What is life? Is it a collection of events a person goes through as they pass from birth to death? If so, then we should have no problem with abortion, because they are not truly alive.
Is life a collection of the experience a person has? For, if so, those younger and less experienced are not truly alive, but just shells waiting to be filled with each experience they encounter.
To both counts, I say no. Life is a journey we make into the unknown land that is our future. Like Abraham in the book of Genesis, we travel into a land that is unsure. We, as high school and college students especially, are busy trying to find where to place our trust.
It is this search that leads us into vulnerable positions. Such vulnerability is what groups like the Twelve Tribes Community are looking for. They want people who really don't know what they believe, and are ready to pounce on the students there. The Twelve Tribes, led by former High School counselor Elbert Eugene Spriggs, belong to a category of religious groups defined as "high Control groups," or, as they are more commonly know, cults.
The Twelve Tribes belong to this group thanks to a mixture of their advertising methods, the rules one must live by, and by how ex-members are treated.
Every one of the communities in the Twelve Tribes are either placed, or have businesses on or near college campuses. In Chattanooga, they have recently opened up their Yellow Deli on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga (UTC). They do so in order to attract young students who want to separate themselves from the troubles of their lives. TT members present the community as a group of people who's goal is to "live simply and love abundantly" (A paraphrase of the mantra quoted to me by assumed leader of the Chattanooga community, a man named Shimone). Using this, along with carefully designed "planned spontaneity," they draw college students into the community and a false sense of security.
Little do these students know that if they don't leave quickly, what kind of grief they will be drawn into. The rules, or teachings, as they are called by the members, draw a very specific map of how you are to live. People are treated to a cacaphony of contradictions to their conscience. Men are required to work huge work schedules (15-18 hours a day sometimes) for little to no pay. Women are required to stay home and are not regarded as sources of wisdom or knowledge. Children probably have the worst plight, with many forced to endure beatings that leave them black, blue, and sometimes bleeding from the back of their neck to the soles of their feet. Of course, the full covering clothing they are required to wear, combined with the teaching that doctors are evil means that such marks are rarely seen by the outside world. A blog posted by a person who's parents joined the TT while she was an early teen tells of how after enduring such a beating, the man used the balloon stick to steal her virginity from her. This is by no means an isolated incident, with investigations being made into the Twelve tribes since at least 1988, in which year 100 police officers and 50 social services workers raided the Island Pond community and removed 112 children from the communal house. Before they could perform physical examinations, a judge threw out the investigation, saying the raid was not based on enough information to be legal. Zebulun Wiseman, son of the second in command, reported that after that incident, he and another were locked in separate rooms for a month with only one meal a day given to them, as if the raid was their fault.
Finally, there is the results of leaving the community. People who leave are told that they will, among other things, become gay, destitute, dead, and in the lake of fire. For being so outwardly loving, if you disagree with a teaching of Yoneq, you could find yourself dropped in front of a dingy hotel or homeless shelter with only $100, if you are lucky. People come out and sometimes have to go through years of therapy to cope with the psychological damage. Some come out and are afraid to go outside because of the chance of running into a member of the TT, or that God will strike them dead if they leave.
I encourage you to arm yourself with information if they come onto your campus. The thing they are most afraid of is an informed person. If you find a friend is in the tribes, I encourage you to print out as many things as you can from the site I will post below and give them a true view of the Twelve Tribes. Do not fall unwittingly into their trap, or else you may find yourself without a home or chance in life.
yattt.blogspot.com
En el amor interminable de Cristo,
William R Sculley
Wow. I knew there were still cults out there, but preying on college students? Scary stuff there. You'd never think something like this could happen where you go to school, but here's the proof.
This was a great topic to blog about. Get people aware and prepared for the worst.
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This is a signature, an automated thingy that pops up when I comment, not a demand to see my blog!
Mind Control is Easier Than You Think
I was almost drawn into the cult myself, but because of the fact that my parents invested time in raising me as a Christian, I knew my Bible and was able to quickly find them out after being in. Two weeks later, they booted me from the cult.
I don't understand. Very good blog. I looked at their website. They actually have an entire section on controversies on their site. They're another one of those "multiculturalism is evil" groups.
“I hope the departure is joyful and I hope never to return.” - Frida Kahlo
I'm gonna betch slap the dumb outta you
I forgot to mention their view of minority groups. Gene Spriggs is quoted in his teachings as saying that black people are supposed to be servants and that MLK deserved to die.
Black people have no rights within the community and cannot hold any leadership positions, as they were meant, by the god of the twelve tribes, or perhaps just Yoneq, to be slaves.
They seem like the FLDS
“I hope the departure is joyful and I hope never to return.” - Frida Kahlo
I'm gonna betch slap the dumb outta you
I have a friend who has established contact with the Twelve Tribes via email and is waiting on a response to the many things that I have written of here. She is trying to get to the bottom of what they think they believe without getting involved in the group itself. It isn't like they have another way of talking to her without calling me in anyways, she's Deaf, and they don't know ASL. They will need an interpreter, and she would specifically request me for that.