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“They are evil”: Ex-Twelve Tribes members describe child abuse, control inside religious cult

Charlie — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 23:34:51 +0000

Source: The Denver Post

Sect spotlighted by Marshall fire abuses children, exploits followers and teaches racism, former members say

By SHELLY BRADBURY | sbradbury@denverpost.com | The Denver Post

PUBLISHED: March 3, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: February 23, 2023 at 6:38 p.m.

John Post, pictured in Portland, Maine, on Feb. 12, 2022, was born and raised in the Twelve Tribes. He was subject to abuse as a child in the cult, and says as a deaf person he was particularly mistreated by the group. Post escaped in 1999 when he was 19. (Photo by Yoon S. Byun/Special to The Denver Post)

On a fall day in 1999, 19-year-old John I. Post packed up his birth certificate, Social Security card, state identification, favorite blanket and pictures of his family and prepared to leave the religious cult into which he’d been born and raised.He’d been taught his whole life that anyone who left the Twelve Tribes would die. He had no money. Agonized over the decision to leave. But he couldn’t stay. He planned to walk into town and call a friend for help.

When he finally stood up to leave the Vermont compound, some 15 cult members blocked his path outside, forming a wall. They prayed and warned there would be consequences if he walked out of God’s protection. He’d probably die. Post shook as he moved by them.

“My heart was just pounding and pounding. Was something going to happen to me? I didn’t know,” Post, who is deaf, said in an interview through an interpreter.

As he walked the mile into town, his father followed, imploring him to stay.

“I finally said to my father, ‘Look, please, accept this is my decision,’” Post, 43, said. “And finally he didn’t say anything and he walked away.”

Post was free.

“I’ll never go back,” he said. “Never, not at all. I just feel like, the Twelve Tribes, they are evil.”

The Twelve Tribes religious sect burst into the news in Colorado in January, when authorities confirmed they were investigating the possibility that the deadly Marshall fire, the most destructive wildfire in state history, might have started on the group’s compound off Eldorado Springs Drive in Boulder County. Investigators have not yet pinpointed the cause of the fire that destroyed more than 1,000 homes and are investigating other potential ignition points as well.

Few on the Front Range know much about the insular religious group, whose 3,000-some members live communally in Colorado and across the nation and world, and take pains to present an innocuous front to outsiders.

The Twelve Tribes attracts new members with a folksy peace-and-love, all-are-welcome message, but underneath that hollow promise of utopia lies a manipulative cult that seeks to maintain complete control of its followers, 10 former members told The Denver Post in 26 hours of interviews. The Post reviewed nearly 400 pages of Twelve Tribes’ teachings and combed through court, real estate, business and historical records in reporting on the sect.

In a series of three stories over the next week, The Post will detail accounts of ex-members about living inside the Twelve Tribes, spotlighting three major problems identified by former followers: that the group requires excessive corporal punishment and fails to protect children from sexual abuse, exploits members for labor and money, and espouses racist, misogynistic and homophobic teachings.

“Nobody understands the real horror underneath until you’ve lived it,” said Alina Anderson, a former member born into the cult who left in 2001 at age 14. Anderson, 35, now lives in Boulder and is going by her middle and former married names in this story to avoid being identified by current cult members.

Leaders in the Twelve Tribes contacted by The Post either declined to comment or spoke only briefly, saying they were wary of publicity after past bad experiences with the press. The group also didn’t respond to emailed questions. But those who spoke defended the Twelve Tribes and its practices.

“We try to do good to everyone,” said Tim Pendergrass, a current Twelve Tribes leader who lives in a Florida commune. “It’s amazing how everyone can think bad about you. It just comes with the turf.”

Provided by Luke Wiseman

Twelve Tribes members Bob Brooks, Gary Long and the group’s founder Eugene Spriggs seated together around 1982.

Physical restraint and discipline

Founded in Tennessee in 1972 by Elbert Eugene Spriggs, the 50-year-old Twelve Tribes blends Spriggs’ personal beliefs with elements of both Christianity and Judaism.

New members must give up their possessions and names, live in one of the Twelve Tribes’ three dozen worldwide communes and follow the cult’s strict rules, which, former members say, dictate everything from how much toilet paper a member should use (two sheets) to the shape of a member’s eyeglasses (round). Followers are encouraged to cut off all contact with the outside world.

The Twelve Tribes moved into Colorado in the early 2000s, first establishing a compound in Manitou Springs before expanding to Boulder in 2010; members now run the Yellow Deli in Boulder and a café in Manitou Springs. An estimated 40 people live at the Eldorado Springs Drive compound, and another 25 or so in a house in Manitou Springs.

The largest number of Twelve Tribes communities are in the U.S., but the sect also has a presence in South America, Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan.

The group can be considered a cult because it has a charismatic authoritarian leader, extremist ideology, an all-or-nothing belief system, and uses coercion to control and exploit members, cult expert Janja Lalich said. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the Twelve Tribes as a “Christian fundamentalist cult.”

In recent years, the Twelve Tribes has experienced a mass exodus among the first generation of children born and raised in the group. Many — most, by some counts — of the first kids raised in the cult have left, driven out by the group’s practices and leadership’s increasingly tight grip on the shrinking membership that remains.

For many ex-members, the decision to leave came with parenthood.

“I was under no circumstances going to beat my kids the way I was beaten,” said a former member who left in his 30s and spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity to protect family members still in the cult. “I just could not do it. And you have to if you are there. If you are not beating your kids, you are going to be in big trouble.”

The Twelve Tribes taught that it was different from false religions — like mainstream Christianity — because “their children would follow them,” he said.

But the Twelve Tribes’ children fled in droves. And now, as adults still working through the trauma of their childhoods, they worry for the kids still caught inside.

When a toddler throws a tantrum in the Twelve Tribes, an adult might grab the girl, hold her tight on his lap — perhaps by throwing his leg over hers — restrain both her arms and put his hand over her mouth until she stops fighting back.

The toddler might scream and cry and struggle for an hour. She will not be freed until she surrenders, former members said. The idea is to break her will.

“Kids were supposed to be quiet. And when they weren’t, physical restraint over their bodies and mouths was expected,” said ex-member Jason Wolfe, 46. His brother, a leader in the Twelve Tribes, previously lived in Manitou Springs, and their father helped establish the Boulder community. Wolfe left the group in 2009 and now lives in Virginia; he was 6 when his parents joined.

Alyssa Schukar, Special to The Denver Post

Jason Wolfe sits in his home in Purcellville, Virginia, on Feb. 10, 2022.

Restraint is part of the Twelve Tribes’ overall approach to child-rearing, which focuses heavily on physical discipline. The Twelve Tribes teaches that children must be spanked with thin, flexible wooden rods — a practice the group has been consistently criticized for but has steadfastly defended, saying it is rooted in Biblical principles.

“Those are longstanding (concerns) that probably won’t be resolved until everyone comes to the understanding everyone will come to,” Pendergrass said.

A January 2000 version of the group’s 348-page Child Training Manual obtained by The Post says children as young as 6 months should be spanked, if they, say, wiggle away from diaper changes.

“The pain received from the balloon stick is more humbling than harmful,” the manual reads. “There is no defense against it… The only way to stop the sting of the rod is to submit. That is exactly what the child will do — submit to his parents’ will and end his rebellion.”

Ex-members who grew up in the Twelve Tribes described being spanked on their bare bottoms, on their hands and on the bottoms of their feet for the slightest perceived offenses; it was not uncommon for parents to spank their child 20 or 30 times each day.

“We were basically beaten down into absolutely nothing so that they could build you up into what they wanted you to be. Asking for seconds at breakfast could get you a spanking,” Anderson said. Adults in the cult were taught to discipline on the first command.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Alina Anderson, who requested to be identified by her middle name and former married name, displays old family photos from her time in the Twelve Tribes religious cult. She grew up in the Twelve Tribes before escaping as a teenager.

“If you have a 3-year-old son and you say, ‘Stop jumping up and down’ — the chances of that happening on the first time is zero. So that would be a spanking,” said a former 20-year member who previously lived with the cult in Boulder and left in 2016. He spoke on condition of anonymity because his family still lives in the group.

Like most everything in the Twelve Tribes, discipline is communal and guided by social pressure. Offenses that warrant spanking might vary from community to community, or even from family to family, but there is tremendous social pressure to discipline harshly, ex-members said.

Cult members meet once every morning and once every evening for mandatory “gatherings” — worship sessions at which leaders preach. They can be tedious and long, and children are expected to listen without fidgeting.

“If you don’t take your child out and spank them during the teachings, then you’re thought of as not being a good parent,” said Luke Wiseman, 46, a former member who left in 2013 and now lives in Virginia. “People tapped me on the back when I had a 2-year-old son and said, ‘Your son is not listening.’ Then if I don’t take him out and spank him, I’m not ‘receiving.’”

Adults considered to be out-of-bounds are ostracized, shamed and “cut off” from the community until they repent and leaders approve their return. Members who do wrong might also be the subject of a community-wide “public humiliation,” in which the community’s leaders shame the person during a gathering. Some wrongs might be codified into a new teaching that is sent to all Twelve Tribes communities, ex-members said.

“Most people in the Twelve Tribes really live in fear,” said Post, who now lives in Maine. He became deaf as an infant after a bout with meningitis, but his parents didn’t know he’d lost his hearing until he was 4. He was harshly disciplined as a toddler because his parents thought he wasn’t obeying them, when, in reality, he just couldn’t hear their commands, he said. Both parents are still in the Twelve Tribes today.

“Just last year, after 30 years, my parents approached me and apologized for what had happened to me growing up,” Post said. “It was over the top, it was severe and brutal.”

Yoon S. Byun, Special to The Denver Post

John Post, pictured on Feb. 12, 2022, was born and raised in the Twelve Tribes. He was subjected to abuse as a child in the cult, mistreatment he said was made worse because he is deaf.

Longstanding abuse allegations

The first generation of children in the Twelve Tribes largely grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, and former members described enduring extreme physical abuse during that time. The ex-member who left in his 30s remembered a practice called scourging, in which a child was stripped naked and beaten with a rod from head to toe.

Post and others said adults routinely withheld food from children as a form of discipline, sometimes for days at a time. When Anderson was 6 or 7, she was locked in a dark basement as punishment for taking from the refrigerator.

“The one time that I was locked in the dungeon — it wasn’t a real dungeon but it felt like it — I think that was for more than a day, because we fasted every Friday, so I was used to starving, and it was longer than that,” she said.

Click to enlarge

On a June day in 1984, authorities in Island Pond, Vermont, raided the Twelve Tribes’ commune there over allegations of child abuse. Police and social workers took more than 100 children into protective custody with plans to examine the kids for signs of abuse. But the plan fell apart when a judge determined the raid was unconstitutional because the search warrant was too general and not supported by concrete evidence of abuse. The children were returned to the commune within hours.

“The raid that happened in 1984, what should have happened is all the children should have been taken and placed in foster care and that should have been the end of the group,” Wolfe said. “There was so much child abuse going on at that time.”

For years afterward, the Twelve Tribes celebrated June 22 as a day of deliverance, a sort of Passover-like event in which God protected the group from the overreach of government. When the children in the raid grew up, some spoke publicly at June 22 remembrances to defend their parents and proclaim they had never been abused.

The day before the 20th anniversary of the raid, Wolfe was included in a meeting with other first-generation kids ahead of the celebration to prepare for the next day’s speeches. Jeanie Swantko, a former public defender who joined the group and married Wiseman’s father after representing him in a child abuse case, told the gathered young adults that they needed to clearly say there had been no abuse. (Swantko couldn’t be reached for comment.)

“I stood up and I was like, ‘You’re dead wrong,’” Wolfe said. “‘There was a (crap)load of abuse, it was everywhere and that was all there was. Why can’t we just say there was child abuse and we’re not OK with it?’”

He was escorted out of the meeting, he said. His brother who is still in the Twelve Tribes, Peter Wolfe, said in a short phone conversation in February that he had a “wonderful upbringing.”

“I did grow up here (in the Twelve Tribes),” he said. “…My wife grew up here. We don’t share any of those views as far as different things that other people might say.”

Both Peter Wolfe and Pendergrass said the Twelve Tribes welcomed visitors and questions, but a local leader denied a request by The Post to visit the group’s Boulder compound. The organization also did not respond to emailed questions about its treatment of children.

Photos by Alyssa Schukar, Special to The Denver Post

LEFT: Jason Wolfe shares a photo of his wife Abby and his daughter Ezrith at his home in Purcellville, Virginia, on Feb. 10, 2022. Jason’s wife Abby was killed in a car crash after he left the Twelve Tribes cult, and his young daughter Ezrith died by suicide. The fear of death after leaving the cult is used as a means of control to keep members in the group. RIGHT: Jason Wolfe shares a tattoo he got in memory of his daughter Ezrith.

Police calls in Colorado

For many years in the Twelve Tribes, physical discipline could be meted out by any adult on any child for any reason, former members said. Anderson was disciplined for wearing her ponytail too high and for looking around — not at her feet — when she walked.

“There was no safe space,” Jason Wolfe said.

In recent years, the Twelve Tribes seems to have shifted toward parents disciplining their own children with less emphasis on all adults disciplining all children, one of several modernizing changes the group has made in response to outside criticism. But ex-members say the Twelve Tribes would never fully abandon the practice of physical discipline, which is still a core tenet.

Logs of police calls to the Twelve Tribes’ compounds in Boulder County and Manitou Springs show that child abuse remains a concern. A 911 caller in May 2020 sent Manitou Springs police to the commune there after a young relative who had visited the group reported that children were being kept in a basement without electricity, according to records provided by Manitou Springs police.

That caller, who asked not to be identified to preserve relationships with her relatives, said police told her they knocked on the door of the commune, asked a few questions and left without going inside. The Twelve Tribes was known to be peaceful and everything seemed OK that night, they told her. Manitou Springs police records show officers spent 13 minutes at the compound; a police spokesman did not know whether officers went inside the home.

In September 2019, child welfare officials and sheriff’s deputies visited the compound in Boulder County and interviewed several people as part of a child protective services investigation, according to a report provided by the sheriff’s office. Deputies went along out of concern the group might be hostile, but the cult members welcomed the inquiry, the report says.

“The children living on the property seemed to be happy and healthy, and they even sang us a couple songs while we were there,” Deputy J. Ryan wrote in the report.

Police also responded to reports of teenagers who ran away from the Colorado properties.

In September 2020, a 16-year-old girl fled the Manitou Springs compound in the middle of the night, according to a police report. In June 2018, a 15-year-old boy who was living in the Boulder commune ran away, sheriff’s records show. The teenager returned after about two days and told deputies he’d ridden his bicycle from the Eldorado Springs Drive commune to Westminster, slept the night on a patch of grass, then continued to ride his bicycle all the way into the 16th Street Mall in Denver, where he spent the day before cycling back to the commune.

“(The boy) appeared very genuine in his statements saying he was not going to do this ever again and that he was sorry for putting his mother and father in such constant worry,” the deputy’s report reads.

The police reports also detail the Jan. 5 arrest of Ron Williams, 50, on a year-old outstanding warrant for felony sexual exploitation of children after Boulder County authorities discovered more than 1,000 images of child sexual abuse in Williams’ possession in 2020. At the time, he was living in a home in Superior; that home burned in the Marshall fire. When he was arrested in January, he’d been staying with the Twelve Tribes, though it’s not clear for how long.

As he was arrested a short walk away from the Twelve Tribes’ compound in Manitou Springs, Officer Ron Johnson described Williams to other officers as “a possible suspect in the Boulder fire” multiple times, according to body camera footage. But Carrie Haverfield, a spokeswoman for the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, said Williams was never a suspect in the Marshall fire investigation.

“He was someone that was staying on the property at the time and so was loosely associated with the property, so he was indexed along with everybody else, but never a suspect,” she said.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Alina Anderson, who requested to be identified by her middle name and former married name, is pictured at her apartment in Boulder on Feb. 1, 2022. Anderson grew up in the Twelve Tribes religious sect before escaping as a teenager.

Failure to report

Sexual abuse of children is not condoned or allowed by the Twelve Tribes, former members said, but it does happen, and it is rarely reported to law enforcement when discovered.

Sometimes, a man accused of sexual abuse will be kicked out of the cult, ex-members said. But sometimes, he will be forgiven and allowed to stay. How a case is handled often depends on how much status the abuser has within the cult. Frequently, children who report sexual abuse are not believed; some are punished or told the abuse was their fault.

Anderson said she as a young girl told a woman she trusted about being sexually abused. That woman brought it to other adults, and Anderson was questioned by a male elder. She kept silent. Another elder’s wife then took her aside and questioned her.

“She said, ‘How do you have intercourse?’ And that is what threw me off. I said, ‘What is intercourse? And why would I have it?’ Then she said, ‘Is it anal or vaginal?’”

Anderson didn’t know what those words meant, and the elder’s wife concluded that she was lying about being abused in an attempt to get attention, Anderson said.

She still struggles to talk about it.

Provided by Alina Anderson

Twelve Tribes members dance together in Vermont at a public event in hopes of attracting new members to the group in 1997.

After escaping the group at 19, Post went to college and in his sophomore year poured out his heart in a 10-page letter to his father in which he detailed sexual abuse he’d suffered as a young teenager.

“He wrote me back and said, ‘I don’t believe anything in your story,’” Post said.

In a Twelve Tribes leadership meeting sometime around 2011, Wiseman asked why a particular case of alleged child sexual abuse wasn’t reported to outside authorities. Leaders told Wiseman that the girl’s father didn’t want to testify in court, Wiseman said.

He later followed up with the father, who said he was willing to work with law enforcement, but that a Twelve Tribes leader “told him not to testify because it would shame our Master’s (Jesus’) name,” Wiseman said, adding that the Twelve Tribes kicked out the accused abuser.

“It’s been sustained, spanning multiple eras in the Twelve Tribes, and they bury it,” the member who left in his 30s said. “They don’t advocate for the kids who are abused. They’re much more interested in their image than they are in protecting children.”

Inside the Twelve Tribes, sexual contact of any kind is forbidden outside of marriage. The punishment for young adults caught kissing or holding hands is marriage, ex-members said. Divorce is not allowed in the cult and interracial marriages are frowned on. Homosexuality is also forbidden; a 1990 teaching shared with The Post calls it “abominable,” and says gay or lesbian people “must be put to death.”

After co-ed education was banned, enough young men experimented with bestiality that Spriggs, the cult’s leader, in 2006 ordered young men to kill the animals they’d had sex with. At least 30 sheep, and several cows, goats and chickens were slaughtered, Wiseman said. He estimated around 10 men and boys confessed to bestiality around that time, both in the U.S. and abroad.

“That’s horrific psychological abuse,” Wiseman said. “These boys were repressed, not allowed to be normal kids, not allowed to talk to girls, and then when they confess their sin they’re made to go kill the animals.”

Pendergrass said the Twelve Tribes is about love, not punishment.

“Really all we are about, really, honestly, is loving people, loving our creator, loving our children and that’s really it,” he said. “All we know is if we love one another and we try to love everybody, it’s all going to work out. That might be kind of simplistic, but it sure does help me live a stress-free life and have lots of peace and be willing to do anything for love. That’s what I like.”

Periodically, the Twelve Tribes’ treatment of its children turns up in newspapers or TV news specials. In 2004, the Broward Palm Beach New Times in Florida published a story that featured an ex-Twelve Tribes member who said her husband molested her children and that the Twelve Tribes leadership denied her a divorce and attempted to cover up the abuse. She left the group, went to authorities and the man was convicted of sex crimes in 2006.

Daniel Karmann, DPA via AP

This Sept. 5, 2013, file photo shows the village of Klosterzimmern near Deiningen, Germany, which is one of the homes of the Twelve Tribes sect. The European Court of Human Rights on March 22, 2018, upheld Germany’s decision to take away the children of families in the Christian sect to protect them from being disciplined by caning, saying that it was a “last resort” but that authorities were left with no other choice.

Around the same time, a criminal case was proceeding against a 25-year-old man after a 6-year-old girl told a child welfare worker the man fondled her in 2001, that story says.

In 2007, a former Twelve Tribes teacher pleaded guilty to molesting two boys in the 1990s, according to The Boston Globe. In Germany in 2013, 40 children were taken from a Twelve Tribes compound amid concerns of child abuse, according to a story in The Telegraph.

But abuse cases that lead to criminal charges are the exception, ex-members said, and many more allegations are handled behind closed doors within the Twelve Tribes.

“The only time they’d ever consider taking it to the authorities is if it was already leaked out and they had no choice,” the ex-member who lived in Boulder said.

When cases do garner publicity, the attention tends to quickly fade, and the Twelve Tribes continues operating unimpeded, ex-members said. Some find it frustrating to watch.

“We believe in religious rights,” Wiseman said. “But at some point, there needs to be discussion of where does the line come in when religious rights start to psychologically manipulate and abuse children. This is a bigger discussion that needs to be happening.”

Ricky Carioti, The Washington Post via AP

Amanah Whittner, 12, rear, swings into the pond as Chalamiysh McShane, 12, watches from the grass as the two kids enjoy themselves on a hot summer day at the Twelve Tribes farm in Hillsboro, Virginia, on June 26, 2007.

High-profile betrayal

Around 2008, the Twelve Tribes learned that its founder’s wife, Marsha Spriggs, had carried out a series of extramarital affairs. Eugene Spriggs, the founder who died in 2021, ultimately decided his wife should be forgiven. The scandal rocked members’ faith in the group’s leadership.

“It wasn’t that she was a human and had fallen into sin, it was that she had personally been involved in sending away a lot of other families for much less serious infractions,” Wiseman said.

The affair revelations accelerated people’s departures from the group, and leadership at the Twelve Tribes responded by clamping down even more strictly on the dwindling number of families who remained.

In the past, followers could listen to traditional Irish music, go hiking or to the beach with their families on Saturdays, eat chocolate. Now, driving on Saturdays is forbidden, and Irish music and chocolate are banned. Women must part their hair in the middle; men must roll up their pant legs. Women can only wear dresses on weekends.

“It has slowly evolved into a very harsh, authoritarian-type of system,” the member who lived in Boulder said, describing the leadership’s reaction to the affairs as “total lockdown.”

Even before her husband’s death last year, Marsha Spriggs was the de facto leader of the Twelve Tribes, ex-members said, though the Tribes’ patriarchal organization would never formally reflect that.

Provided by Luke Wiseman

Marsha Spriggs, wife of Twelve Tribes founder Elbert Eugene Spriggs, sits with other members of the religious cult in this undated photo.

And there were subtle signs that Eugene Spriggs may not have approved of everything his group had become, ex-members said. In 2012, a year before Wiseman left the cult, he confessed to Spriggs, who used the name Yoneq, that he drank beer with his wife, against the cult’s rules.

“He said, ‘Just don’t talk about it,’” Wiseman said.

The ex-member who left in his 30s said he met one-on-one with Eugene Spriggs as a teenager in the mid-1990s and told the man about horrific childhood abuse he’d endured in the Twelve Tribes. He said the founder wept silently as he shared the details of the abuse.

But after just five minutes, Marsha Spriggs burst into the room and sent the member out. She spoke to her husband briefly then cornered the member in the hallway.

“She comes out and says, ‘If you ever tell Yoneq anything like that again, I’ll send you (away from us) that day,’” the member said.

Years later, that member sneaked out of a Twelve Tribes commune in the middle of the night with a duffel bag of clothes. He waited in the bushes for a ride from a man who’d left the cult years before. That night, he slept on his friend’s floor.

In the morning, he woke up.

He drank a cup of coffee, forbidden in the cult.

And he realized he was, for the first time in his life, completely in charge of his own choices.

“I felt like I could float away,” he said. “That feeling, it’s impossible to describe. That feeling of freedom. And honestly, I feel some level of that every day.”

Inside the tribe-Podcast featuring many TT ex-members

Charlie — Sun, 25 Dec 2022 02:56:45 +0000

Twelve Tribes: A Black father’s struggle to pull his child from the racist cult

Charlie — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 10:09:36 +0000

Source: The Denver Post

Ex-members says Twelve Tribes religious sect espouses racism, homophobia and sexism

By SHELLY BRADBURY | sbradbury@denverpost.com | The Denver Post

PUBLISHED: March 8, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: March 8, 2022 at 3:33 p.m.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Andre Shepherd is pictured at his apartment in Cañon City on Jan. 31, 2022. Shepherd said his ex-wife joined the Twelve Tribes religious cult in Manitou Springs with their daughter, who is now 8 years old. She’s since moved to a California compound with their daughter, and he’s preparing for a renewed custody battle. In past court filings, he has raised concerns about the religious cult’s racist teachings and their impact on his daughter.

Cañon City resident Andre Shepherd has lived a delicate truce with the Twelve Tribes ever since his ex-wife took their 3-year-old daughter and moved into the group’s Manitou Springs compound five years ago.

Shepherd knew little about the religious cult early on, but became uneasy as he learned more, particularly with the group’s teachings around race, which say that Black people are cursed to be subservient to white people.

Shepherd, who is Black, went to court in 2019 to seek full custody of his daughter, objecting to both the group’s racism and its practice of physically disciplining children. A Colorado Springs judge denied his petition, and in December, his ex-wife, who is white, took their daughter and moved to California, despite their shared custody.

“I’m going to try to fight it,” Shepherd, 31, said.

While the Twelve Tribes carefully curates a harmless, idyllic public image when visited by outsiders, the group’s racist, misogynistic and homophobic teachings are well known to ex-members, who described the philosophies and other problems within the cult to The Denver Post for a series of three stories this week.

In 26 hours of interviews, 10 ex-members said the Twelve Tribes requires excessive corporal punishment, fails to stop child sexual abuse and exploits followers for labor. The Post also reviewed nearly 400 pages of the Twelve Tribes’ internal teachings to inform this reporting.

About 3,000 people are estimated to be members of the Twelve Tribes, which maintains about three dozen worldwide communities. Followers live communally and, ex-members say, work without pay at the Twelve Tribes’ assorted businesses. The cult, which began in 1972 in Tennessee, expanded to Colorado in the early 2000s and now has two communes on the Front Range, one in Boulder County and another in Manitou Springs, with an estimated 50 to 70 local members.

The Twelve Tribes drew attention earlier this year when officials confirmed they were investigating whether the Marshall fire may have started on the group’s Boulder County property, though authorities have not yet announced any conclusions about the deadly wildfire’s origin.

Twelve Tribes leaders contacted by The Post either declined to comment or briefly defended the group, which blends elements of Christianity and Judaism with its founder’s personal beliefs. Leaders did not answer a list of questions emailed to the group’s headquarters, and a local leader at Boulder’s Yellow Deli declined to let The Post visit the group’s Boulder compound.

“I appreciate you calling me, but we just don’t really have a whole lot of interest in talking to the media,” said leader and longtime member Tim Pendergrass, who lives on a Florida commune.

The group can be considered a cult because of its all-or-nothing belief system centered around a charismatic, authoritarian leader, cult expert Janja Lalich said. Cults have extremist ideologies and use coercion to control or exploit members, she said.

Generally, Twelve Tribes members do not hesitate to mislead or lie to outside, worldly authorities when challenged by police investigations or in court — a tactic that Shepherd apparently ran into when he sought custody of his daughter.

“They have no problem with lying, because everyone out here doesn’t need to know the truth,” said a member who left in his 30s and spoke to The Post on condition he not be identified to protect family still in the cult. “Whatever they need to say to keep on doing what they do is what they’re going to say.”

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

A sign welcomes people outside the Twelve Tribes community in Boulder on Feb. 10, 2022. The Twelve Tribes has locations in Manitou Springs and Boulder County.

Custody fight

Shepherd’s daughter lives two different lives. When she’s with her mother in the Twelve Tribes, she wears conservative clothing, lives communally, is barred from having toys or games and is only allowed to go swimming if she swims laps followed by jumping jacks.

The Twelve Tribes gave Shepherd’s daughter a new name — he refuses to use it and still calls her by her birth name, which she now refers to as her “heathen name,” Shepherd said. When his daughter is with him, she wears modern clothing, watches TV, plays with toys.

“One time, I went in there (to the commune), and they have this little closet, and in a little box, she had a couple toys,” he said. His daughter led him to the secret spot. “And she said, ‘OK, we just keep this in here for me.’”

Over time he grew worried because his daughter, now 8, sometimes had unexplained marks and bruises on her body. Once, when she was 4 or 5 years old, she arrived for his parenting time with a particularly nasty scratch on her torso — nothing that needed stitches, but enough to leave a scar — and told him she’d been hurt climbing down a ladder from a roof.

But it was when his daughter said she was “Cham” and had “Cham family” that Shepherd sat down and researched the Twelve Tribes’ teachings on race.

The cult believes Black people are cursed to be slaves, according to a 2005 teaching obtained by The Post. The teaching comes out of a Biblical story involving Noah and his three sons. Under the Tribes’ interpretation, each son represents a race: one son is white, another Asian, and one, named Cham, is Black. In the story, Noah gets drunk and passes out naked in his tent. Cham sees his naked father and tells his brothers. They react by walking backward into the tent to cover Noah’s nakedness. Noah then wakes and curses Cham for mocking him, and says he and his descendants must be slaves to his white brother.

The Tribes teaches that any poverty, unrest or problems affecting Black people today are because Black people are not subservient to white people and are living against God’s natural order. Only by joining the Twelve Tribes can Black people be freed from the curse, the cult asserts in its teachings.

“The more men try to set Cham free, he gets worse and worse in his own soul… Slavery is the only way for some people to be useful in society,” a 1988 Twelve Tribes teaching reads. “They wouldn’t do anything productive without being forced to.”

Once, as they talked about their daughter misbehaving, Shepherd’s ex-wife said, “‘Oh, we just say that’s the Cham in her,’” Shepherd recalled.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Andre Shepherd is pictured at his apartment in Cañon City on Jan. 31, 2022.

In court, when he objected to the racism, and to his daughter being called a “Chamite,” or a descendant of Cham, Shepherd’s ex-wife testified that the teaching was about “one of Noah’s sons who went to Africa,” according to court documents.

That’s not what the teaching is about, former members said. But Twelve Tribes’ members do not hesitate to lie to authorities to protect themselves, ex-members said. It’s a practice based on the Biblical account of Rahab, who in the Bible story hides two Israelite spies and lies to authorities about it, which the Tribes sees as a righteous act.

District Court Judge Erin Sokol dismissed Shepherd’s concern about racism, court records show.

“The Court does not find any credible evidence that the community is racist, but out of respect for Father asks Mother not to have anyone in the community describe (the daughter) as a ‘hamite’ (sic) or to use that description because it is offensive,” she wrote in an order. “The Court finds… this community has cross-cultural values and acceptance of people from all different cultures, ethnicities and races.”

The judge also approved disciplining Shepherd’s daughter with a wooden rod, with the instruction that only the girl’s mother could hit her. A child welfare investigator assigned to the case visited the Twelve Tribes and found no problems, court records show.

“The children appear to be healthy, happy, well-socialized and musically inclined,” the order reads.

Shepherd received 50/50 parenting time, though his daughter was in her mother’s care for a significant number of religious holidays and weeks-long religious festivals, which made the split less even, he said.

His daughter has adjusted well to living in both worlds, Shepherd said. He hasn’t seen as many marks on her since the revised court order, and her early talk about sinners burning in lakes of fire has turned more toward spreading the good word. Shepherd is careful how he talks about the Twelve Tribes around his daughter, not wanting to disparage the life she’s in.

“She’s adapted,” he said. “She’s going to be happy where she’s going to be.”

The split parenting time worked until the end of December, when Shepherd’s ex-wife took their daughter to a Twelve Tribes community in California. Leadership at the Twelve Tribes routinely moves members around from community to community, ex-members said, in part to keep people from becoming too comfortable or connected to a particular place. Separating families is also a common tactic.

Shepherd’s ex-wife originally proposed the idea as a temporary trip, maybe a week or two, but now says they’ll be staying in California permanently, despite Shepherd’s weekly visitation rights.

He’s having trouble getting in touch with his ex-wife and daughter through the California community’s one shared phone, Shepherd said. The line will ring and ring, then say the voicemail is full. So he’s preparing for a renewed custody fight, trying to scrounge up another $5,000 to pay for a lawyer’s retainer. He’s looking into fundraising for an attorney or finding free legal help.

Shepherd said his ex-wife told him she was moving because of “the community’s needs.”

“That doesn’t come before my daughter,” he said.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Alina Anderson, who asked to be identified by her middle name and former married name, is at her apartment on Feb. 1, 2022 in Boulder. She grew up in the Twelve Tribes religious cult before escaping as a teenager.

Women must submit

While every member of the Twelve Tribes is required to conform to the cult’s rules and subject to the edicts of leadership, women are particularly powerless in the highly patriarchal society, ex-members said.

Alina Anderson, an ex-member born into the cult who left in 2001 when she was 14, remembered walking in on her father kicking her mother as she lay on the floor in the fetal position when Anderson was 10 or 11.

“I freaked out,” she said. “…I went to get help for my mother. You know what they told me? They said, ‘Your father is the man of the house, so he can do whatever.’ Me trying to get help for my mother did nothing. It may have made the situation worse; in hindsight it probably did.”

Anderson is identified by her middle and formerly married last names to avoid being recognized by current Twelve Tribes’ members. Women have little autonomy or authority in the highly-patriarchal cult, and are expected to submit to men, according to their teachings.

“They believe women’s rightful place is in absolute submission to men,” the member who left in his 30s said. “…The girls raised there have been raised from birth to believe this. They have no-self worth, they have no value, except in reference to men.”

Marriages are carefully curated and allowed only with the approval of leaders; divorce is almost never allowed, unless one spouse leaves the group. Single people in the Twelve Tribes usually share bedrooms, but married couples are given a private bedroom — a major perk.

Interracial marriages are strongly discouraged, and homosexuality is considered a sin worthy of death, according to a teaching reviewed by The Post.

“They must be put to death,” the 1990 teaching reads. “Homosexuality is a capital offense. They did what was detestable, and they became detestable.”

In the past, children or teenagers suspected of being gay were interrogated and punished in inquisitions, ex-members said.

John I. Post, who grew up in the Twelve Tribes, came out as gay after he fled the group and went to college, once he’d started to undo what he described as “brainwashing” about homosexuality.

“(My dad) told me that I was going to hell for being gay,” he said. His mother supported him, he said, even though she is still in the group.

Post hopes to see the Twelve Tribes end, though he and other first-generation children worry about what might happen to their parents if it dissolved. After decades in the cult, they’d be kicked to the curb with no retirement funds, no insurance, no homes.

“I told my family we need to be prepared to support our parents,” Post said. “…I read a book about different cults — the average length is about 20 years and it falls apart. Now the Twelve Tribes, they’re still alive, barely. They will fall apart. They will.”

Interview of ex-leader in Australian TT tribe 2020

Charlie — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 23:25:23 +0000

Scott Czarnecki (Chen) joined the group before it was called the Twelve Tribes in 1979 in Chattanooga and left in 2009. Here is the interview by Australian A current Affair team and following is the uncut interview as filmed and commented on by Chen.

Also here is the article which goes with the video interview:

Kate Wiseman interview on Phish female fans radio

Charlie — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 07:00:34 +0000

PART 1 OF INTERVIEW aired on October 13, 2019

http://question12tribes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Ep.-40-Part-1-12-Tribes-Cult-Interview-wex-member-Kate-Wise.mp3

Content Warning: This episode contains true stories of severe abuse Part one- 12 Tribes Cult- Interview with Kate Wiseman (ex-member), daughter of Ed Wiseman, the co-founder of the 12 Tribes Cult. Hear Kate’s experience of being born, bred and raised within this cult for 30 years. In the first part of this interview, Kate speaks about the early years of the cult and her childhood. Kate shares her intimate & tragic stories that are filled with the truth of her amazing life. This woman is so brave and incredibly strong. She speaks publicly for the first time…..

Source: Phemale-Centrics episode 40

PART 2 OF INTERVIEW aired on October 27, 2019

http://question12tribes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Ep.-41-Part-2-12-Tribes-Cult-interview-w-ex-member-Kate-Wi.mp3

Content Warning: This episode contains true stories of severe abuse Part 2- 12 Tribes Cult Interview Hear Kate Wiseman, ex-member & daughter of co-founder Ed Wiseman, continued story of her life on the inside of the 12 Tribes Cult. In this episode, Kate shares her story of her arranged marriage, the beginnings of “the bus” on Lots, her love of Phish and her happy ending!

We’re part of the Osiris podcast network. Osiris is creating a community that connects people like you with podcasts and live experiences about artists and topics you love. To stay up to date on what we’re up to, visit our site and sign up for our newsletter. Osiris works in partnership with JamBase, which connects music fans with the music they love and empowers them to go see live music.

Source: Phemale-Centrics episode 41

“12 Tribes” Cult Exposed from the Inside in New Book

Charlie — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 01:59:44 +0000

Source: Patheos.com

April 13, 2019 by David G. McAfee

4 Comments

If you can’t imagine what it’s like to be sucked into a religious cult, you should read this new book.

The Kindle version of Better Than A Turkish Prison, which gives an inside look into a popular religious cult, is out now by Hypatia Press!

A lot of people, especially those of us who are atheists and skeptics, don’t know what it’s like to be religious. But even fewer understand how it’s possible to fall into a strict religious cult. That’s exactly what happened to the author of this book, and he tells the whole story in his own words.

In his case, the cult is the Twelve Tribes, “a confederation of twelve self-governing tribes” that claims to be “disciples of the Son of God whose name in Hebrew is Yahshua.”

From the cult’s own website:

“We follow the pattern of the early church in Acts 2:44 and 4:32, truly believing everything that is written in the Old and New Covenants of the Bible, and sharing all things in common.”

Image from the cult’s site.

The author, Sinasta J. Colucci, tells a deeply personal story about his many encounters with the infamous Twelve Tribes group. And it shows exactly how it’s possible for anyone to fall in with a cult, provided the circumstances push them in that direction.Here is some background from the text on the back cover:

Better Than a Turkish Prison is the true story of a needy young man who encounters a religious cult known as “The Twelve Tribes”. With no better options in sight, he decides to join them in their pursuit to build the kingdom of God on Earth. After years of brainwashing and servitude, he must break free from a powerful delusion in his search for freedom and truth. Not merely a deeply personal portrayal of one man’s struggles, this book also serves as a critical analysis of religious ideals and their effects on humanity as the author divulges his presently held beliefs.

Whether you’ve heard of the Twelve Tribes cult or not, I highly recommend the book Better Than a Turkish Prison.

Yours in Reason,

David

Comments posted on Patheos.com:

nabashalam •

Here is a great website that will open your eyes to this destructive high control fundamentalist Messianic cult. http://question12tribes.com/›

digital bookworm •

It was Arcadia. Very small town on the Peace River near Port Charlotte and Fort Myers. Although there is an Agricultural extension of South Florida University in the town, I don’t think they try to recruit there. (They wouldn’t have much luck if they did.) The town is known as the antique capitol of Florida (which is why I was there) and is famous for it’s rodeo.

digital bookworm •

I got to know one of these groups in central Florida 2 years ago. They were planning on opening one of their Yellow Delis near the downtown area. (Maybe they have by now.) They (meaning the leader of the group) owned a rambling mansion in the historic district, where the 15 to 20 of them lived communally. They were nice, talkative and always inviting anyone to come to dinner on Friday night. An aquaintance of mine was always after me to go sometime, but I was afraid of what I might say. From what I had been told, the women and men ate separately, with the women doing all the cooking and serving. They could then eat after the men were finished. The children were spookily well behaved. They weren’t allowed toys or games as these were seen as a waste of time better spent doing chores and learning from the patriarch. They were allowed to ride bikes.
They weren’t quite like the Amish, as they made use of cars and power tools (good carpenters). But they did wear very plain clothes, (probably all cotton of course).
I looked up some articles about them years ago and discovered that the Twelve Tribes groups that opened Yellow Delis were getting in trouble for not paying any wages to their members who volunteered to work in their deli. (True communism at work)

Rational Human digital bookworm • a month ago

Is this in the Orlando area? Are these people active in any FL college campuse

Samie Brosseau

Charlie — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 22:43:28 +0000

“My worst day as a free soul is far better than my best day in captivity.”

Samie Brosseau runs Liberation Point , a charitable organization that helps people who come out of cults integrate into society:

Here are the links to articles and videos about Samantha (Samie) Brosseau, from more recent to older

June 2018: A&E documentary Cults and extreme beliefs-Twelve Tribes-Samie Brosseau

December 2012: What’s your story?

July 2010: From commune to college, one young woman’s road to independence

Letter to Twelve Tribes members

Charlie — Sun, 24 Jun 2018 03:32:42 +0000

I have a letter for you and I hope you read it all the way to the end….

I first wrote this 12 years ago while I was in Meadow Haven with Bob and Judy Pardon as a resident in the only long term residential exit counseling program for cult victims in the world. http://meadowhaven.org/

The Twelve Tribes Communities still thrive and their damage is still occurring. I felt that I had to write it again and in this day and age of social media that it might get around a lot more then the first time and do a lot more good this time.

Actually the Apostle Paul did all the work for me. I just put it in the communities language. It is like our Father knew there would come a time where there would be men that would speak a similar but yet different Gospel. One that taught that Messiah did not finish his work of salvation on the cross. That He did NOT fulfill the law and that we as believers still had works that we had to accomplish before He would return for us. To the true believers, Yahshua will return for His Bride but not due to anything that our flesh could accomplish. Have faith. He is coming and not because of a “race” performed by the flesh some deluded, lonely old man dreamed up. May God bless my efforts to open your eyes. I thank God for opening mine… Sincerely with Shalom… David T Pike aka Dahveed Yathed

A letter from the Apostle Shaul to the Disciples in the Twelve Tribes Communities…

1 Shaul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in the Twelve Tribes Communities: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Messiah Yahshua, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Messiah and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all but rather the rantings of a delusional narcissist who claims to have heard from God directly but is just a sad, lonely old man. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Messiah saying that “We must accomplish this!” or “We must accomplish that in order for Messiah to return!” 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! 10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Messiah. 11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach. 13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. 18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 21 Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God because of me. 2 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 6 As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Cephas had been to the circumcised. 8 For God, who was at work in Cephas as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. Paul Opposes Cephas 11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles and ate non-kosher foods. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group (natural seed). 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “YOU ARE A JEW, YET YOU LIVE LIKE A GENTILE AND NOT LIKE A JEW. HOW IS IT, THEN, THAT YOU FORCE GENTILES TO FOLLOW JEWISH CUSTOMS? 15 “WE WHO ARE JEWS BY BIRTH AND NOT SINFUL GENTILES KNOW THAT A PERSON IS NOT JUSTIFIED BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW, BUT BY FAITH IN YAHSHUA HA’ MASHIACH. SO WE, TOO, HAVE PUT OUR FAITH IN YAHSHUA HA’ MASHIACH THAT WE MAY BE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH IN MESSIAH AND NOT BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW, BECAUSE BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW NO ONE WILL BE JUSTIFIED. 17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Messiah, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Messiah promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. 19“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Messiah and I no longer live, but Messiah lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for IF RIGHTEOUSNESS COULD BE GAINED THROUGH THE LAW, MESSIAH DIED FOR NOTHING!” 3 You foolish disciples of the Twelve Tribes! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? AFTER BEGINNING BY MEANS OF THE SPIRIT, ARE YOU NOW TRYING TO FINISH BY MEANS OF THE FLESH? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. (natural or spiritual) 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”(living by the LAW) 13 MESSIAH REDEEMED US FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW BY BECOMING A CURSE FOR US, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. The Law and the Promise 15 Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Messiah. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach, might be given to those who believe. Children of God 23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Messiah came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 26 So IN YAHSHUA HA’ MASHIACH YOU ARE ALL CHILDREN OF GOD THROUGH FAITH NOT WORKS 27 for all of you who were baptized into Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile,(the why does Yoneq pair up the natural seed with each other? Same with the Chammites?) neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach. 29 If you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 4:1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. Shaul’s Concern for the Disciples of the Twelve Tribes: 8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces ? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. 12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. 13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, 14 and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach himself. 15 Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. 19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Messiah is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! Hagar and Sarah 21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise. 24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. Freedom in Messiah 5 It is for freedom that Messiah has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery and think that you can gain salvation through your works and not in faith that Yahshua has fullfilled all that was required when he declared on the cross “It is finished”. 2 Mark my words! I, Shaul, tell you that IF YOU LET YOURSELVES BE CIRCUMCISED, (OR YOUR CHILDREN!) MESSIAH WILL BE OF NO VALUE TO YOU AT ALL. 3 AGAIN I DECLARE TO EVERY MAN WHO LETS HIMSELF BE CIRCUMCISED THAT HE IS OBLIGATED TO OBEY THE WHOLE LAW! So why do you in the Twelve Tribes do this to your children? Whatever Yoneq tells you is wrong and fabricated. 4 YOU WHO ARE TRYING TO BE JUSTIFIED BY THE LAW HAVE BEEN ALIENATED FROM MESSIAH; YOU HAVE FALLEN AWAY FROM GRACE. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. 7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? Yoneq? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” It’s PRIDE! 10 I am confident in the Messiah that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 AS FOR THOSE AGITATORS, I WISH THEY WOULD GO THE WHOLE WAY AND EMASCULATE THEMSELVES! AND THE WHOLE CHURCH CRIED OUT “AMEN!”…. 13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free!. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law! 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft (including psychological manipulation); hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition (narcissism), dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Doing Good to All 6 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Messiah. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. 6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. 7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. ( I will take this opportunity to explain the two reasons why I am transliterating the Letter from Paul to the Church of Galatians into Shauls letter to the modern day intentional Communities of the Twelve Tribes. One is to remind the ex members why they were 100% scripturally correct in leaving the aberrant high control group and secondly to reach out to those who are still held in their mental and spiritual bondage and see that they can leave with no fear of God but actually the opposite and that they will be protected as they flee this bondage that Shaul detested! May Yahweh and Yahshua bless your journey home… There are people waiting for your return… ) Not Circumcision but the New Creation 11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand! 12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. (You must question Yoneq and the elders why they insist you do this. They will tell you extra-scriptural lies similar to the Catholics) The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Messiah. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor un-circumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule to the Israel of God. 17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Yahshua. 18 The grace of our Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

One last note to the Brothers and Sisters of Yahshua in the Twelve Tribes Communities. Please read this checklist and honestly answer the questions and tell me if the Twelve Tribes Communities does not fit each and everyone of these boxes. You may want to honestly reconsider your life choice to give your whole existence and that of your children to this “organization” May God Bless all who read this and may the grace and love of Yahshua open your eyes and may the Spirit guide your footsteps… AMEN.

Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups – Revised
Janja Lalich, Ph.D. & Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.

Concerted efforts at influence and control lie at the core of cultic groups, programs, and relationships. Many members, former members, and supporters of cults are not fully aware of the extent to which members may have been manipulated, exploited, even abused. The following list of social-structural, social-psychological, and interpersonal behavioral patterns commonly found in cultic environments may be helpful in assessing a particular group or relationship.
Compare these patterns to the situation you were in (or in which you, a family member, or friend is currently involved). This list may help you determine if there is cause for concern. Bear in mind that this list is not meant to be a cult scale or a definitive checklist to determine if a specific group is a cult. This is not so much a diagnostic instrument as it is an analytical tool. If you find that the group you are in or wondering about fits at least 4 or 5 of these 15 entries you might want to get some professional advice about this group.
‪ □ The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law, as the word of God.
‪ □ Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged, forbidden or even punished.
‪ □ Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, singing, dancing, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
‪ ‪□ The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, grooming practices, where to live, what to eat, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
‪ □ The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, (chosen ones)its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, Apostle, an avatar or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity, bring back Messiah, etc).
‪ ‪□ The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
‪ □ The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).
‪ □ The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members’ participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
‪ ‪□ The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion, shunning etc.
‪ □ Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.
‪ □ The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
‪ □ The group is preoccupied with making money.
‪ □ Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
‪ □ Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
‪ □ The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals from God to themselves or others if they leave (or never even consider leaving) the group.
This checklist will be published in the new book, Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships by Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias (Berkeley: Bay Tree Publishing, 2006). It was adapted from a checklist originally developed by Michael Langone.

Letter to members of the Twelve Tribes

Charlie — Tue, 08 May 2018 04:46:40 +0000

Letter to members of the Twelve Tribes

Letter to Twelve Tribes members: Letter to members of the Twelve Tribes is a 48 pages document written from a couple of ex-members to members of the Twelve Tribes. Please freely download, print and pass on to any member you care about. In this heart felt plea to reconsider their ways, these two members quote the 12T own teachings and hold it up to what they feel is the true heart and message of Yahshua (Jesus, Yeshua). If you can print it and give it to a member they would have a chance to rethink and view their life from another perspective.
Very important points of their doctrine and traditions are raised to scrutiny.These are 3 short extracts from the letter:

“The TT’s communities know very well how to emphasis people’s needs and to capitalize

on them. We know! They propose to fill the void of not knowing one’s purpose with

COMMUNITY, thinking that COMMUNITY LIFE will SAVE.

“Building up the Body in love can only be done in a community, which is growing with a growth from

our Father.” My Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, 2006 pg 4

JESUS DID NOT PREACH COMMUNITY, BUT PERSONAL REPENTANCE.

Matthew 4:17″

Ex-member interviewed about his new book

Charlie — Sat, 14 Apr 2018 08:04:26 +0000

April 2018: Interviewed by Sea to Sea (a youtube program of mystery and paranormal) Sinasta Colucci has a candid but serious long look at his experiences as a “disciple of Yahshua”. He shares his insights with lightheartedness and invites us to read his newly published book: “Better than a Turkish prison, what I have learned from life in a religious cult”.

Sinasta J.Colucci

To listen to interview, click on picture of author S. Colucci ==>

<<== To go to Amazon and take a look at

Sinasta’s book click on cover picture