The Twelve Tribes (New religious movement)

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For other uses of "The Twelve Tribes" see The Twelve Tribes (disambiguation)

The Twelve Tribes is a federation of self-governing religious communities founded by Elbert Eugene Spriggs (now known as Yoneq) that sprung out of the Jesus Movement in the early 1970s in Chattanooga, Tennessee. ^[1] The group has also gone by the names The Church in Island Pond and The Commonwealth of Israel.

1 Origins
2 Beliefs and practices
3 Controversies
4 Sources
5 External links

[edit] Origins

The origins of the Twelve Tribes movement can be traced to small meetings held in the home of Elbert Eugene Spriggs and his wife Marsha in the early 1970s in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1972, the Spriggs began a ministry for teenagers called the "Light Brigade." Around this time, members of the "Light Brigade" began to live communally and supported their lifestyle by operating a coffeeshop. Until this time, Spriggs' group had not been a separate denomination, instead affiliating itself with several different local churches and denominations. However, this changed after Spriggs allegedly went to church one Sunday only to find the service delayed due to the Super Bowl.^Bowl Spriggs then formed his own church, called the "Vine Community Church", and started a chain of restaurants around the Southern United States called "Yellow Deli," designed to create revenue for the group and for evangelist purposes. During this period, the church came under attack by mainstream Christian groups and anti-cult groups. Around the time the climate turned negative in the South, Spriggs was invited to be pastor to a group of disaffected Christians in Vermont.[2] Spriggs and his followers therefore moved their base of operations to Island Pond, Vermont in 1977 calling themselves The Northeast Kingdom Community Church, where they continued to be criticized for some of their beliefs and practices.^[3] However, the group continued to grow during the 1980s and 1990s, opening branches in several different countries, including France, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, and the United Kingdom. (See [4] for an address list of Twelve Tribes' communities.)

[edit] Beliefs and practices

According to a statement from their website^[5], the group seeks to live according to the primitive pattern of the early church described in Acts 2:38-42 and Acts 4:32-37. Claiming to follow the teachings of Jesus (whom they call by his Hebrew name Yahshua), they believe that all disciples must renounce all possessions and independent lives in order to truly call him their Master and Lord. They aspire, "to live moral lives in the midst of a very immoral society."

According to a 1998 article by the religious scholar Dr. Susan J. Palmer, who stayed in the community, members give themselves Hebrew names and their beliefs are closely related to Christian fundamentalism. ^[6] They follow the Old and New Covenant Scriptures, and use all versions of the Bible. Twelve Tribes' members dress modestly, the men wear beards, and wear their hair bound behind their head, following the tradition of the priests of old. Group members live communally, sharing all assets and income in common. They consider themselves the only true church since apostolic times, based on the absence of the life of Acts 2 and 4 in the anals of history.

However, there are many distinctions between the Twelve Tribes and Christian fundamentalism. For example, the Twelve Tribes believe and teach that denominations or divisions invalidate a church's validity and insist that the true church will be undivided in reality. Christian fundamentalism allows for minor differences and denominations in the non-essentials, and believe that the unity of the church is mystical and inassailable. In Twelve Tribes' doctrine there are three eternal destinies of man (the holy, disciple of Christ who are saved by Him and live entirely for Him; the righteous, good people who never heard the gospel and never became followers; and the wicked, evil people who destroy other people's lives by their selfishness) as opposed to only two (heaven and hell) in Christian Fundamentalism. The Twelve Tribes teach that a person must give up all of their own possessions and surrender their life to become a disciple. Christian Fundamentalism teaches that a person is "saved by grace through faith", not of "works" and so a person must only be willing to give up all, not actually do it.

The group believes that humans are living in the end times, and that a faithful and pure church must be restored before Christ returns. They claim their main tenets to be forgiveness, love, purity, and obedience to the Christ's teachings. Members have run a variety of restaurants and restaurant-related businesses. The group estimates its current membership to be around 2500.

[edit] Controversies

The group garnered controversies in the 1980s. The anti-cult movement and ex-Twelves Tribes members are some of the most vocal critics of the group's practices. Bob Pardon, an anti-cult advisor, warns that the "Messianic Communities, under the leadership of Spriggs, has tended towards an extreme authoritarianism."^[7] The group responds that they are a "simple people who live on Main Street USA" and that "all members can leave at any time, but choose to remain daily."

The group first aroused controversy because of their alleged child abuse (including corporal punishment, and the use of child labor in their cottage industries). The most notable event was the 1984 Island Pond Raid. In 1984, Vermont State authorities executed a full-scale pre-dawn raid of the 13 Twelve Tribes houses in Island Pond, Vermont for alleged child abuse. The case was eventually dismissed. Frank Mahady, the presiding Judge, declared the State of Vermont's "authorization to seize 'any and all children under the age of 18 years old' was broader in scope (though admittedly less Draconian in purpose) than that of Herod the Great."^[8]. The Twelves Tribes and others believe the allegations against the group in 1984 to be exaggerated. At a 2001 press conference in response to charges of child labor^[9], they claimed that the charges of child labor are "false, unfounded, and slanderous." However, the group does admit that it uses corporal punishment, spanking children with a "small reed-like rod"^[10] and that the "children help their parents" in their cottage industries.

On October 18, 2004, seven fathers from the community in Klosterzimmern, in the municipality Deiningen, Bavaria were arrested because they homeschooled their children, instead of sending them to regular school. ^[11] ^[12]

A report from The Guardian, reprinted at Rick Ross's [13] site accuses the Twelve Tribes of being racist and anti-Semitic. Specifically, the article states that the group believes that "murder is the very crime which the Jews are still cursed for" and that "multiculturalism increases murder, crime and prejudice". The 1990 document "Cham"[14] opens with the comment, "If slaves were mistreated in the days before the civil war, it was because of their unsubmissiveness." The Twelve Tribes deny charges of racism or Anti-Semitism, stating that they "look back to the Semitic roots of our faith with gratitude". They have members of many races and cultures in their community.

Similar, if less noteworthy, controversies have continued around this group. There have been a few personal reports of homophobic attitudes toward customers at the group's cafe, the Mate Factor, in Ithaca, NY, although few if any have appeared in print.

[edit] Sources

^ We Make No Apology. The Twelve Tribes: Controversies. Retrieved on October 23, 2005.
^ Family FAQs. The Twelve Tribes: Family FAQs. Retrieved on October 12, 2005.
^ Palmer, Susan J. Apostates and Their Role in the Construction of Grievance Claims Against the Northeast Kingdom/Messianic Communities article in the book The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements edited by David G. Bromley Westport, CT, Praeger Publishers, (1998). ISBN also available online
^ Alice Kreiner. Twelve Tribes. Twelve Tribes aka Northeast Kingdom Community Church, Church in Island Pond, The Communities. Retrieved on October 23, 2005.
^ A Root out of Dry Ground. A Short History of The Twelve Tribes — The Commonwealth of Israel. Retrieved on October 23, 2005.
^ Judge Frank Mahady's Opinion. In Re: Certain Children. Retrieved on October 23, 2005.
^ Cambridge Press Conference. The Twelve Tribes : Controversies. Retrieved on October 23, 2005.
^ My Analysis of the Twelve Tribes. New England Institute of Religious Research website. Retrieved on October 23, 2005.
^ Pictures of the arrest. Slide show of arrested fathers in Germany. Retrieved on October 23, 2005.
^ Press Conference October 15, 2004 in Pfäfflingen, Germany. Press conference by Holger Röhrs, one of the seven arrested fathers. Retrieved on October 23, 2005.