Cañon Metropolis resident Andre Shepherd has lived a fragile truce with the Twelve Tribes ever since his ex-wife took their 3-year-old daughter and moved into the group’s Manitou Springs compound 5 years in the past.
Shepherd knew little in regards to the spiritual cult early on, however turned uneasy as he discovered extra, notably with the group’s teachings round race, which say that Black individuals are cursed to be subservient to white folks.
Shepherd, who's Black, went to court docket in 2019 to hunt full custody of his daughter, objecting to each the group’s racism and its follow of bodily disciplining kids. A Colorado Springs decide denied his petition, and in December, his ex-wife, who's white, took their daughter and moved to California, regardless of their shared custody.
“I’m going to attempt to combat it,” Shepherd, 31, mentioned.
Whereas the Twelve Tribes fastidiously curates a innocent, idyllic public picture when visited by outsiders, the group’s racist, misogynistic and homophobic teachings are well-known to ex-members, who described the philosophies and different issues throughout the cult to The Denver Put up for a collection of three tales this week.
In 26 hours of interviews, 10 ex-members mentioned the Twelve Tribes requires extreme corporal punishment, fails to cease youngster sexual abuse and exploits followers for labor. The Put up additionally reviewed almost 400 pages of the Twelve Tribes’ inner teachings to tell this reporting.
About 3,000 individuals are estimated to be members of the Twelve Tribes, which maintains about three dozen worldwide communities. Followers stay communally and, ex-members say, work with out pay on the Twelve Tribes’ assorted companies. The cult, which started in 1972 in Tennessee, expanded to Colorado within the early 2000s and now has two communes on the Entrance Vary, one in Boulder County and one other in Manitou Springs, with an estimated 50 to 70 native members.
The Twelve Tribes drew consideration earlier this 12 months when officers confirmed they have been investigating whether or not the Marshall hearth might have began on the group’s Boulder County property, although authorities haven't but introduced any conclusions in regards to the lethal wildfire’s origin.
Twelve Tribes leaders contacted by The Put up both declined to remark or briefly defended the group, which blends components of Christianity and Judaism with its founder’s private beliefs. Leaders didn't reply a listing of questions emailed to the group’s headquarters, and a neighborhood chief at Boulder’s Yellow Deli declined to let The Put up go to the group’s Boulder compound.
“I respect you calling me, however we simply don’t actually have a complete lot of curiosity in speaking to the media,” mentioned chief and longtime member Tim Pendergrass, who lives on a Florida commune.
The group will be thought-about a cult due to its all-or-nothing perception system centered round a charismatic, authoritarian chief, cult knowledgeable Janja Lalich mentioned. Cults have extremist ideologies and use coercion to manage or exploit members, she mentioned.
Typically, Twelve Tribes members don't hesitate to mislead or deceive outdoors, worldly authorities when challenged by police investigations or in court docket — a tactic that Shepherd apparently bumped into when he sought custody of his daughter.
“They don't have any downside with mendacity, as a result of everybody out right here doesn’t have to know the reality,” mentioned a member who left in his 30s and spoke to The Put up on situation he not be recognized to guard household nonetheless within the cult. “No matter they should say to maintain on doing what they do is what they’re going to say.”
Custody combat
Shepherd’s daughter lives two completely different lives. When she’s along with her mom within the Twelve Tribes, she wears conservative clothes, lives communally, is barred from having toys or video games and is simply allowed to go swimming if she swims laps adopted by leaping jacks.
The Twelve Tribes gave Shepherd’s daughter a brand new identify — he refuses to make use of it and nonetheless calls her by her delivery identify, which she now refers to as her “heathen identify,” Shepherd mentioned. When his daughter is with him, she wears trendy clothes, watches TV, performs with toys.
“One time, I went in there (to the commune), and so they have this little closet, and in a bit field, she had a pair toys,” he mentioned. His daughter led him to the key spot. “And he or she mentioned, ‘OK, we simply preserve this in right here for me.’”
Over time he grew apprehensive as a result of his daughter, now 8, generally had unexplained marks and bruises on her physique. As soon as, when she was 4 or 5 years outdated, she arrived for his parenting time with a very nasty scratch on her torso — nothing that wanted stitches, however sufficient to go away a scar — and advised him she’d been damage climbing down a ladder from a roof.
However it was when his daughter mentioned she was “Cham” and had “Cham household” that Shepherd sat down and researched the Twelve Tribes’ teachings on race.
The cult believes Black individuals are cursed to be slaves, in keeping with a 2005 instructing obtained by The Put up. The instructing comes out of a Biblical story involving Noah and his three sons. Below the Tribes’ interpretation, every son represents a race: one son is white, one other Asian, and one, named Cham, is Black. Within the story, Noah will get drunk and passes out bare in his tent. Cham sees his bare father and tells his brothers. They react by strolling backward into the tent to cowl Noah’s nakedness. Noah then wakes and curses Cham for mocking him, and says he and his descendants have to be slaves to his white brother.
The Tribes teaches that any poverty, unrest or issues affecting Black folks at present are as a result of Black individuals are not subservient to white folks and live in opposition to God’s pure order. Solely by becoming a member of the Twelve Tribes can Black folks be free of the curse, the cult asserts in its teachings.
“The extra males attempt to set Cham free, he will get worse and worse in his personal soul… Slavery is the one method for some folks to be helpful in society,” a 1988 Twelve Tribes instructing reads. “They wouldn’t do something productive with out being compelled to.”
As soon as, as they talked about their daughter misbehaving, Shepherd’s ex-wife mentioned, “‘Oh, we simply say that’s the Cham in her,’” Shepherd recalled.
In court docket, when he objected to the racism, and to his daughter being referred to as a “Chamite,” or a descendant of Cham, Shepherd’s ex-wife testified that the instructing was about “certainly one of Noah’s sons who went to Africa,” in keeping with court docket paperwork.
That’s not what the instructing is about, former members mentioned. However Twelve Tribes’ members don't hesitate to deceive authorities to guard themselves, ex-members mentioned. It’s a follow primarily based on the Biblical account of Rahab, who within the Bible story hides two Israelite spies and lies to authorities about it, which the Tribes sees as a righteous act.
District Courtroom Decide Erin Sokol dismissed Shepherd’s concern about racism, court docket data present.
“The Courtroom doesn't discover any credible proof that the neighborhood is racist, however out of respect for Father asks Mom to not have anybody in the neighborhood describe (the daughter) as a ‘hamite’ (sic) or to make use of that description as a result of it's offensive,” she wrote in an order. “The Courtroom finds… this neighborhood has cross-cultural values and acceptance of individuals from all completely different cultures, ethnicities and races.”
The decide additionally authorised disciplining Shepherd’s daughter with a picket rod, with the instruction that solely the woman’s mom may hit her. A toddler welfare investigator assigned to the case visited the Twelve Tribes and located no issues, court docket data present.
“The youngsters seem like wholesome, completely satisfied, well-socialized and musically inclined,” the order reads.
RELATED:“They're evil”: Ex-Twelve Tribes members describe youngster abuse, management inside spiritual cult
Shepherd obtained 50/50 parenting time, although his daughter was in her mom’s take care of a big variety of spiritual holidays and weeks-long spiritual festivals, which made the cut up much less even, he mentioned.
His daughter has adjusted effectively to dwelling in each worlds, Shepherd mentioned. He hasn’t seen as many marks on her for the reason that revised court docket order, and her early speak about sinners burning in lakes of fireside has turned extra towards spreading the nice phrase. Shepherd is cautious how he talks in regards to the Twelve Tribes round his daughter, not eager to disparage the life she’s in.
“She’s tailored,” he mentioned. “She’s going to be completely satisfied the place she’s going to be.”
The cut up parenting time labored till the tip of December, when Shepherd’s ex-wife took their daughter to a Twelve Tribes neighborhood in California. Management on the Twelve Tribes routinely strikes members round from neighborhood to neighborhood, ex-members mentioned, partially to maintain folks from turning into too comfy or related to a selected place. Separating households can be a standard tactic.
Shepherd’s ex-wife initially proposed the thought as a brief journey, perhaps every week or two, however now says they’ll be staying in California completely, regardless of Shepherd’s weekly visitation rights.
He’s having hassle getting in contact along with his ex-wife and daughter by way of the California neighborhood’s one shared telephone, Shepherd mentioned. The road will ring and ring, then say the voicemail is full. So he’s making ready for a renewed custody combat, making an attempt to scrounge up one other $5,000 to pay for a lawyer’s retainer. He’s trying into fundraising for an legal professional or discovering free authorized assist.
Shepherd mentioned his ex-wife advised him she was transferring due to “the neighborhood’s wants.”
“That doesn’t come earlier than my daughter,” he mentioned.
Girls should submit
Whereas each member of the Twelve Tribes is required to evolve to the cult’s guidelines and topic to the edicts of management, girls are notably powerless within the extremely patriarchal society, ex-members mentioned.
Alina Anderson, an ex-member born into the cult who left in 2001 when she was 14, remembered strolling in on her father kicking her mom as she lay on the ground within the fetal place when Anderson was 10 or 11.
“I freaked out,” she mentioned. “…I went to get assist for my mom. You recognize what they advised me? They mentioned, ‘Your father is the person of the home, so he can do no matter.’ Me making an attempt to get assist for my mom did nothing. It could have made the state of affairs worse; in hindsight it most likely did.”
Anderson is recognized by her center and previously married final names to keep away from being acknowledged by present Twelve Tribes’ members. Girls have little autonomy or authority within the highly-patriarchal cult, and are anticipated to undergo males, in keeping with their teachings.
“They consider girls’s rightful place is in absolute submission to males,” the member who left in his 30s mentioned. “…The ladies raised there have been raised from delivery to consider this. They've no-self value, they don't have any worth, besides in reference to males.”
Marriages are fastidiously curated and allowed solely with the approval of leaders; divorce is nearly by no means allowed, until one partner leaves the group. Single folks within the Twelve Tribes often share bedrooms, however married couples are given a personal bed room — a serious perk.
Interracial marriages are strongly discouraged, and homosexuality is taken into account a sin worthy of loss of life, in keeping with a instructing reviewed by The Put up.
“They should be put to loss of life,” the 1990 instructing reads. “Homosexuality is a capital offense. They did what was detestable, and so they turned detestable.”
Prior to now, kids or youngsters suspected of being homosexual have been interrogated and punished in inquisitions, ex-members mentioned.
John I. Put up, who grew up within the Twelve Tribes, got here out as homosexual after he fled the group and went to varsity, as soon as he’d began to undo what he described as “brainwashing” about homosexuality.
“(My dad) advised me that I used to be going to hell for being homosexual,” he mentioned. His mom supported him, he mentioned, though she continues to be within the group.
Put up hopes to see the Twelve Tribes finish, although he and different first-generation kids fear about what may occur to their mother and father if it dissolved. After many years within the cult, they’d be kicked to the curb with no retirement funds, no insurance coverage, no houses.
“I advised my household we should be ready to help our mother and father,” Put up mentioned. “…I learn a ebook about completely different cults — the typical size is about 20 years and it falls aside. Now the Twelve Tribes, they’re nonetheless alive, barely. They'll crumble. They'll.”