Woodford Folk Festival Live Show: The Twelve Tribes

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

This episode was recorded live at Woodford Folk Festival on 1 January 2024. Many people in the audience would have come across the Twelve Tribes previously at that very festival, as they used to build a big Common Ground cafe by the lake where tens of thousands of festival-goers ate and drank over the years.

Numerous wonderful people have devoted their lives to the communities and the lifestyle of the Twelve Tribes. Thousands of fantastic individuals and families are truly dedicated to a way of life that in certain respects has a lot to offer. Their positive experiences, however, don’t negate the stories of those who have come out with less positive things to say. And it’s important to understand why there have been numerous stories with similar themes of harm that have come out of this group over the decades since they formed.

EPISODE LINKS

• The Restoration of All Things — a history on the Twelve Tribes’ official website, dated 14 January 2021

• Elbert Eugene Spriggs, Jr. certificate of death — Cult Education Institute, 11 January 2021

• Our Child Training Manual — Twelve Tribes text, 2000

• Child Training Manual II — Twelve Tribes text, undated

• Châm and the Civil Rights Movement: Unraveling the Races of Man — Twelve Tribes teaching, 22 November 1988

• Châm: The Proverbial Lesson to the Whole World — Twelve Tribes teaching, 19 March 2005

• Châm and Servitude — Twelve Tribes teaching, 19 March 1991

• Into Darkness: Inside an American white supremacist cult. — Southern Poverty Law Centre investigation into the Twelve Tribes, 2018

• Woman 2 — Twelve Tribes teaching, undated

• Homosexuals and Lesbians — Twelve Tribes teaching, 3 July 1990

• Lying — Twelve Tribes teaching, 29 November 1998

• Authority teachings — Parts 1-10, Twelve Tribes, 1990

• Twelve Tribes Teachings — links to teachings not meant for the public, compiled by the Question 12 Tribes blog, 1977-2008

• Taking Moral Responsibility for Your Children (An Introduction to Effective and Defective Parenting) — Twelve Tribes teaching, 8 July 2004

• Children of the Tribes — by Julia Scheeres, Pacific Standard Magazine, 1 September 2015

• “They are evil”: Ex-Twelve Tribes members describe child abuse, control inside religious cult — by Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post, 3 March 2022

• Twelve Tribes’ businesses like Yellow Deli exploit cult followers for free labor, ex-members say — by Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post, 7 March 2022

• Twelve Tribes: A Black father’s struggle to pull his child from the racist cult — by Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post, 8 March 2022

• The Doomsday Prophets on Main Street — by Christopher Dreher, The Boston Globe, 23 October 2005

• Death of Twelve Tribes founder leaves future uncertain for international Christian movement founded in Chattanooga — by Wyatt Massey, Chattanooga Times Free Press, 3 February 2021

• Question Twelve Tribes — website maintained by a former member, collecting teachings and stories from other former members

• Roger Griffin, former leader and 20 year member of "Twelve Tribes” Authoritarian Cult — interview with Steven Hassan, Freedom of Mind Resource Center, 5 January 2022

• True Stories — The Spirit of Things, ABC Radio National, 12 February 2006

• Twelve Tribes: The Church Preached Child Abuse & Slavery — by Luke O’Neil, The Daily Beast, 12 July 2017

• Secrets of the family — by Tim Elliott, Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 December 2013

• Beyond Cult Controversy: The Mate Peddlers of the Twelve Tribes — by Ruth Newell, San Diego Reader, 10 March 2012

• In Germany's Twelve Tribes sect, cameras catch ‘cold and systematic’ child-beating — by Tony Patterson, The Independent, 11 September 2013

• Frequently Asked Questions — archived from the Twelve Tribes official website, 12 December 2015

• Elbert Eugene Spriggs Teaching on Child Discipline (or abuse you decide) — Yoneq and The Twelve Tribes blog, 29 January 2008

• Small Vermont Town Embroiled in Controversy Over Religious Sect — Associated Press, 19 November 1983

• Children and the Cult — by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, New England Monthly, December 1984

• Awakening — a Twelve Tribes Freepaper, February 2023

• Dylan Has the Answers — by John Clarke, The New Yorker, 4 September 2013

• German Christian sect raided and children put in care — BBC, 5 September 2013

• Why we boycott Maté Factor — Ithaca Community News item from January 2007, republished in the Ithicans Opposed to the Twelve Tribes blog, 6 March 2009

• FBI Files Report on Founder of Sect — by John Donnelly, Associated Press, 25 June 1985

• Gems, Pearls and Diamonds – Spriggs/Yoneq Quotes — Question 12 Tribes blog, 14 October 2016

• Violence against minors or “acts of love”? At the Sus sect, an education literally “with a stick” — by Gabriel Blaise, Sud Ouest, 22 June 2023

• CASE OF TLAPAK AND OTHERS v. GERMANY — Judgement by the European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg, 22 March 2018

• Inside the CUI’s investigation of the Yellow Deli that uncovered its connection to cult-like behavior and child abuse — by Lauren Sandal, CU Independent, 11 December 2019

• Yellow Deli restaurant linked to organization accused of child abuse, CUI investigation finds — by Colie Dorfman, CU Independent, December 11, 2019

• New York: Yellow Deli's Twelve Tribes investigated for possible child labor violations — by Rosana Hughes, Chattanooga Times Free Press, 8 June 2018

• Visiting the Cafe That's So Good You Forget It's Run by a Cult — by Maddison Connaughton & James Courtney, VICE Australia, 27 September 2017

• Undercover Investigation Exposes Child Labor in New York Compound — Inside Edition, 1 June 1 2018

• State finds 'multiple' child labor law violations at Twelve Tribes Farm — by Larry Rulison, Times Union, 6 June 2018

• Children and the Cult — by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, New England Monthly, December 1984

• The cult next door: Teen shares chilling tale of alleged abuse inside the Twelve Tribes sect — by y Dave Wedge, Boston Herald, 4 September 2001

• Cult leader travels the world in style — by Dave Wedge, Boston Herald, 5 September 2001

• Twelve Tribes — by Susan Palmer, World Religions and Spirituality Project, 8 February 2015

• The Cult That Lived Next Door — by Jack Neath, Medium, 6 March 2023

• What drove religious elder to leave controversial cult? — A Current Affair, 16 January 2020

• Ex-Twelve Tribes cult leader Chen Czarnecki tells all (nearly) — Ineffable Conversations, 16 January 2020

• Long days, no pay: Twelve Tribes cult exploits followers for free labor, ex-members say — by Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post, 7 March 2022

• My Take On The Yellow Deli People - And Response (6) — Chattanoogan.com, 21 May 2009

• The path of righteousness — by Billy Cox, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 15 July 2007

• FBI investigation — redacted FBI records of Twelve Tribes investigations up to 2013

• Children of Sect Seized in Vermont — The New York Times, 23 June 1984

• Racist, sexist, homophobic cult leader dead at 83 — by Brian Birmingham, Cult News, 5 February 2021

• Twelve Tribes sect in $6 million property sell-off in Picton — by Lucy Macken, The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 March 2023

• 1375 Remembrance Driveway — Domain listing for Peppercorn Creek Farm sale, 2023

• Sect Parents in Heated Town Meeting — The New York Times, 11 July 1984

• Yellow Deli People: mellow believers or cult of opportunists? — by Dorian Hargrove, San Diego Reader, 2 January 2013

• Protect the Abuser — by Eric Alan Barton, Broward Palm Beach New Times, 3 June 2004

• Children 'spanked 30 times a day' in secretive sect, ex-member says — by Alison Piotrowski, A Current Affair, 29 October 2019

• Note From A Former Yellow Deli Member — by D. Lance, The Chattanoogan, 9 May 2008