  Members cannot put their hands in their pockets.  At the morning

       and evening gathering I felt comfortable placing my hands in my

       pockets but the elders reprimanded me.