Twelve Tribes cult: Looks like a quaint “Amish” type group

But truth be told….

Factnet NewsBlog editor’s note: I just recently worked with a reporter from NBC in Kansas City, Mo. on a spot he was doing about the Twelve Tribes.  His story was focused on the “child abuse aspect” of the Tribes until he found how many different destructive traits he could have investigated and in his own words ”I could have used an hour instead of 4 minutes of video” on the story.  Here is what he came up with and considering his time restraints.  I think he did a great job.  Thanks Russ!  (The editor’s personal note can be found at the end of this page).

NBC Action News Report….

An NBC  News investigation has uncovered allegations of stillbirths and infants being spanked with a rod in a Missouri church which critics are calling a cult.

In undercover video recorded by NBC Action News in Warsaw, Mo., Elaine Elias is seen pleading with members of the Twelve Tribes church to speak with her daughter.  A police officer tells Elias and our undercover news team to get off the street.

The woman’s daughter, 24 year old Megan O’Leary, says she joined the Twelve Tribes of her own free will.”  I’m her daughter, and I’m here, and I want to be here,” O’Leary is heard saying.

Twelve Tribes recruited O’Leary outside a Christian youth conference in Kansas City last December.  They took her back to Warsaw, Mo., population 2200, about two hours southeast of Kansas City.

After researching the Twelve Tribes online,  Elaine Elias flew to Missouri from Florida, determined to get her daughter out and to sound the alarm about what she had learned about the church.

Elias went door to door and business to business in Warsaw in an effort to turn residents against the Twelve Tribes church.  Most residents had either never heard of Twelve Tribes or know very little about them.

“I want you to know who’s living in your town,” Elias said as she worked a Warsaw tavern like a seasoned politician. Discipline, Modesty Pillars of Church Doctrine

Eugene Spriggs established Twelve Tribes strict doctrine.

“Discipline is essential to this end,” Spriggs says in a church video from 2000.

There’s no TV, and only approved books.  Women dress modestly, even during recreational activities such as swimming.

Cult expert Rick Ross defines unsafe cults as groups that abuse or exploit their members.  He points to allegations of harsh corporal punishment of children when he calls the organization a destructive cult.

Although no one at the Warsaw Twelve Tribes community agreed to discuss the church with NBC Action News, the national group discusses past conflicts with the outside world on a Web site section titled Controversies.

Russ Ptacek NBC Action News KC, MO.

Editor’s personal note:

“Welcome to the Machine”

Like the words spoken to the Church in Ephesus, I believe God has the same ones for the Church of the Twelve Tribes and those who hope they are the “Spiritual” seed of Abraham….

“You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.  Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.  Remember the height from which you have fallen!  Repent and do the things you did at first.  If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place.”

The loving community that had open arms and a non-judgmental, humble beginning has morphed into just another industrial complex.  The pride of the Pharisees has leavened the loaf and puffed it up beyond recognition.  Your people have enforced the “law” and know not of the “freedom of the cross.”  Instead of the faithful caring and seeing to the needs of others, knowing that theirs will be met, their days are filled with dreams of actually getting 8 straight hours of sleep, providing for their own flesh and the monotony of rote rituals and not the labor of love.  They do as they are told for fear of correction, discipline and the stigma of being “cut-off” from those who they love.

Reasoning, independent thought and critical thinking is deemed a “sin” and rebellion.  The “flavors” of the different cultures  brought together and the distinct personalities of the wonderful, interesting and loving people are smothered in order to create  a community of automatons…lemmings…cookie cutter disciples.  These common disciples who don’t have the power or stature of the ruling class will exercise the only power they have and that’s the one that encourages you to watch your brother and his family and publicly point out all their shortcomings and problems that they need to address, knowing that they must receive you no matter if they feel your right or wrong.  But as with Elder, government member and common disciple alike, when you’re pointing that finger at your brother don’t forget to take a look at the 3 pointing back at you….

Most “disciples” come there with a U-Haul full of baggage, baggage that is never dealt with and is put into storage where it ferments and expands.  It is not addressed and is ignored while these suffering souls cloak their selves with a false bravado and project a pseudo submissive love in order to mentally and emotionally survive the heavy yoke of your mental incarceration.

“A civilization is not conquered from without until it is destroyed from within.”  Will Durant

Every time I think about Gene and his relationship with his Southern Baptist father, and then us ex-members relationship to “Yoneq,” I want to sing that line from the Linkin Park song, “Numb” to him….  “You were just like me…with someone disappointed in you…”  This is why I think he strove to “do it better” than his Dad!!!  He has followed in his father’s footsteps and has lost many of his “children” because of his heavy hand of total control…

Numb

I’m tired of being what you want me to be

feeling so faithless

lost under the surface

I don’t know what you’re expecting of me

put under the pressure

of walking in your shoes

[caught in the undertow/just caught in the undertow]

every step that I take its another mistake to you

[caught in the undertow/just caught in the undertow]

I’ve

become so numb….

I can’t feel you there…

become so tired…

so much more aware…

I’m becoming this…

all I want to do…

is be more like me….

and be less like you…

can’t you see that you’re smothering me

holding too tightly

afraid to lose control

cause everything that you thought I would be

has fallen apart right in front of you.

[caught in the undertow/ just caught in the undertow]

every step that I take is another mistake to you

[caught in the undertow/just caught in the undertow]

and every second I waste is more than I can take

I’ve

become so numb

I can’t feel you there

become so tired

so much more aware

I’m becoming this

all I want to do

is be more like me

and be less like you

And I know…

I may end up failing too!

But I know…

You were just like me with someone disappointed in you

I’ve

become so numb

I can’t feel you there

become so tired

all I want to do

is be more like me and less like you

I’ve become so numb

I can’t feel you there

Is everything what you want me to be

I’ve become so numb

I can’t feel you there

Is everything what you want me to be – Linkin Park

Your “Alpha” males rise to the top of the government and try to fix  the problem of the proletariat…  Your elders “Shepherd their souls” with fear and control instead of understanding and love.  That love the “elders” can’t even muster up to work out the petty differences between each other!  Do as I say!  Not as I do!”

Time and time again I have seen elders who possess the love of others spread too thin.  They are crushed by the mere numbers and demands of the sick just like Yahshua. Desperately wanting to complete the “portion” set before them, they unintentionally neglect their spouse, and their children who then in turn suffer.  The children become unruly just for some kind of attention and then they are punished for being rebellious!!!!  Then, the “powers that be” demote these loving men and tell them to put back together that which is already shattered!  Many children, by the time they are old enough, leave!  (which I must say takes great courage but also tears that apart inside!)  How can these children “turn their hearts toward their fathers when they are never there???

The ones with unconditional love are leaving.  They realize that they don’t have enough to oil the “Machine” lest they find themselves without enough for their own lamps….

If the tribes “lamp stand” haven’t been removed already, the oil in it is leaking out and that which remains is going rancid.

Your days are numbered…

I have one more thing to say, Gene.  You have completely destroyed my (and may others) faith and belief of your Christian “God.”  I don’t know whether to curse you or thank you…

David T. Pike

FactNet