Twelve Tribes communities - Wikipedia

Twelve Tribes communities - Wikipedia



Twelve Tribes communities
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This article is about the Christian communities. For other uses, see Twelve Tribes (disambiguation).
Twelve Tribes

Classification Messianic Judaism[1]
Christian Fundamentalism[2]
Christian new religious movement[1]
Structure Apostolic Council[3]
Region North America, South America, Western Europe, Australia[4]
Founder Elbert "Gene" Spriggs[1]
Origin 1972[2]
Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States
Members 2,500–3,000[5]
Official website http://www.twelvetribes.com


The Twelve Tribes, formerly known as the Vine Christian Community Church,[6] Northeast Kingdom Community Church,[1] the Messianic Communities,[1] and the Community Apostolic Order[7] is an international confederation of religious communities[8] founded by Gene Spriggs (now known as Yoneq) that sprang out of the Jesus Movement in 1972[3] in Chattanooga, Tennessee.[2]The group is an attempt to recreate the 1st-century church in the Book of Acts;[3] the name "Twelve Tribes" is also derived from a quote of the Apostle Paul in Acts 26:7.[9] The group has also been referred to as The Yellow Deli People[10] and informally as The Community.



Contents [hide]
1History
2Beliefs and practices
3Controversies
3.1Commentary on the Island Pond raid
3.2Teachings about Jews
3.3Child labor and homeschooling controversies
4Police raids in Germany
5Outreaches
6See also
7References
8External links


History[edit]

The origins of the Twelve Tribes movement can be traced to a ministry for teenagers called the "Light Brigade"[11] in 1972.[3] The ministry operated out of a small coffee shop called "The Lighthouse"[2] in the home of Gene Spriggs and his wife Marsha. The Light Brigade began living communally[12] and opened a restaurant called "The Yellow Deli" while attending several churches, before deciding on First Presbyterian Church.[13] The Light Brigade, while at First Presbyterian, caused friction with the establishment by bringing in anyone who was willing to come with them, including members of different social classes and racial groups, a practice not engaged in at that time.[2] On January 12, 1975, the group arrived at First Presbyterian only to find out that the service had been cancelled for the Super Bowl;[2] for the group, this was an intolerable act and it led them to form The Vine Christian Community Church.[12]During this time, the church "planted" churches, each with its own Yellow Deli, in Dalton and Trenton, Georgia; Mentone, Alabama; and Dayton, Tennessee.[6]

Northeast Kingdom Community Church members leaving the courthouse with their children on June 22, 1984

Their withdrawal from the religious mainstream turned what had been a friction-filled relationship into an outcry against them.[1] They began holding their own services, which they called "Critical Mass" in Warner Park,[14]appointing elders[15][16] and baptizing people outside any denominational authority. The deteriorating relationship between the group and the religious and secular Chattanooga community attracted the attention of The Parents' Committee to Free Our Children from the Children of God and the Citizen's Freedom Foundation who labeled the church a "cult" and heavily attacked Spriggs as a cult leader.[1] This led to what the group refers to today as the "Cult Scare"[17] in the late seventies. A series of deprogrammings starting in the summer of 1976 that were carried out by Ted Patrick.[13] The group nevertheless largely ignored the negative press and the wider world in general, and continued to operate its businesses[1] opening the Areopagus and a second local Yellow Deli in downtown Chattanooga.[13][18] In 1978 an invitation was received from a small church in Island Pond, Vermont for Spriggs to minister there; the offer was declined but the group began moving in stages to the rural town, naming the church there The Northeast Kingdom Community Church.[14]One of Patrick's last deprogramming cases in Chattanooga occurred in 1980; it involved a police detective who, according to Swantko, had his 27-year-old daughter arrested on a falsified warrant in order to facilitate her deprogramming, with the support of local judges.[19] The group continued moving, closing down all of its Yellow Delis and associated churches except for the one in Dalton.[6] At one point, a leader conceded that the group was deeply in debt[16] before closing the Dalton church down and moving the last members to Vermont.[2]

Common Sense Cafe and Yellow Deli in Island Pond, Vermont; owned and operated by Twelve Tribes.

The move to Vermont, combined with an initial period of economic hardship, caused some members to leave.[2] The Citizen's Freedom Foundation conducted several meetings in Barton to draw attention to the group.[19] The Citizen's Freedom Foundation had made allegations of mind control in Chattanooga, but now it made accusations of child abuse.[19] In 1983, charges were brought against Charles "Eddie" Wiseman (an elder in the group) for misdemeanor simple assault; this, combined with multiple child custody cases, formed the basis for a search warrant. On June 22, 1984 Vermont State Police and Vermont Social Rehabilitation Services[20]seized 112 children;[2] all were released the same day because the raid was ruled unconstitutional.[21]Due to what the group perceived were a massive misunderstanding of the events and concerns leading up to and surrounding the raid, its members began formal relationships with their neighbors.[1] Two months after the raid, the case against Wiseman fell apart after the main witness recanted, saying he was under duress from the anticult movement.[1] The case was later dropped in 1985 after a judge ruled that Wiseman had been denied his right to a speedy trial. Eddie Wiseman's public defender, Jean Swantko, who had been present during the raid, later joined and married Wiseman.[22]

Peacemaker 1 bus at a June 22, 1984 Raid anniversary in Island Pond, Vermont.

By 1989, the church had become widely accepted in Island Pond[23] and grew substantially during the 1980s and 1990s, opening branches in several different countries, including Canada, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, and the United Kingdom. During this expansion phase, the group used the name Messianic Communities, before deciding to rename itself The Twelve Tribes. Through the mid-2000s (decade), the group remained controversial, with accusations of child labor,[24] custodial interference,[19] and illegal homeschooling.[25] In 2006 the group held a reunion for members and friends of the Vine Christian Community Church and the former Yellow Deli in Warner Park, announcing a new community in Chattanooga.[26] The movement proceeded to open a new Yellow Deli in 2008, nearly 30 years after leaving Chattanooga.[13]
Beliefs and practices[edit]

The Twelve Tribes' beliefs resemble those of Christian fundamentalism, the Hebrew Roots movement, Messianic Judaism and the Sacred Name Movement; however the group believes that all other denominations are fallen, and it therefore refuses to align itself with any denomination or movement.[2] They believe that in order for the messiah to return, the Church needs to be restored to its original form seen in Acts 2:38–42 and Acts 4:32–37. This restoration is not merely the restoration of the 1st-century church, but the creation of a new Israel consisting of Twelve Tribes in twelve geographic regions.[2][11] Part of this restoration is the return to observing the sabbath, maintaining some of the Mosaic law[27] including dietary laws, and the festivals.[27][28] This interpretation of the prophesied restoration of Israel,[3] combined with the perceived immorality[29] in the world leads the group to believe that the end times has arrived, though no date has been set.[30]

One noted aspect of the group is its insistence on using the name "Yahshua",[1] as opposed to Jesus.[2] Because the name "Yahshua" represents the nature of Jesus, the group similarly bestows upon each member a Hebrew name that is meant to reflect the personality of the individual.[31]

The group believes there are Three Eternal Destinies.[32] It believes that after the Fall of Man every person is given a conscience;[32] and that after dying every person goes to a state of being called death (in Hebrew Sheol and Greek Hades)[33] regardless of faith.[32] Upon the second coming, believers will be brought back for the thousand years to reign with "Yahshua" before the last judgment.[32] At the end of this millennium, all of the nonbelievers will be judged according to their deeds and put into one of two groups: the righteous and the filthy/unjust.[32] The filthy and the unjust will be sent to the Lake of Fire while the righteous will go on into eternity and fill the universe.[32]

"We Need Radical Change" an example of Twelve Tribes "free paper" commonly distributed at events as a form of Evangelism[3][27][34]

The leadership within is structured as a series of Councils which consists of local councils, regional councils, and a global Apostolic Council;[3] the group is also overseen within these councils by a fluid number of teachers, deacons, deaconesses, elders and apostles.[7] Gene Spriggs is highly regarded as the first person to open up his home to brothers and sisters, but members state that he is not regarded as a spiritual figurehead.[34]

The group operates as a 501 (d) – "for-profit organization with a religious purpose and a common treasury." The community pays property taxes, but the 501d structure tends to result in no income tax liability.[3][13]

Courtship within the Community involves a "waiting period"[13][35] in which the man or woman expresses their desire to get to know the other person.[34] The couple then receives input from the community while spending time together.[34][35] The couple is betrothed (engaged) if their parents (or the entire community, if they are adults) confirm their love and compatibility;[7][34] the couple is then permitted to hold hands.[35] Weddings are dramatized pre-enactments[36] of what the group believes will happen at the end of time when "Yahshua"returns to earth for his bride.[13][34]

Children have been noted to play a central role in the group's eschatological beliefs,[7]because future generations of the group will be the "144,000" of Revelation 7.[7][34]Children are homeschooled.[3][7][27][25][30][34][34] Within the group, teenagers may take on apprenticeships in the group's cottage industries to be taught trades complementing their education.[7][37][38] The group utilizes corporal punishment[1][2][7][19][34][38] with a "reed-like rod"[27] like a balloon stick (a minimum) [39] across the child's bottom.[7]
Controversies[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help byadding to it. (January 2010)


Since its inception, the group has ignited controversy[36] and garnered unfavorable attention from the media,[20] the anti-cult movement and governments.[19]

New England Institute of Religious Research's Executive Director the Rev. Bob Pardon[40] warns in his report that "Messianic Communities, under the leadership of Spriggs, has tended towards an extreme authoritarianism and a "Galatian heresy."[41]The Tribes have responded with a line-by-line response to the report and they continue to contend its large "errors, distortions, misunderstandings, and misjudgments", while criticizing the heavy use of apostates in his report.[42] In France, the group was listed on the 1995 Governmental Report by the Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France under the name "Ordre apostolique – Therapeutic healing environment."[43]

Twelve Tribes members Jean Swantko and husband Ed Wiseman have made efforts to combat social stigma and the anti-cult movement by engaging in dialogue with hostile ex-members,[citation needed] the media and government authorities.[44] Swantko has presented at scholarly conferences[44] including CESNUR[45] Communal Studies Association[46] and Society for the Scientific Study of Religion[47] as well as a chapter in James T. Richardson's Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe.

The Twelve Tribes has been cited by Stuart A. Wright as a group suffering from "Front-End/Back-End Disproportionality" in media coverage.[20] According to Wright, the media often focuses on unsubstantiated charges against the group, but as charges are investigated and as cases fall apart, the media covers them significantly less at the end than it does at the beginning.[20] Wright then asserts that this leaves the public with the impression that the group was guilty of the disproven charges.[20]
Commentary on the Island Pond raid[edit]

The Island Pond raid has remained prominent in Vermont legal history; it was the subject of a Vermont Bar Association seminar in 2006.[48] The group held anniversary events in both 1994[49] and 2000;[50] and produced a 75-minute documentary.[51]The Vermont Chapter of the ACLU also criticized the raid, calling it "frightening" and "the greatest deprivation of civil liberties to have occurred in recent Vermont history."[52] The then-Governor of Vermont, Richard Snelling, who had authorized the raid, reportedly drew the "hottest political fire of his career" in the weeks after[53]Vermont Attorney General John J. Easton, Jr. attributed the raid to assisting his campaign for governorship.[54] In 1992, John Burchard, who had been the State Commissioner of Social and Rehabilitation Services, and Vanessa L. Malcarne, published an article in Behavioral Sciences and the Law, encouraging changes in the law that would have allowed the raid to succeed.[55][56]
Teachings about Jews[edit]

It teaches that the Jews were guilty of the blood of Christ, quoting Matthew 27:25.[57][58] Although often labelled antisemitic, the group repeatedly denies this accusation. Its members keep the Sabbath and the Jewish festivals of Pesach, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. Youth have Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah celebrations, and they regularly perform Israeli folk dances.[59]
Child labor and homeschooling controversies[edit]

In 2001, The New York Post ran an article accusing the group of child laborviolations;[60][61] and later attributed itself as having prompted the investigation.[62]The Twelve Tribes responded with a press conference at the "Commonsense Farm"where the alleged child labor had taken place.[60][61][63] The Twelve Tribes reported that during a random inspection by Estée Lauder Companies, the company discovered that several 14-year-olds had been found assisting their fathers in their cottage industry;[61] this report was later confirmed by Estée Lauder who terminated their contract with Common Sense products.[63] The group's official statement at the press conference stated that they believed that it was a family-owned business, and children ought to be able to help their parents in the business while making "no apology" for it.[62][63] The New York State Department of Labor stated that they intended to visit all five of the Twelve Tribes' businesses. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer asserted that apprenticeships amounted to indentured servitude and were illegal. Robert Redford's Sundance Catalog, who had contracted with Common Wealth Woodworks (another of the group's cottage industries that made furniture), also terminated their contract as a response to the allegations.[63] The Labor Department found no violations at Common Sense Farm or Commonwealth Woodworks. They did fine two other industries $2,000 for a 15-year-old pushing a wheelbarrow and another 15-year-old changing a lightbulb.[38]

In Germany and France, the controversies centered on the issues of homeschooling, health, child abuse, and religious freedom. The group has several times been in conflict with authorities in Germany and France over homeschooling their children, with a particularly long and protracted dispute between the community in Klosterzimmern, in the municipality of Deiningen, Bavaria, and Bavarian education authorities.[64][65] Homeschooling is illegal in Germany, with rare exceptions.[64]When fines and arrests failed to have an effect on the community, authorities granted the group the right to operate a private school on the commune's premises, under state supervision.[65][66] The agreement entailed that the school would not teach sex education and evolution.[65][66]
Police raids in Germany[edit]

On September 5, 2013, German police raided two communities belonging to the Twelve Tribes and removed 40 children to protect them from alleged continued abuse.[67] The group admits that they use a "reed-like rod" for discipline, but denies abusing their children. [68]

The religion sociologist Susan Palmer pointed out that the doctors found no evidence of mistreatment in September 2013 following the police raids.[69]

New York State

New child labor charges highlighted by undercover reporting by Inside Edition 2018
Outreaches[edit]

'Hippie Bus' in California

The Twelve Tribes utilizes mobile operations and vehicles to evangelize at various events.
Peacemaker Marine — a Class-A barquentinesailing ship bought and restored by the group sailing on the Eastern coast of the United States. The group now gives tours and evangelizes at ports.[70]
Peacemaker I&II Buses [4]
A First Aid tent is set up at various events by the group.[71]
See also[edit]
Anabaptism
Exclusive Brethren
Jehovah's Witnesses
References[edit]

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^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m Palmer, Susan J.; Bozeman, John M. (May 1997). "The Northeast Kingdom Community Church of Island Pond, Vermont: Raising Up a People for Yahshua's Return". Journal of Contemporary Religion. 12 (2): 181–190. doi:10.1080/13537909708580798. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
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^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j Palmer, Susan J. (1994). Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. pp. 133–153. ISBN 978-0-8156-0382-5.
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External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Twelve Tribes Communities.
Movement Links
Twelve Tribes official website
"Children of the Island Pond Raid: An Emerging Culture" Documentary on the Island Pond Raid at the Twelve Tribes YouTube ChannelCritical of Twelve Tribes
Twelve Tribes Report by the New England Institute for Religious Research
Cult Education : Twelve Tribes

Secrets of the family

Secrets of the family

Secrets of the family
Peace, love and mind control - one Sydney couple's journey through the Twelve Tribes religious cult.

By Tim Elliott18 December 2013 — 4:00am

One Saturday in October 1996, Mark Ilich and his wife Rosemary did something they would regret for the rest of their lives. They attended the Newtown Festival. It was a warm spring day and the festival, in Sydney's inner west, was busy with music and people. Together with their daughter Undila, who was six, and their three-year-old son, Abraham, Mark and Rose wandered about, then sat down on a patch of grass in front of the stage, where various acts were playing.

Mark, now 53, is originally from New Zealand, but moved to Australia in 1984. A glazier and professional musician, he is contagiously optimistic and compulsively friendly. Rose is more reserved, but highly curious. She grew up in Spain and Paris and speaks several languages. They describe themselves as "idealistic". "We have always been interested in trying to come back to what seemed like a more natural, sustainable, fulfilling way of life," Rose tells me.


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Surviving a religious cultPlaying in 2 ...Don't Play


Thought control and brutally strict discipline were among the things Rosemary Ilich and her family survived inside a religious cult.


On that day in 1996, however, the couple were at a crossroads. They had just returned from two years in Spain during which they had struggled to find work. Now they were back in Sydney, living in an apartment in Coogee that belonged to Mark's brother. "We weren't exactly desperate, but we were at a loose end," Rose says. "We were hungry to make friends, to have a stable social life. I'd come to the conclusion that I didn't care who people were, I was just going to take them as they are."

After a while on the grass, Mark got up to walk around. Half an hour later he returned, clutching a pamphlet entitled A Brotherhood of Man. A friendly woman in a long dress with long hair had given it to him, saying, "You look like you need a home."

Sydney couple Rosemary Ilich aka Rose Ilich and Mark Ilich who spent 14 years with the Twelve Tribes religious cult. Hair & make-up - WAYNE CHICK SMH GOOD WEEKEND Picture by TIM BAUER GW131214Photo: Tim Bauer
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The pamphlet was produced by a group called the Twelve Tribes. "Where is the brotherhood of man that John Lennon imagined in his song?" it asked. "Where are the dreamers who have given up their possessions so that greed and hunger could be done away?"

The pamphlet mentioned Jesus, "the ultimate dreamer", who was referred to by his Hebrew name, Yahshua; it also quoted the Bible. But it rejected mainstream Christianity, denouncing it as "the whore spoken of in Revelations".

All this appealed to the Ilich family. "I'd always condemned the mainstream church," says Rose. "We'd also visited a few communes in Europe.

I said to Mark, 'If these guys are what they proclaim to be, this could be the community we're looking for.' "

Higher calling … (from left) Abraham, Lebana, Mark, Rose and Undila Ilich at Katoomba in 2001.



A few days later, Rose called the number on the pamphlet and spoke to a woman called Shomrah, who invited them to visit the group at Peppercorn Creek Farm, a nine-hectare property it owns near Picton, south-west of Sydney.

The Iliches drove down that Friday, arriving at 7pm, in time for the evening gathering. They were greeted by a man with a long beard called Asher. (Asher's real name was Andrew McLeod, but like all members of the Twelve Tribes he had, upon joining the community, been given a Hebrew name.) Asher showed them to a guest room in the main farmhouse, where they left their bags. He then took them to a big tent full of people dressed in simple clothes. There were lounges and chairs and tables set with flowers and candles. There was music, too, a piano and an accordion, and beautiful, home-cooked food.

Retreating ... The Ilich family in hiding in Leura in 2002, during a visit by Rose’s family.

"I remember everyone was super interested in us," Mark says. "There was a guy called Yotham, who stayed with us all night, who was always telling me, 'I really like you, you seem like a really nice guy.' It was like we were part of an instant family."

Mark and Rose and the kids stayed that night and the next day and the night after that. In the morning they drove back to Coogee, got changed and went to the Glebe Street Fair, where the Twelve Tribes had a cafe stall similar to the one at Newtown. Yotham was there, with some of the musicians. Members of the group were dancing and they invited Mark and Rose to dance, too. "We are a family and you can be part of it," Yotham told Rose, as they spun about in the sunshine. "We can go grey together; our children will marry each other."



Cult following … a young Eugene Spriggs, also known as Yoneq, the American founder of the Twelve Tribes.

Rose and Mark were sold.

One of the first things the Iliches did was return to their flat in Coogee, accompanied by one of the community's "elders", a man named Israel. Israel told them what to keep and what to throw away. Most of their possessions - the kids' clothes, Mark's surfboard, books, toys - had a "spirit" about them and were deemed unsuitable. The Iliches had a small car, which they gave to the community, and some money in the bank, which they also handed over.

We are family … Rose’s sister and brother, Cathy and Henry Cruzado, in Sydney with cult buster Raphael Aron in 2002.

In January 1997 they were baptised, or "washed for their sins", in the creek that runs behind the farm, and given new names: Mark became Qatan ("childlike", in Hebrew); Rose became Asarelah (meaning "virtuous"). There were about 70 people in the community, including a dozen or so families, some of them second generation. "That's one of the things that attracted me," Rose says. "I thought, well, people have grown up here and decided to stay, so it must be good."



The Twelve Tribes group was founded in 1972, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by a former high school guidance counsellor and carnival showman called Eugene Spriggs, known in the movement as "Yoneq". The group has 3000 members worldwide, with communities in the USA, Canada, France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Germany and England. The Australian "tribe" was established in the early 1990s by an American named Scott Sczarnecki (who has since left), and William Nunally, or Nun (pronounced Noon), another American who remains a senior figure at Peppercorn Creek Farm.

Moving on … The Ilich family in Galston, Sydney, in 2007.

Following a hybrid of Judaism and Christianity, the group's aim is to re-create the 12 tribes of Israel, thereby ushering in the return of Yahshua, who will arrive like a "King coming for his bride when she is fully prepared for Him". Members use the Old Testament as a blueprint for their lives. The insistence on communal living, hard work and, most controversially, harsh child discipline, are all modelled on life in "the first church of Jerusalem", before the advent of the clergy, which the group abhors. Marriage outside the Tribes is forbidden, with elders and even Yoneq himself acting as matchmaker.

The group has been likened to the Amish, with whom they share some similarities, particularly in regard to marriage and modern technology. Wives must submit to their husbands, and are encouraged to have at least seven children. Condoms and the pill are forbidden. Mainstream medical care is likewise shunned, something observers have linked to what appears to be a higher than normal rate of stillbirths. (Rose had a stillbirth in 2001 and says she knew of five in her time at Picton.)

Staying on … Erez and Undila in 2010, about the time of their wedding.



Community life is strictly regimented. Members rise at 6am (except on Saturday, the Sabbath, when they rise at 7am), woken by a blast of the "shofar", or ram's horn. There is a morning gathering, or "minchah", at 7am, which includes prayers and singing, followed by work, either in the farmhouse, kitchen or fields. (One of Mark's first jobs was to tend the farm's 30-strong flock of merino sheep.) The community also operates many businesses, including bakeries, cafes, house painting and demolition crews, to which Mark, and later, his son Abraham found themselves assigned. Children, meanwhile, are home-schooled using specially approved texts printed on site. There is no TV, internet, magazines, newspapers or radio. Members are discouraged from contacting former friends or family and do not vote.

Mark and Rose weren't particularly religious, but they were impressed by the group's commitment and the sense of the farm being "one big family". "One of their teachings is to 'Take counsel from the least', meaning everyone is listened to," Rose says.

A different life ... Rose Ilich today, happier away from the Twelve Tribes religious cult.Photo: Tim Bauer. Hair & make-up: Wayne Chick

Early on, Mark and Rose were each assigned a "shepherd", a senior member whose spiritual insight enabled them to act as a mentor. "My shepherd was a woman called Bakhirah," Rose says. "If I had any problems in my marriage, any concerns or troubles, I'd go to her and open up."

And there was a lot to open up about. The teachings, some of which come from the Bible and others from Yoneq, stress the deep iniquity of the outside world, a dark place in which the only light is one's conscience. Failing to follow your conscience inevitably sees one consigned for eternity to the "Lake of Fire". Members are encouraged to "renew your mind" - a phrase from the apostle Peter - and to be "an open book before your brethren", always "sharing" your sins, either with the elders, your shepherd, or at the gatherings.



The Iliches' sins were considerable. Rose, for example, had slept with men before getting married; she had also "rebelled" against her mother. Mark, meanwhile, had played drums in a rock band ("I had a 'drum spirit', apparently," he says). He had also surfed and smoked marijuana. "They present a very high standard," Rose says. "It's all you hear, all the time, and so you start judging yourself by this standard. Your thinking becomes very black and white. At the same time, they present themselves as the only way to truly obey God, whose spirit they embody. So if you disagree with the elders or your shepherd, you're disagreeing with God himself."

The pressure to confess was considerable. If just one member held back, God could not answer anyone's prayers that day. And so Rose would scour her mind daily for any hint of sin. "In the end you run out of things and your mind invents trouble." She also began examining Mark's conduct. "They told me Mark was 'worthless' because he'd been seeking 'worth' through other things, like performing music. In the past I'd thought his music was beautiful; now I started to see it as a sign of weakness."

Rose became suspicious of Mark, thinking he was "full of sin that he wasn't confessing". At the end of each gathering, having tendered their transgressions "like a lamb to God", the group would join hands and engage in a screaming session that lasted several minutes. "At the time it felt therapeutic," she says.

Mark and Rose were under the impression the group's teachings were drawn from the Bible. In fact, the majority come from the group's founder. Spriggs, 76, is a mysterious figure: a former football player, boxer and soldier, a charismatic evangelist whose rejection of "rote religion" in the 1970s proved popular with the "Jesus freaks" of the counterculture. Though initially predicated on an open-door policy - there was "no leader", and everyone was a "priest" - his movement has become increasingly fundamentalist and authoritarian.

"Spriggs regards himself as the Anointed One, with a direct pipeline to God," says David Pike, an ex-member of one the group's tribes, Manasseh, in the US. "He comes off as loving but is the perfect picture of a narcissistic cult leader. One thing I'll always remember is what he used to call a 'spirit check', when he'd come up behind a male disciple and slap his back as hard as he could and wait to see the person's reaction, whether he winced or jumped or brought his fists up. I hated it."



Spriggs is thought to live mostly in Hiddenite, in North Carolina, in an antebellum mansion the group bought in 2006. But he also travels a lot, flying from community to community, his every word transcribed into "teachings" (or "the anointing") which are published in Intertribal News, the movement's in-house newsletter.

Spriggs's teachings, some of which are withheld until members are deemed capable of "receiving" them, are frequently bizarre. He has said that "submission to whites is the only condition by which blacks will be saved" and that Martin Luther King was "filled with all manner of evil". (The group denies it is racist, pointing out that they have high-profile black members in America.)

The teachings are also minutely prescriptive, shaping every aspect of members' lives. Spriggs insists that men wear beards, since it was only the Romans who started shaving. He forbids wristwatches, which he considers a vanity, and has decreed that all members eat with chopsticks in order to speed the group's movement into Asia. Diet is strictly regulated: no sugar, chocolate, coffee or tea, with plenty of flax seed, whole grains and millet, and an emphasis on cultured foods, like yoghurt and kombucha. "At one stage chilli was strictly prohibited," Rose says. "Then it was permitted again."

All Twelve Tribes members are instructed to finish their showers with a cold rinse, which Spriggs believes boosts the production of white blood cells. When Rose asked her shepherd how cold it had to be, she was told: " 'Straight cold, even in winter, for one to two minutes.' If I tempered it with hot, I was allowing my 'flesh' to be stronger than me."

Michael Painter, who spent 18 years with the Tribes in the US and rose to become third in command, has described Spriggs's approach as "teeth, hair and eyeballs". "It was thought that if God doesn't control your teeth, hair and eyeballs, he doesn't have you."



But Spriggs's strictest teachings pertain to child-rearing. Children have a special place in Twelve Tribes eschatology, which holds that Yahshua can return only when God has, through the movement, brought forth 144,000 perfect male children, "so pure that fire comes out of their mouths". Raising obedient offspring then, is imperative. Children must at all times be "covered", a Twelve Tribes term meaning supervised by an adult. They must not play games (playing is "dissipation"). They must not have toys. They must not whistle. They must not engage in make-believe or fantasy, or possess books that anthropomorphise nature, depicting, for instance, a talking dog or a smiling sun. "At Picton, kids weren't even allowed to talk to one another unless covered by an adult, since this could only lead to 'foolishness', " Mark says.

According to Mark, unquestioning obedience is mandatory: children must reply "Yes, Abba" (Hebrew for father) or "Yes, Ima" to any parental command. Any breach earns a spanking with the "rod", a 50-centimetre-long plastic stick, one of which is kept above the door ledge in every room. Parents are instructed on how to use the "rod" in monthly child-training sessions and also in a 267-page Child Training Manual, a copy of which Mark and Rose received after their first year. Written by Spriggs, the manual insists that "you must make it hurt enough to produce the desired result" and that "stripes from loving discipline show love by the parent".

"It's called 'the rod and reproof', " Mark says. "The kids are not meant to cry. They're meant to 'receive' their discipline quietly. Then you tell them why you hit them and they say, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' It becomes a ritual."

Children aren't beaten only by their parents. Any "covering" adult can "correct" them. Abraham was beaten regularly, by numerous adults, either on the hand (six strokes) or bottom (12). "The more you cried, the more you got spanked," he says. "If it was a lady and I was beaten on the bottom, my pants were kept on. But if it was a man, he put my trousers down and beat me directly on my skin."

The beatings started at the age of four. "The first time I cried a lot. But I stopped crying forever when I was 12." By then, he had decided to rebel. "I decided I would never do what they wanted me to do, unless I was beaten until I couldn't take any more pain, and then I would obey."



In 1984, alerted to claims of abuse, US authorities raided the group's Vermont headquarters, taking 112 children into care. (The raid was deemed unconstitutional and the children later released.) The group has been investigated for child abuse several times over the past decade in the US, France and Germany. In September this year, Bavarian police removed 40 children from two Twelve Tribes communities following a TV program that showed footage, obtained with hidden cameras, of adults beating six children with 83 strokes of a cane in the space of a few hours.

The group has repeatedly denied allegations of child abuse. Responding on its US website, it describes the Bavarian raids as "unjust" and suggests the authorities had been "manipulated by unseen spiritual powers".

The Iliches found the child discipline particularly difficult. Their oldest daughter, Undila, was largely compliant and their youngest daughter, Lebana, who'd been born in 1998, was still a toddler. But Abraham was problematic. "He was a normal boisterous boy, which to them is unacceptable," says Rose. "I ended up having to spank him almost constantly, for everything." Abraham soon became labelled a "rebellious element", something for which Mark and Rose were blamed. "We were bad parents," she says.

This became their signature stigma. In 2001, when Rose delivered a stillborn baby boy, she was told it was because she was "full of sin". "Mark's shepherd came into my room while I was still in bed and said it was 'God's kindness' that the baby had died, because it would be evil to bring a baby into the world with parents like us." Soon afterward, the elders forbade them from having sex altogether. "And we actually complied," Rose says.

Many times during our conversations I ask Mark and Rose why they didn't leave. "Leaving is not an option," Rose says. "You have to understand how brainwashed you become. You lose the ability to think critically."



They were also afraid. The Tribes consider an ex-member someone who was once enlightened and wilfully chose darkness, and who is thus more evil than an ordinary non-believer. "Nun told us that people who leave become prostitutes or homosexuals, that you'll suffer sickness, die an early death and go straight to hell."

One former member from Picton later told Rose how she had taken a flight to Auckland shortly after leaving. "She was terrified the whole time that God would make the volcanoes underneath them erupt, killing everyone on board."

Besides, there was little time to think. "You work the entire time," says Rose. "The first thing I'd do in the morning was report to my 'covering sister', who would give me my chores for the day - cooking, cleaning, child minding." Mark, meanwhile, found himself assigned to painting crews and construction and demolition teams.

The Tribes are nothing if not industrious. They own at least 24 businesses worldwide and are extremely well resourced, especially in America, where they operate furniture stores, kids' clothing outlets, a printing press, leather shops, soap factories, wholefood outlets, cafes, bakeries and several multimillion-dollar construction firms, the biggest of which, Builders of Judah, specialises in nursing homes and historic restorations. They also own a maté farm (maté is a tea-like herb) in Brazil, which according to David Pike, now makes "huge money for them".

In Australia, as elsewhere, members are not paid for their labour. "I'd regularly do 12-, 15-hour days," Mark says. "I built their Common Ground Cafe in Rozelle and their Yellow Deli in Katoomba. Every year we'd build the Common Ground Cafe at the Royal Easter Show."



The businesses were highly profitable. "Once I helped them carry $40,000 in cash out of the Easter Show. But I never saw a cent."

When Abraham turned 13, he was taken out of school - "they told me I had a bad influence on the other students" - and set to work, digging trenches and chopping trees. By the age of 14 he was working with Mark in a bakery in Lidcombe, where the Tribes made buns to sell at the Woodford Folk Festival.

"The bakery was the worst," Mark says. "For the first three weeks we slept on mattresses with doonas, on the ground, in a shed next to the bakery. We ate from the bakery, every night, doing 12-, 15-, even 20-hour days."

After 18 months at the bakery, Mark snapped. "I just said, "F... this, I'm leaving.' I didn't tell Rose - anything I told her, she'd tell the elders. So my son and I just pissed off. We hitched a ride to Sunnyholt Road. I had some spare change in my pocket and I called my brother, Peter, who lived in the Blue Mountains and told him to pick us up."

Mark and Abraham slept at Peter's house that night. But the next day, Israel turned up. "Israel had met my brother and he knew where he lived. He also knew that we had next to no money and that I'd be at Peter's place."



Mark and Abraham surrendered and were driven back to the community.

Mark's family, most of whom live in New Zealand, never had any suspicions about the Twelve Tribes. "They just thought we were in a nice Christian community," he says. But Rose's family was different. "We knew from the beginning that it was a cult," says Rose's sister, Cathy Cruzado, who lives in Paris.

In 2000, Cathy and her brother Henry made plans to visit Rose in Sydney. But when Rose told the elders of their imminent arrival, all hell broke loose. "Nun became convinced my family was coming to get me," Rose says.

Within a week, Rose, Mark and the three children were on a plane to Spain, where they were installed in a Twelve Tribes community in Zeberio, in the Basque Country. Rose's mother lived nearby, in Laredo, just 20 minutes' drive away, but Rose was not allowed at first to visit her. Instead, she was instructed to call Cathy and Henry and tell them that she and the family were in Boston. "The whole time, one of the Spanish leaders, a guy called Yowcef Rodriguez, was sitting next to me," Rose says. Cathy was upset and cancelled her flights. But Henry decided to go anyway, visiting the community in Picton, where he was served tea and cake "by robotic looking ladies wearing large skirts".

"I talked to the leader," says Henry. "He was courteous and charming until I asked him his reasons for hiding my sister, when he laughed in my face and replied that he had no idea of Rose's whereabouts."



Henry would make a total of five trips to Australia over the next decade, often with Cathy. They contacted Matthew Klein, an ex-Twelve Tribes member, for help and worked with Melbourne cult buster Raphael Aron. "I travelled 100,000 kilometres and saw my sister once, for a total of 10 minutes," Henry says. "It was in 2004 and Rose had finally agreed to meet me at Peppercorn Creek Farm."

Henry had brought a rolled poster of the Cruzado family tree since the 16th century, to show Rose that she already had a family. But Rose rebuffed him. "I was scared stiff of Henry, because the elders had been saying he was part of an anti-cult movement and that he'd kidnap me and the kids."

The minute Henry appeared, Abraham and his sisters were whisked away by an elder and hidden in the roof of the main building. "I was devastated," Abraham later recalled, "because I knew I'd just missed the best and perhaps the last chance to escape."

Dodging Rose's family was surprisingly easy: whenever Henry showed up, the family would simply be shuffled between a network of properties - an apartment in Leura, a house in Burwood, a hotel in Lithgow. At one stage the Tribes rented them a bungalow near Parramatta, then a house on the beach in Coledale, and later a home at Seven Mile Beach, near Gerroa. The elders were so paranoid about Rose's family finding them that they wouldn't allow Mark to renew his New Zealand driving licence. "They thought the authorities might use it to track us," Mark says.

Mark enjoyed living at Gerroa; for one thing, it meant he wasn't slaving his guts out. It also meant he could go surfing again. "I'd found this board in the rubbish and repaired it," he says.



But one day, when Mark and Abraham were out in the surf, some elders paid a surprise visit. "Man, were they angry," says Mark.

The elders took the family back to the farm where they staged a meeting or "cohol", interrogating Mark for five hours. "They just hammered me," he says. "They were quoting verses from the Bible, telling me I 'loved the world', and that anyone who 'loves the world would lose their life'. "

Their solution was to split up the family, sending Mark and Abraham away, firstly to Katoomba, then to Bargo, while the women stayed on the farm. "Rose was allowed to visit me from time to time," says Mark, "so that I could see Lebana, who was still only little."

Throughout the mid 2000s, Mark and Abraham were allowed to come back to the farm from time to time to reintegrate. But Abraham would invariably do something "worldly" - cut his hair, smoke a cigarette, wear his trousers low - and be reprimanded. Then, when Abraham turned 15, the elders asked if he would like to "get washed", or baptised. "You can all get f...ed," he told them. "The elders almost had a heart attack," Mark says. "After that, they sent us away again, to this farm they own in Bigga."

The property, near Crookwell in the NSW southern highlands, was 460 hectares, with no power, water or house. "We just lived in this shed," Mark says. "Drank rainwater off the roof. They put a phone on for us and gave us gas cylinders to cook with. And every few weeks, Rose would visit." Their job was to chop wood, which was taken to Picton for heating. But Mark was increasingly disillusioned. "I was just so pissed off by then. Rose was in turmoil, too."



Then, in 2009, the elders sent Mark and Abraham to New Zealand. "They just wanted us out," he says. "So they gave me a couple of hundred dollars and said, 'Your New Zealand family can look after you.' "

It was in Auckland that Mark finally decided to leave the group. "I rang Rose and said, 'I think I'm leaving.' She said, 'My life is with you, I'll come with you.' "

Mark had the family sent over, ostensibly just to visit. Once there, he told them of his decision. Abraham was thrilled: "That's the best thing you've ever told me," he said. But Undila was devastated. She didn't want to leave, and began crying. She was due to marry Erez, a young man who had been sent over from the community in France. So Mark let her return. "That was the stupidest thing I ever did," he says now.

The family spent a year in Auckland before returning to Sydney. "We wanted to be closer to Undila," Mark says of the decision to return. "At that stage we thought we might have a chance of maintaining contact."

But they were wrong. Undila, who had a daughter in 2011, has made it clear she wants nothing to do with her family. "When you ring her she says doesn't want to talk to us," Mark says. "When you go there, her husband comes to the gate and says, 'Look, I told you, you're not allowed here. Don't come here.' The last time we went there, Rose got very emotional. She was crying. Our little granddaughter was there, and a couple of elders came up to cover the situation."



Mark and Rose now live in the Blue Mountains, with Lebana and Abraham, and are slowly putting their lives back together. Mark works in maintenance and has got back into surfing and music. He plays drums in a band called the Fabulous Shapelles and gives drum lessons at home. "I'm 53 years old, but it feels like I'm 21," he says. "It's like I'm starting over again, because you come out with nothing."

Rose works as a cleaner. "It's a bit of a disappointment to my family," she says. "I don't want to spend my life being a cleaner."

She has read about mind control, trying to come to terms with her experience. "When I look back, I can't believe it all happened. It's so bizarre. It's like I became a completely different person."

In the cult, she notes, they decide who has the right to exist and who does not. "But here we are," she says. "We still exist. That's something."

- The Twelve Tribes was approached by Good Weekend, but declined to comment.



This article originally appeared in Good Weekend. Find Good Weekend on facebook at facebook.com/GoodWeekendMagazine

Visiting the Cafe That's So Good You Forget it's Run By a Cult - VICE

Visiting the Cafe That's So Good You Forget it's Run By a Cult - VICE

Visiting the Cafe That's So Good You Forget it's Run By a Cult

Katoomba's Yellow Deli is owned and operated by the Twelve Tribes. Amongst other things they're about "producing an army of 144,000 male virgins, who would prepare the way for Christ's second coming."

ByMaddison Connaughton andJames Courtney

Sep 27 2017, 8:33am



Katoomba is a strange place. Probably the best description I've heard is that it has "a strong Twin Peaks vibe." It's a small town, surrounded by the beauty of the Blue Mountains, seemingly populated by busloads of camera-clutching tourists and backpackers with white boy dreads. It's the kind of place where the local store sells jackets like like:


All images by authors unless otherwise stated

But Katoomba is also home to a cult. Well, at least that's what an American tourist tells us. He describes the group as "Amish Jewish" and says they started in the US back in the 70s. For the life of him though he can't remember what they are called.

So we ask a tour guide at the local information centre whether this so-called cult has a name. "Which one?" he replies, explaining the Blue Mountains are filled with cults. There's the Exclusive Brethren, who build windowless churches; and an alleged sect of nuns who've isolated themselves from the outside world.

"I think you're talking about the Twelve Tribes though," he says. "They run a cafe in the town called the Yellow Deli." Look out for the "hipsters," the guide advises—beards, flannel shirts, artisanal food. 

"Great food, terrible service," he adds, chuckling at his hipster joke as he walks away.


We have arrived

Scrolling through the Yellow Deli's Google reviews, this seems to be the general consensus. Everyone clearly loved the "delicious home cooked meals" and the interior, which has a "Middle Earth feel to it," a "Hobbit house IRL" if you will. But of the more than 100 reviews, there's only one mentions that the cafe is run by the Twelve Tribes.

"We left before we received our food when we realised this cafe is owned by a group that is part of the Twelve Tribes cult," it reads. "They practice child labour, beating their children with rods, splitting up families, sheltering members from the outside world, and antisemitism. I would strongly urge you to give your money to one of the many other fine cafes in Katoomba, where your money will not fund a cult."


How could so many people just ignore that this cafe was being run by a really controversial religious sect? Could the food really be that good? We decided we had to check it out ourselves.


Welcome to the Yellow Deli

The Yellow Deli is on Katoomba's main street. We arrive around noon and the place is buzzing. Inside, women deliver plates of food and tea from the pass to tables—all of them wearing harem pants with long braids trailing down their backs. The men wear their hair long too. The tour guide was kind of right: thick beards, lots of flannel.

A man approaches with a broad smile and sits us in a booth by the door. His name is Justin, and he's the cafe manager. The first surprise is how upfront he is about the Twelve Tribes. We'd thought it'd be very smoke and mirrors, but Justin floods us with information before we've even ordered.

Handing us samples of the cafe's signature "green drink," Justin tells us there are around 100 people in their community, all living together. They have a farm in Picton, about a hour and 45 minutes south-east of Katoomba. Everybody works: some in the cafe, some at the farm, others teaching the children who are all homeschooled. Members of the Twelve Tribes don't vote, they don't drink or smoke, and the don't watch TV. "We do have a computer," Justin tells us. Some people use it a lot, he admits.


Green Drink: tastes like giving up your world possessions

But the internet is a pretty fraught place for the Twelve Tribes. It abounds with accounts from scarred escapees, children who grew up at the mercy of the group's strict doctrine—a strange mix of Christian fundamentalism and 70s counterculture.

A few years ago, former members Mark and Rosemary Ilich did a tell all with the Sydney Morning Herald about their time living in the Blue Mountains community. When they joined the Twelve Tribes, the couple handed over all of their worldly possessions to the group. They also handed over the discipline of their children, who Mark and Rosemary allege were routinely hit with a wooden rod by any adult in the community if they misbehaved.


Some reading materials our waiter gave us

"It's called 'the rod and reproof,'" Mark told the paper. "The kids are not meant to cry. They're meant to 'receive' their discipline quietly. Then you tell them why you hit them and they say, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' It becomes a ritual."

His face souring only momentarily, Justin tells us everybody has a blog today and people can say anything they want on the internet. Then he takes our order.


The Yellow Deli's menu

We go with the Garden Burger on a homemade Kaiser roll and a Reuben, which has received a lot of love in Google reviews. While we're waiting Justin suggests a pot of yerba mate, a tea that's popular throughout Central and South America. "It helps your focus," he says, explaining the group is big on things that help centre your mind.

This mix of religious piety and what can't really escape the definition of "clean eating" that defines the Twelve Tribes is curious, but it dates back to the group's founding in 1972. What's now more than 3,000 members around the world can be traced to a single bible study group that was started by former high school teacher Gene Spriggs in Chattanooga, Tennessee.


Circle dancing is common within the Twelve Tribes. 

Image viaTwelve Tribes
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Spriggs—who goes by a Hebrew name now, as all Tribe members do—is known Yoneq. He is a divisive figure. Writing for Pacific Standard, Julia Scheeres reported that in the late 1970s Spriggs "began to preach that blacks were destined to be slaves, homosexuals 'deserved the death penalty,' and women—who weren't allowed to use birth control—had to atone for Eve's original sin by giving birth without painkillers."

Then there's the name: the Twelve Tribes reflects the group's belief they are recreating the 12 ancient tribes of Israel. Its goal, Scheeres writes, is to "produce an army of 144,000 male virgins, who would prepare the way for Christ's second coming."

But the mate tea is great.


I'm drinking a tea. Refreshing!

Despite the reviews of slow service, our food arrives quickly, in those wicker baskets that were very on-trend in 2013. By now the Yellow Deli is heaving with people, regulars chatting with the staff, busy locals taking lunch to go. The burger comes with a cup of pumpkin soup, and the Reuben with a side of pickles.


James tucking into the Yellow Deli's famed Reuben

James says: After Justin sufficiently tore my lifestyle decisions apart (read: selfies, drinking, working for a bank), I felt an act of defiance was the only gesture that could possibly tip the scales—which were no doubt hand carved from responsibly sourced wood—back in my favour. It felt good to order a meaty Reuben from our definitely vegan waiter.

It tasted good to eat too: Gentle heat from American mustard, slices of tender beef, and sweet, sweet sauerkraut. Around 20 minutes after eating though I suddenly became so tired I convinced myself I had been poisoned or fed loads of sleepers. But no, I was just full*

*and overwhelmed, having been invited to visit "the community" for an evening of acoustic guitars and dancing.



Maddison says: Way too often vegan burgers taste like wet packing pellets. Burger chefs, it seems, somehow missed the millions of articles that are like, "Vegan Burgers Don't Need to Taste Like Shit." But this burger was a revelation. I think the patty was smoked tofu, which gave it this amazing barbecue flavour. The zingy mayonnaise cut right through the smokiness. God, it was good.

The pumpkin soup was a different story. It was bland, what I imagine flannel might taste like. It's unfortunate the Tribes apparently don't allow chilli. This soup could've used the kick.

So good... too good?

James says: For dessert, I had a vegan cookie which was really, honestly, very delicious. It was the sort of thing you've tried to make at home once before, which IRL was hard, disappointing, and charred. Only this looked like the stock image from the Food Network site and tasted like it had been made by a mysterious community who didn't appreciate my references to Matt Preston or MasterChef .

Maddison says: This vegan carob cookie was legitimately good enough to make me question whether I would give up all of my possessions to live a life on the land. Ultimately, I decided not to. But about halfway through I was tempted.


A pic Justin took of us enjoying our yerba mate tea

Contented and very full, we left the Yellow Deli, unconverted. It's not that our waiter Justin wasn't lovely, he was, and the picture he painted of life in the Twelve Tribes was pretty idyllic. But here's the thing... It sounded like so much fucking work. Getting up early, circle dancing, sowing crops, making everything from scratch, picking out a different flannel shirt every day.


The question of whether the Twelve Tribes was a cult or just a business-savvy group of Christian hippies didn't really matter. Neither of us were built for this life of austerity. Vegan cookies are great but so is watching TV, taking selfies, drinking too much. Maybe there is a cult out there for us, maybe those cloistered nuns hidden away somewhere in the Blue Mountains would be a little more chill. If only we could find them.

We'll find you

For more food reviews, follow James on Twitter. For more cult reviews, follow Maddison on Twitter.

The Twelve Tribes | Yellow Deli in Katoomba

The Twelve Tribes | Yellow Deli in Katoomba















The Twelve Tribes is a confederation of twelve self-governing tribes, composed of self-governing communities. We are disciples of the Son of God whose name in Hebrew is Yahshua. 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.



Links



3EternalDestinies.org

YellowDeli.com

HippieCrit.org



International



dvanactkmenu.cz

news.zwoelfstaemme.de

dozetribos.com.br

docetribus.com.ar

docetribus.com

douzetribus.fr



Please Contact us





mail_us (@) twelvetribes.org

1-888-TWELVE-T



Or call the phone number

----

214 Katoomba Street

Katoomba NSW 2780Australia

Phone: (02) 4782 9744

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Yellow Deli in Katoomba

Known for the past five years as the Common Ground Cafe in Katoomba, we've now gone back to our original name as the Yellow Deli, making our public debut at the Winter Magic Festival, June 22nd 2013.



There is truly only one way for the barriers that have divided humanity for thousands of years to be broken down in reality. It is through expressing a LOVE which lets us see beyond our differences into the hearts of others. Only then will we be able to truly find common ground. This peacemaking love has been sought by many as the solution to the world's problems. But, unfortunately, common ground has been rarely found. For without tapping into the Source of this love - the Source is the Eternal God Himself - even the most valiant attempts, by the most noble souls, seem to be thwarted. 

We here at the Yellow Deli, along with all our cafes and Delis worldwide, are striving to provide for you more than just delicious, wholesome food in a restaurant with a catchy name. The same heart that the name "Common Ground" represents, we continue to display, but only in a greater way under the world-wide banner of the Yellow Deli. Our desire is to stand together with you in that place where men's hearts can finally find peace. We serve the fruit of the Spirit - why not ask? Come and see...



Your friends at the Yellow Deli in Katoomba.

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Twelve Tribes:
Spare the rod and spoil the �
Sydney Morning Herald: Insight
Date: March 24 2008

Harsh discipline of children is a central tenet of a religious sect operating in Picton, writes Tim Elliott.

In 1999 Matthew Klein had a revelation. Fed up with mainstream Christianity, the then 30-year-old industrial chemist, his wife and two young children went to live on a nine-hectare commune at Picton run by a Christian sect called the Twelve Tribes. "I wanted to be a good Christian, and I admired what I thought was this group's commitment."

Klein sold his house and business, emptied his bank account and surrendered it all to the "community", whose members were only known by biblical names. "When you join you abandon your 'worldly name' and adopt a Hebrew one," he says.

"I became Lev Qadash, which is Hebrew for 'dedicated heart'."

But it wasn't long before Klein began noticing "odd things" about the group. He knew that the 60 or so members weren't allowed to marry outsiders or to vote, and that they had no access to newspapers, magazines or TV. But questioning the elders was also strictly prohibited. "We were told that reasoning was the same sin as witchcraft," he says.

Then there were the "ridiculously long" work hours. "The group owns bakeries and cafes and operates a restaurant at the Royal Easter Show. Sometimes you were working 20-hour days, for no pay. There's plenty of money coming in, but no one who works there ever sees any of it."

Most disturbing of all, however, was the child discipline. In an effort to keep their minds pure, Twelve Tribes children aren't allowed to have toys, play games or make-believe. If a child disobeys these rules or fails to respond to an adult, he or she is hit on the bare bottom or hand with a 45-centimetre, reed-like stick, one of which is kept above the door ledge in every room.

"One spanking generally consisted of three to six hits," Klein says, with the rod regarded as "an instrument of love, not punishment".

"One day I left my two-year-old boy with an elder while I went and worked. When I came back, I asked how it went and he said, 'We had a few problems but we got over them'. He said that my boy wouldn't come to him so he'd spanked him. When he still wouldn't come, he spanked him again. I asked him how many times that happened and he said, 'About 10 or 12'. So he'd hit my boy about 60 times in the course of the day."

It was then that Klein realised something was "majorly wrong". But such was the sect's power that he spent another year with group, during which time he and his family were moved to a community in Canada, to avoid the attention of his parents. "That's what they do: if you talk out against them, you get cut off from family members who are still in there. And if you kick up too much of a stink, they just move you overseas."

Klein finally left in 2001, and has since regained custody of his children. But he hasn't seen his wife for seven years. "The kids wonder why she doesn't get in touch. I'm not even sure where she is."

FOUNDED in 1976 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by a former high school guidance counsellor, Elbert Eugene Spriggs ("Yoneq"), Twelve Tribes now has 3000 members worldwide, with communities in the US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Spain and England. 

Australia has three, including at Katoomba, where the Twelve Tribes recently bought a $1.7 million property that it is converting into a Common Ground cafe.

Following a hybrid of Judaism and Christianity, the group's aim is to re-create the 12 tribes of Israel, thereby ushering in the return of Yashua (Jesus), who will arrive like "a King coming for his Bride when she is fully prepared for Him". Members claim to use the Old Testament as a blueprint for their lives, but guidance also comes from Spriggs's prolific and frequently bizarre teachings, many of which, it is said, come directly from God. (Spriggs claims the Lord first spoke to him while he was working at a carnival in 1969.)

Spriggs's teachings include assertions that "submission to whites is the only provision by which blacks will be saved", and that the civil rights leader Martin Luther King was "filled with all manner of evil" and "deserved to be killed".

BUT it is the Twelve Tribes' attitude towards children that has proved most controversial. Harsh discipline is one of the group's central tenets, as detailed in its 267-page Child Training Manual, copies of which have been handed out to parents at Picton. Written by Spriggs, the manual codifies when, why and how to hit children, saying "you must make it hurt enough to produce the desired result" and that "stripes or marks from loving discipline show love by the parent".

Peter Baker ("Nathaniel"), an elder of the Picton community, would not answer questions about the manual. But he defends the Twelve Tribes, saying "we are devoted believers in Jesus Christ". Baker, who came to the Twelve Tribes from the Exclusive Brethren, says no staff get paid, explaining that members "work only for love, like the disciples of old". They don't vote, he says, "because we look forward to the Kingdom of God coming to Earth, so we don't involve ourselves with government business". As for the sticks, "we have found them to be more effective than wooden spoons."

Yet others say the community is a law unto itself. "Once, when I was making some food in the kitchen, I saw an eight-month-old boy being repeatedly hit with a stick for 40 minutes by his mother," George, a former member from Picton, says. "All because the kid kept dropping a lid that she'd given him."

David Pike, a former member from the tribe of Mannasah, in the US, told of seeing a two-year-old "switched" for eight hours "because she didn't want to eat a bowl of millet, which is what they eat all the time. I also saw young boys who couldn't sleep on their backs because their buttocks were so welted and bloody."

The group has been embroiled in several high-profile scandals overseas, with members in the US recently convicted of child-sex offences and child labour violations. In 2000 two members in France were sentenced to six years in jail for negligence after their 19-month-old son died of malnutrition.

"It's particularly harmful to children because there is no one who can be an advocate for them outside the system," Ros Hodgkins, a counsellor who has treated former Twelve Tribes members, says. "And by claiming to have the sole path to salvation, the group exerts considerable power over members."

Other control mechanisms include the systematic informing by wives on husbands and children on parents. "If you don't inform on your family, you're told you don't love them and you won't receive salvation," a former member, Michael Curry, says.

Curry, who now runs a picture-hanging business in Coogee, spent a year with his wife and daughter at Picton, but left in 2001. "My wife and daughter stayed inside - they were totally brainwashed, and I couldn't convince them to leave. I haven't seen my wife for seven years. I've heard that she's living with them in America and has remarried someone from the Tribes. My daughter would be 22 now. I saw her a few years ago at the group's cafe at the Royal Easter Show, but she told me that I was evil and to get away from her."

THOUGH numerically small, the Twelve Tribes is remarkably well resourced, especially in the US, where it operates furniture stores, leather shops, soap and candle factories, wholefood outlets, cafes, bakeries and several building businesses, the biggest of which, BOJ (Builders of Judah) Construction, specialises in nursing homes. A former member in the US says BOJ grosses $US15 million ($16.6 million) a year, most of which is used to finance the sect's property acquisitions.

In Australia, Twelve Tribes has run a range of businesses, from demolition, plumbing and painting to import-export, plus several Common Ground cafes, mobile versions of which have made appearances at events such as the Royal Easter Show, the Woodford Folk Festival and the Sydney Olympics. ("They recruit at some very reputable places," Hodgkins says.)

The group's holding company, The Community Apostolic Order, has assets worth $4.55 million but claims tax-exempt status as a charitable institution. Though "members' equity" is at $2.8 million, only one former member the Herald spoke to had managed to recoup anything on leaving, and only after threatening legal action.

Each Twelve Tribes "community" sends a 10 per cent tithe to the US which is spent on evangelical pamphlets or "freepapers", and on purchases such as the Avany, the Tribes' 38-metre private yacht, which features Limoges porcelain, spas and handcrafted mahogany finishings.

"This is one opulent boat," David Pike, who worked on the Avany's restoration, says. "We used to take it for evangelical tours to Savannah and ask people for donations, until the Coastguard told us that was illegal."

The US cult investigator Rick Ross has called Spriggs a "jet-set cult leader. There is no question he controls millions of dollars. Where is it? Only [Spriggs] knows."

When Zeb Wiseman, a son of the Twelve Tribes second-in-command, Charles "Eddie" Wiseman, defected in 2001, he told of Spriggs's extravagant lifestyle, travelling by chauffeured car and going on shopping junkets with his wife. Spriggs is thought to travel almost constantly, staying in homes in the US and France.

"But the houses are always in someone else's name," Pike says.

Pike insists, however, that Spriggs is "not doing it to get rich. He actually believes God speaks to him, that he is doing God's will and building the Kingdom and gathering the Bride and the Chosen Ones to bring about the return of the Messiah."

Both Klein and Curry complained to the Department of Community Services about the group's treatment of children. "But they said they can't do much because it's hard to get evidence," Curry says. Klein says approaching the authorities about the group's work practices proved similarly fruitless: "They wanted stuff that I couldn't give them like official names of the companies and directors."

So the group keeps operating.

"There are lots of families who've been ripped apart," Klein's mother, Maree, says. "And they can't speak out, because they're scared of losing contact. They're still hoping their kids will come home one day."Disclaimer:This news page is about groups, organizations or movements, which may have been called "cults" and/or "cult-like" in some way, shape or form. But not all groups called either "cults" or "cult-like" are harmful. Instead, they may be benign and generally defined as simply people intensely devoted to a person, place or thing. Therefore, the discussion or mention of a group, organization or person on this page, is not necessarily meant pejoratively. Readers are encouraged to read widely on a topic before forming an opinion. Never accept information from a single source at face value. This website only holds a small amount of information and should not be relied on as a complete source. For example, if you find older information, this should be weighed up against newer information as circumstances can change.