Question 12 Tribes » second generation

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.”

Grim discovery as police digging up headquarters of Twelve Tribes religious sect ‘find the remains of at least one baby in a coffin-like box’

Charlie — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 09:43:28 +0000

Sources allege police have found remains of an infant or infants at rural property
Police have been searching headquarters of the Twelve Tribes religious sect
The searches come after claims of stillbirths and burials inside sect

Source: The Daily Mail

By Adam Mccleery and Charlotte Karp For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 15:36 AEDT, 8 March 2020 | Updated: 15:37 AEDT, 8 March 2020

The decayed remains of at least one baby have allegedly been found buried in a coffin-like box at the headquarters of secretive religious sect Twelve Tribes.

Two police raids at Peppercorn Creek Farm in Picton and at a 78.5-hectare property near Bigga, south-west of Sydney, began on Monday.

The operation is part of an ongoing investigation into the high number of stillbirths within the community which rejects modern medicine and technology.

Excavation of the property was suspended after the alleged find on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Sources told the publication it was too early to tell whether the remains were of one or two infants, and the delicate retrieval process was delayed by heavy downpour.

Police have allegedly uncovered the remains of at least one infant at the headquarters of religious sect Twelve Tribes in Bigga, New South Wales (pictured)

New South Wales Police will not yet publicly comment on the operation, which was suspended on Thursday.

‘There are no further updates in relation to Strike Force Nanegai at this time,’ NSW Police said in a statement.

Three graves have been uncovered at the Bigga site – which has no running water or electricity and is only used when members of the secretive sect are exiled for questioning their beliefs, A Current Affair reported.

Police raids began at Peppercorn Creek Farm in Picton and a 78.5-hectare property near Bigga (pictured), southwest of Sydney, on Monday

Twelve Tribes is guarded about its privacy and members of the sect are expected to live by a set of rigid guidelines which govern almost every aspect of their daily lives

The raid comes after former member Rosemary Cruzado told the publication her late-term stillborn baby was buried at the Bigga property.

She believes her baby’s death could have been avoided if she had seen a modern doctor earlier in her pregnancy.

Twelve Tribes has been investigated by police since September 2019.

The sect is a registered religious charity and has been in Australia since the ’90s.

It has about 90 members in its Picton, Katoomba and Coledale communes and runs cafes in Sydney and the Blue Mountains.

The sect does not align itself with any denomination.

Members believe the Messiah will return if the church is restored to its original form in the Book of Acts – the first book in the new testament of the Bible.

Twelve Tribes has been guarded about its privacy and members are expected to live by a set of rigid guidelines which govern almost every aspect of their lives.

Communication with the outside world is largely forbidden and women are expected to be subservient to men and everyone must marry within the group.

What is Twelves Tribes?

The commune began in 1975 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when former carnival showman Gene Spriggs broke away from the First Presbyterian Church after finding services were cancelled for the Super Bowl.

He and his wife Marsha earlier opened the first Yellow Deli a few years earlier and were living communally with a small group from 1972.

Twelve Tribes practices a hybrid of pre-Catholic Christianity and Judaism mixed with teachings by Spriggs.

The group’s stated aim is to bring about the return of Jesus – whom they refer to by the Hebrew name Yahshua – by reestablishing the 12 tribes of Israel.

Twelve Tribes practices a hybrid of pre-Catholic Christianity and Judaism mixed with teachings by its founder, Gene Spriggs

All members are forced to sell their possessions and give to proceeds to the sect and are assigned a Hebrew name discard their old ones. Spriggs himself is known as Yoneq.

These tribes would include 144,000 ‘perfect male children’, which accounts for the group’s obsessive and controversial child-rearing practices.

The Sabbath is observed in line with Jewish tradition, along with conservative dietary rules and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, and drugs.

Birth control of any kind is banned, as is much modern medicine – they instead rely largely on homeopathy and ‘natural’ remedies.

Marriage outside the sect is forbidden and couples must go through a series of supervised talks to get to know each other. Only after marriage can they even kiss or hold hands.

These tribes would include 144,000 ‘perfect male children’, which accounts for the group’s obsessive and controversial child-rearing practices

Children aren’t allowed to play with toys, engage in make-believe, or any of the normal childhood activities, and must be supervised at all times.

They must be strictly obedient and are beaten with a 50cm rod for every infraction by any adult watching them, not just their parents.

All children are homeschooled and do not attend university as it is considered a waste of time and not a good environment.

Instead, children work in the community from a young age, sparking accusations of child labour.

Estée Lauder and other businesses cut ties with the organisation after finding children were involved in making their products.

The few boxes of pamphlets would be easily missed or glossed over by the vast majority of visitors

Members don’t vote and are not allowed to watch TV or any other media as ‘the crazy box robs your time and pollutes your soul’.

Twelve Tribes has 3,000 members and operates in the U.S., Canada, France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Germany and England, arriving in Australia in the early 1990s.

There are now about 120 members living in Balmoral House in Katoomba, Peppercorn Creek Farm near Picton, and a small number in Coledale, north of Wollongong.

Numerous businesses include a network of cafes in every country, all called the Yellow Deli or Common Ground, and bakeries, farms, and furniture, construction, and demolition businesses.

These are believed to be very profitable because none of the workers need to be paid.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/police-uncover-human-remains-at-twelve-tribes-remote-property/news-story/6421210e1b313f4edecef4add6ac5fd7

Inside the CUI’s investigation of the Yellow Deli that uncovered its connection to cult-like behavior and child abuse

Charlie — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 09:02:15 +0000

Source: CU Independent

by Guest Writer December 11, 2019

It was a short, off-hand story from a classmate that lead us to a cult just above the Boulder Valley.

My reporting partner Nicole Dorfman and I had set to find out what was going on in the Yellow Deli, a 24-hour deli and frequent study spot on Pearl Street that earned a reputation around campus as being a cult. What we found led to an investigative report on the restaurant’s links to child abuse and cult-like practices.

Nicole started the project and I joined to help research as she interviewed and dug up information she detailed in her story. My own digging was fueled by the type of obsession that pushed me to add tab after tab of research. Google Chrome eventually stopped counting the windows of information. At first, it was all a blur of declassified FBI documents, old congressional letters and religious tomes, but as we pieced it together, patterns began to emerge.

We were not the first to find this. Old television interviews and investigations around the world had been poking at the Twelve Tribes, the religious group that runs the Yellow Deli. But few articles had been written about the group’s behavior in Boulder.

The Yellow Deli is essentially the Twelve Tribes’ purse. The cult has branches and communities across the world, each running shops and cafes to earn money. The delis are only staffed by unpaid Twelve Tribes members and appear to be their primary source of income. A 400-page child training manual, a heavily redacted FBI document and hundreds of other pages of documents, all seemed to point to something deeply troubling at the local deli and the group that runs it.

The gist of what we were able to confirm is this: the Twelve Tribes are a fundamentalist group that not only believe in corporal punishment, they practically require it. Parents are instructed to strike their children to ensure obedience.

The Twelve Tribes believe that in order for Jesus’ second coming to occur, they must raise 144,000 perfect male virgins, who will be killed around the year 2070. This is founder Gene Spriggs’ interpretation of the Bible’s Book of Revelations, which depicts the battle of Armageddon.

In 1972, Spriggs established the Light Brigade, a Christian ministry for troubled teens that operated out of his coffee shop in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Word of Spriggs’ ministry had spread to Vermont, and in 1977, Spriggs had been invited to a dissatisfied community in Island Pond which was looking for a new interpretation of how to live a Christian life. With the successful growth of the Island Pond community, which at the time called themselves the Northeast Kingdom Community Church, the Twelve Tribes slowly began establishing dozens of communities throughout the U.S., Europe and South America, primarily near college campuses.

As the group spread and established themselves, allegations of child abuse and cult-like behavior came along with it. This concerned Nicole and I, and eventually prompted our investigation.

Over the summer, we took two trips to the deli. We amplified our college student-credentials, showing them our more vulnerable side to garner their interest in us. We did not tell them we were reporters. Journalists are not well-liked in the community.

Over home-style cinnamon rolls and a peachy cold drink, I learned about who they were and what they believe. The Yellow Deli employees and I connected over Christianity. After growing up in a deeply religious Lutheran family, presenting myself as a fellow fundamentalist was not hard. Summer mission trips and regular church attendance gave me a base to understand what they were talking about. I even bonded with one of the Yellow Deli employees over attending the same Christian summer camp, albeit 30 years apart.

Our first trip to the Deli led to invitations to the compound, a five-building campus perched on a garden overlooking the Flatirons. We arrived in character: young, impressionable students ready to jump into an organization that could give us meaning. Soon after we arrived we started to see darker things. The abuse detailed in the “Authority Teachings,” a manual written by Spriggs on the group’s beliefs and practices of child-rearing, became real to us.

The research Nicole and I pored over showed a clear pattern that was hurting children physically and manipulating people’s self-esteem to reduce them into something incapable of surviving without the community. It was gaslighting. Experts Nicole interviewed in her story confirmed that for us.

When we arrived we were greeted with a torrent of clapping and offerings of a mystery tea, which I refused. Our safety plan dictated neither of us would eat the same thing. We prepped safe-words and contacted friends to ask that they call the police if they didn’t hear from us by a certain time.

Our time there was dominated by prayer and dining. Men held most of the speaking time and the children sat quietly to the side. Nicole pointed out a strange practice: the kids were frequently going into the bathroom, always escorted by an adult. Inside, Nicole found wooden rods, similar to what the documents describe as tools to hit children.

The bathrooms were right off the main room — a cream white-walled hall filled with members praying, dancing and communing in their faith. Like the deli, the compound was simple and homey, with wood accents, soft light and acoustic music. Members kept an eye on us. Their hospitality was insurmountable with repeated offers of their dark milky brown tea.

The visit included an eerily perfect garden tour with an orange-hued sunset and an introduction to their history in Boulder. In other circumstances, it would be a pleasant evening at a rural outpost overlooking our college town. But there was something off. They seemed to speak a language with their bodies which we couldn’t understand. The leader passed us off between members to continue our tour through their garden and through their view on life.

Simple questions, like asking the only other girl near our age what she was going to do once she turned 18 and presumably graduate high school turned awkward. “I guess … I’ll stay here,” she said. While she paused in her answer she looked at the adults around the room, seemingly looking for approval. The second time we came back, we saw her in tears, alone in the kitchen.

The sense of the division between the community and outsiders was palpable. They talked about “backstabbings” and cautioned one another of those who would hurt them. They couldn’t trust anyone or anything. I saw an extreme amount of control, especially over their kids.

Ultimately, Nicole and I could (and did) drive away. We left while others, especially the children, could not. Maybe they wanted to stay, but even if they did it seemed like they have never known another life and had no means to leave. In the Twelve Tribes, everyone has someone above them.

Researching this story brought Nicole and I face to face with deep questions about this community and about our own. When does connection become abusive? How strong is too strong of a bond? How much belief is too much belief, especially when that belief involves hurting children?

Nicole found the answers to many of the news-related questions we had. But many of the philosophical answers ultimately are for you, the reader, to find.

A few months after our undercover trips to the compound, I took one last visit to the Yellow Deli. I was curious as to how they would treat me after not seeing me for months. Three things happened: they remembered my name, they invited to drive me to a wedding that weekend in Kansas and they sent me home with a free peanut butter energy bar that was better than any Clif Bar I’ve ever tasted. It was strange.

Click here to read the CUI’s investigative story on the Yellow Deli.

Contact Lauren Sandal, who contributed research to the CUI’s investigative story into the Yellow Deli story, at Lauren.Sandal@colorado.edu

Yellow Deli restaurant linked to organization accused of child abuse, CUI investigation finds

Charlie — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 07:56:02 +0000

Source: CU Independent

by Colie Dorfman December 11, 2019

You know your favorite late-night sandwich spot, the Yellow Deli? It’s tied to an organization with a deep history of physically abusing children and religious fundamentalism, a nine-month CU Independent investigation has found.

Yellow Deli, the all-day, all-night Boulder cafe frequented by students has been open about its evangelist roots, but behind the cheap sandwiches and free Wi-Fi is a darker history. The CUI investigation is based on interviews with 12 ex-members of Twelve Tribes, a religious organization linked to the restaurant, and reviews of over 400 pages of Twelve Tribes documents obtained both publicly and through sources.

Twelve Tribes in Boulder opened the Yellow Deli on Pearl Street in 2010 and is a part of a global network of 74 communities worldwide. Other businesses owned by the organization, such as farms and factories, have been the subject of other media investigations that have uncovered abuse and potential child labor violations. The CUI did not find direct allegations of child abuse at the Yellow Deli, but in an undercover visit to Boulder’s Twelve Tribes’ compound where all Yellow Deli employees live, a young child appeared to be beaten.

Six ex-members of Twelve Tribes told the CUI they were witnesses or victims of child abuse in Twelve Tribes locations around the globe. Others described intense control exerted by the group on its members.

“Childhood was hell,” said Alex, an ex-member who agreed to talk with the CUI without the publication of his last name. At a Twelve Tribes compound in Cambridge, New York, he described being beaten bloody sometimes to the point of collapsing.

“That’s my only childhood milestone, to stay alive till the next day,” he said. Local and national representatives for the Twelve Tribes did not return multiple requests for comments, which included phone calls and a detailed list of questions sent by reporters. In the past, representatives for the group have defended their practices as a part of their religion.

“That’s my only childhood milestone, to stay alive till the next day.”

Alex, a former Twelve Trives member

Samie Brosseau, the founder of a non-profit that helps people transition out of cult-like environments, did not mince words in an interview with the CUI, saying the Twelve Tribes is a cult. Brosseau grew up in a Twelve Tribes compound and fled when she was 18. She said her parents held her in custody, but she finally escaped out the front door of an isolated Massachusetts cabin to try and find her way to a modern world she had never lived in before.

“The Twelve Tribes’ narcissistic cult leader uses gaslighting as a way to control the religion,” Brosseau said.

Her non-profit, Liberation Point, works with people from “high control groups” to readjust to life, as she had to after leaving the religious group.

Ex-members describe beatings with rods as punishment for even small infractions, like not singing loud enough during religious ceremonies. Much of the rationale the groups use for physical striking is rooted in religion, documents about the Twelve Tribes’ theology show. Much of this happens in compounds the group built to house members and host religious events. “We all live together, like a big extended family,” the group’s website reads. In Boulder, all of the employees of the Yellow Deli live in a compound on 5325 Eldorado Springs Drive.

Reporters from the CUI entered the compound twice in August at the invitation of Yellow Deli employees without disclosing they were gathering information for a news story. While there, a young child appeared to have a red mark underneath her right cheek after being escorted from the bathroom where wailing sounds were heard by the reporters. The screams and hitting noises appeared to be a beating with a large wooden rod, which the reporters later found under the bathroom sink. The apparent beating matched the descriptions of multiple ex-members’ experiences.

“The emotional damage they cause lasts long after people escape,” said Hannah, an ex-member who lived in the Island Pond community in Vermont. “My parents were being punished. The cult would say if you were sick it was because God was punishing you for being evil.”

Ali, another ex-member who spoke with the CUI on the condition her last name not be published, lived in the New England communities and had similar experiences.

“They say suffering or hardship to a disciple is like sunshine to a plant,” she said. “The Twelve Tribes prepares and encourages you to receive suffering.”

While at the compound in August, CUI reporters only entered two of the buildings — one where the community holds prayer gatherings and a building where they eat meals. The prayer building is where the apparent striking of the child was heard as well as where three two-foot wooden rods were found.

Alex, from the New York compound, detailed “vicious beatings” with rods similar to those found in the Boulder compound. Of the ex-members the CUI reached out to who spent time in the Colorado communities, few were willing to retell their stories publicly, insisting on anonymity to avoid reprisal from the community.

“You talk out of line or sometimes you never even knew what the hell you did but all of a sudden you’re getting your feet beaten bloody with the rods,” Alex said.

Religious Beginnings

Child-rearing is heavily regulated by a book at the center of the group called the “Authority Teachings.” The CUI obtained a copy of the teachings through an ex-member network that now works to expose the group. The teachings instruct parents to physically discipline their children to instill obedience and help achieve the tribes’ ultimate goal: 144,000 male virgins. The group says it needs to produce that number of male virgins to bring the second coming of Jesus Christ and the apocalypse, as cited in the book of revelations. At the Yellow Deli, the group distributes whimsically-designed pamphlets that introduce customers to its beliefs.

The Authority Teachings states that parents are supposed to strike their children or create “stripes that wound,” according to the text reviewed by the CUI.

“These stripes are the only way the heart can be reached,” the text reads. “Injury is to impair soundness of health; to wound. But stripes or marks from loving discipline shows love by the parent.”

The author of the teachings is the Twelve Tribes founder, Gene Spriggs. He founded the group as a small Christian community in Chattanooga, Tennessee, preaching in his home and baptizing people in the lake behind his house. Spriggs started a group in 1972 that would become the Twelve Tribes and opened the first Yellow Deli to support the group soon after. The group is commonly cited as having between 2,000-3,000 members. Since its founding, the tribes have faced accusations of being a cult and spouting fundamentalist ideology.

In the teachings, Spriggs states that “the goal of the rod is to break the willful resistance of a child’s rebellion, which would take him to the second death.”

Second death is described in the teachings as a spiritual death where people suffer in “The Lake of Fire” or Hell. Brosseau said the Twelve Tribes uses the concept of second death to cultivate obedience in the community, a key tribute of cult-like behavior.

Within the Authority Teachings, the cult also acknowledges that some people call their discipline “child abuse.” Spriggs worked quickly to discredit this logic in the teachings.

“There are people who have created theories that using the rod to discipline is called child abuse, this causes some parents to be afraid and to question the use of discipline … This is why the antichrist will be able to come in, because all of the restraint of lawlessness is being removed,” Spriggs writes in the Authority Teachings.

Spriggs and his followers have attracted other investigations by the news media. A documentary aired on a German TV network sent undercover reporters to compounds that uncovered “systematic beatings” of children. An Inside Edition investigation in 2018 found instances of child labor in the upstate New York community, the same which Alex grew up in. Along with the CUI reporters’ trip to the Boulder compound where a beating appeared to be heard, no one directly tied the same behavior from other compounds to the Boulder community but many said practices are similar across communities.

The Twelve Tribes in Boulder

The tribes’ teachings came to Boulder with 63-year-old Andrew Wolfe, a long-time organization member and current leader in Boulder. Wolfe set up the Boulder Community in 2009 with the intention of spreading it beyond its eastern U.S. roots. During that year, Boulder leaders began holding meetings in their homes and finally got a building lease on Pearl Street in 2010 — the building that houses the Yellow Deli.

A community leader told the CUI reporters while at the compound that the Boulder Twelve Tribes community members cycle between working at the Yellow Deli and at the compound five days during the week. During Saturday and Sunday, all community members return to the compound for the Sabbath — a period where they do not work and gather for religious ceremonies. Profit from the Yellow Deli directly funds the expenses at the compound.

During the CUI’s undercover trip to the Boulder compound, reporters observed about 30 members, 15 of whom were children. Many of the children appeared to be extremely obedient and close with the adults who oversaw them. Much of the behavior the reporters noticed seemed to coincide with the group’s teachings.

During that trip, when Wolfe was asked if the Twelve Tribes was a cult, he said, “if the Twelve Tribes is a cult, the Catholic Church is a cult.”

However, Brosseau, the ex-member and Liberation Point founder, argued that “in a catholic church, that’s only one part of (a member’s) life.”

In a cult, she said, members’ lives completely revolve around religion. Brosseau also said that other characteristics classify the Twelve Tribes as a cult such as totalitarian leadership with a charismatic and narcissistic leader, black and white thinking, controlling knowledge and isolation. Other experts, like Catherine Mann who has a PhD in religious psychology, told the CUI the tribes meet the definition of a cult.

Brosseau said Yoneq, founder Gene Sprigg’s Hebrew name that his followers affectionately call him, employed all of these methods to “indoctrinate and maintain control over Twelve Tribes members.”

Luke Wiseman, the most powerful ex-member interviewed for this story, described Twelve Tribes inner workings as an authoritarian and “threat-based system.” At one time, Wiseman was a national leader, called a “tribal leader,” who worked very closely with Spriggs and his wife Marsha.

Wiseman said when members leave, they’re considered dead to the community. While he is likely seen as socially dead to Twelve Tribe members, he says he still loves his former community.

“All of us who left love our friends and family in the Twelve Tribes. And we have not cut them off,” Wiseman said. “But they’ve cut us off.”

Click here to read the CUI’s behind-the-scenes account of how it broke the investigative story.

Contact CU Independent Staff News Reporter Nicole Dorfman at Nicole.Dorfman@colorado.edu

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

Twelve Tribes “tearing families apart” says ex-members

Charlie — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 20:27:53 +0000

Source: Channel 9 News

Children ‘spanked 30 times a day’ in secretive sect, ex-member says

By Alison Piotrowski

7:48pm Oct 29, 2019

Eighteen years on from his time inside the Twelve Tribes religious sect, Matthew Klein is still scarred.

“They not only control your medical care, they control your food, when you get to see your family, they try to control when you make love to your wife, they try and control your children,” he told A Current Affair.

“Once you’ve been there a while, you realise that not everyone is equal. There are leaders and there’s a whole hierarchy within it. It’s very similar to Animal Farm.”

Klein, his wife Tysha, and their two children joined the Twelve Tribes in 1999, drawn to their communal lifestyle and strong faith.

The Twelve Tribes present themselves as a welcoming religious group, growing produce on their New South Wales properties, and selling food through their cafes. For Klein, it felt like a simple way of life.

Matthew Klein, a former member of the Twelve Tribes church, has spoken out about some of the group’s practices. (A Current Affair)

In the first six months within the Australian arm of the group, Tysha gave birth to another son. A few weeks later, their baby began having breathing difficulties. The elders discouraged them from seeking outside medical help.

This was not the only practice that concerned Klein.

According to Klein, the Twelve Tribes child training manuals provide detailed instructions about severe disciplinary measures for children, starting as young as six months old.

Concerns have been raised over the group’s treatment of children. (A Current Affair)

“They would get spanked from morning and night,” he said.

“They would get spanked 20 to 30 times a day. Each one of them is six strikes on the hand with a thin rod.”

The Twelve Tribes was started by former high school teacher and carnival showman Eugene Spriggs in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the 1970s. Spriggs created the Twelve Tribes as a loose hybrid of Judaism and Christianity, preaching to his followers to live by the “first testament”.

Eugene Spriggs is the founder of the Twelve Tribes. (A Current Affair)

When members join, they’re baptised with Hebrew names, hand their money and possessions, and live together in a commune.

The Australian arm of the tribe was formed in the early 90s, when Spriggs sent two Americans to set up the group in the Blue Mountains – Scott Sczarnecki and William Nunnally.

Today members live in one of their two Sydney bases: bedroom heritage house in Katoomba, and a 45-acre property just outside of Picton.

The Twelve Tribes present themselves as a harmless church, with much singing and dancing. (A Current Affair)

The group operates The Yellow Deli in Katoomba and The Common Ground Bakery in Picton.

“They don’t pay wages, they don’t pay superannuation, they don’t pay insurances, they don’t pay anything. They don’t pay tax because apparently, they’re a church. And where all this money goes, I don’t know,” says Klein.

Children in the Twelve Tribes are put to work from a very young age. Klein’s now 23-year-old daughter Tessa remembers being sent out to work in a candle factory when she was five years old.

Matthew’s daughter Tessa said she was put to work at five years old. (A Current Affair)

“Working with this boiling wax, like dipping into it making candles, like completely alone,” she tells A Current Affair.

Rosemary Cruzado left the Twelve Tribes in 2010 after nearly 14 years.

“I was brainwashed the whole time I was there … like I was unable to critically think of anything.”

The secretive group has a 45-acre property outside the NSW town of Picton. (A Current Affair)

Cruzado had two pregnancies during her time there. At 38 weeks during her last pregnancy, the baby stopped kicking and Rosemary experienced seizures.

The Australian leaders of the tribe did not want her to go to hospital. She recalls William Nunnally explicitly telling her “You can’t end up in hospital.”

Cruzado’s baby died in utero, and the baby was taken away immediately.

Rosemary Cruzado left the Twelve Tribes after nearly 14 years. (A Current Affair)

“They laid it so thick on us on both my husband and I, they said it was all our fault that god couldn’t really blessed us with a live baby because of our sin,” she said.

While he was living within the Twelve Tribes, Matthew Klein convinced himself that the fanatical religious group was not a cult.

Once he got out, he quickly changed his mind. He’s hoping by speaking out, he will prevent others from joining.

The Twelve Tribes sells food through its Yellow Deli cafes. (A Current Affair)

“I think it’s my social duty to warn other people of what goes on in this place,” he said.

“It’s the kids who don’t have a choice and it’s just not on.”

A Current Affair has approached The Twelve Tribes for comment.

Inside the controversial ‘Twelve Tribes’ commune: Man who spent 18 years trapped in a ‘surrendered’ state opens up about how he escaped the secretive religious sect

Charlie — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 20:53:50 +0000

Source: Daily Mail

Or Mathias claims he was subjected to years of physical and psychological abuse
Mr Mathias said his 18 years in the sect have left him permanently traumatised
The now 26-year-old alleges child abuse is rampant within the communities
Original member Andrew McLeod previously said there is no child abuse present

By Brittany Chain and Nic White For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 15:11 AEST, 9 September 2019 | Updated: 16:10 AEST, 9 September 2019

A man who spent the first 18 years of his life in a Twelve Tribes commune claims the ‘training methods’ used to discipline children still affect him almost a decade after he escaped.

Or Mathias claims he was subjected to years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of the secretive sect.

He told The Sunday Telegraph he spent the first six years of his life living in a Brazilian commune with ‘strange men’ before finally moving to the Picton branch in south-west Sydney.

The now 26-year-old left Twelve Tribes eight years ago. Four of his five siblings and his mother have also left the sect.

Mr Mathias said while he keeps in contact with plenty of ex-members, most are too afraid to speak out.

Or Mathias claims he was subjected to years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of the secretive sect

He said he is permanently scarred after he was allegedly abused as a child.

Mr Mathias claims he was beaten with a thin rod and forced to work from a young age. He was also given limited opportunities for an education.

The sect is very guarded about its privacy and members are expected to live by a set of rigid guidelines which govern almost every aspect of their lives.

Twelve Tribes shuns the use of conventional medicines or technologies, and communication with the outside world is largely forbidden.

Women are expected to be subservient to men and everyone must marry within the group.

Children are home-schooled and raised on the back of a 300-page manual which insists they are obedient, do not question their superiors, are forbidden from playing with toys or the make-believe and are to be spanked with a 50cm rod for any indiscretions.

Mr Mathias said he spent the first six years of his life in a Brazilian commune with ‘strange men’ before finally moving to the Picton branch in south-west Sydney (pictured)

Mr Mathias claims he watched an eight month old baby be disciplined during his time with the Picton sect because she cried at the dinner table.

According to Mr Mathias, any adult can administer discipline as long as the child is older than six months.

Andrew McLeod, who manages one of the sect’s many cafes in the Blue Mountains and is an original member of the Australian branch of the group, said allegations of child abuse and child labour were untrue.

‘We want our children to have a well-balanced life and what we do and our beliefs have somehow been taken out of context to portray us as a fundamentalist cult that bashes our children, which is just not true,’ he said.

‘It’s sad that so many people are gullible enough to believe what they believe without looking into it themselves.’

Mr McLeod instead encouraged people to visit the group at the cafe, Balmoral House, or the farm in Picton – the doors to which are always open – and even spend a few days getting to know them.

‘They can see there’s no horns, no cloaks and daggers, just some people with a genuine faith wanting to raise their children with purpose and purity and make an honest living and be hospitable,’ he said.

The father-of-five said children were indeed all home-schooled but no one working in the cafe was younger than the legal work age of 14 and nine months, and teenagers worked on Sundays or school holidays.

‘I raise [my children] strictly but honestly and openly and will admit when I’m wrong. That’s why they’re still here and haven’t run off on a motorbike to join a rock band,’ he said.

The group celebrate each morning and afternoon with rituals that include praying and dancing (pictured)

But Mr Mathias argues the unconventional disciplinary action did more harm than good in his childhood.

‘Long term, it has made me scared of messing up, or doing something that I think others wouldn’t like. So I am not who I really am, I am always living something that is ‘pleasing’ to others,’ he said.

He claims the sustained abuse he allegedly received during his formative years has shaped who he became as an adult.

Ultimately, even after leaving the sect, he still lives in fear that he made the wrong decision.

‘It really made things very hard, because I had no schooling, I had no support, I feared that I was going to suffer for the rest of my life and go to hell after I died because I left,’ he said.

‘Things that have hurt in the past cannot be remedied in the present. We’re talking about, mental and spiritual problems here, it’s not something money or anything else could do to help that hurt go away.’

Children are expected to help lighten the work load and pull their weight within the community

Clinical Psychologist Rudi Črnčec told the publication some psychologists would deem the punishments as ‘abusive’ by modern standards.

He said children within the communities are preferred to be in a constant ‘surrendered’ state rather than develop relationships with their parents, peers or community.

Dr Črnčec added that sustained physical punishments could lead to anxiety and detachment later in life and that children with learning or behavioural difficulties are the most likely to suffer.

Another couple who were formerly members of the Australian sect claim they were shunned due to their son’s bad behaviour.

Mark and Rose Ilich were members of Twelve Tribes for 13 years after meeting the group at the Newtown Festival, reported to be a fertile recruiting ground.

They said when people join the group they have to sell all their possessions – including houses and cars – and give the proceeds to the group.

Their clothes are replaced with conservative outfits and their lives become filled with long hours of work and chores in the self-sustaining community.

What is the Twelves Tribes?

The commune began in 1975 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when former carnival showman Gene Spriggs broke away from the First Presbyterian Church after finding services were cancelled for the Super Bowl.

He and his wife Marsha earlier opened the first Yellow Deli a few years earlier and were living communally with a small group from 1972.

Twelve Tribes practices a hybrid of pre-Catholic Christianity and Judaism mixed with teachings by Spriggs.

The group’s stated aim is to bring about the return of Jesus – whom they refer to by the Hebrew name Yahshua – by reestablishing the 12 tribes of Israel.

Twelve Tribes practices a hybrid of pre-Catholic Christianity and Judaism mixed with teachings by its founder, Gene Spriggs

All members are forced to sell their possessions and give to proceeds to the cult and are assigned a Hebrew name discard their old ones. Spriggs himself is known as Yoneq.