Twelve Tribes followers take pains to present an innocuous front to outsiders. They attract new members with a folksy peace-and-love, all-are-welcome message, but underneath that hollow promise of …
“The raid that happened in 1984, what should have happened is all the children should have been taken and placed in foster care and that should have been the end of the group,” Wolfe said. “There was so much child abuse going on at that time.”
He was escorted out of the meeting, he said. His brother who is still in the Twelve Tribes, Peter Wolfe, said in a short phone conversation in February that he had a “wonderful upbringing.” Logs of police calls to the Twelve Tribes’ compounds in Boulder County and Manitou Springs show that child abuse remains a concern. A 911 caller in May 2020 sent Manitou Springs police to the commune there after a young relative who had visited the group reported that children were being kept in a basement without electricity, according to records provided by Manitou Springs police.
The police reports also detail the Jan. 5 arrest of Ron Williams, 50, on a year-old outstanding warrant for felony sexual exploitation of children after Boulder County authorities discovered more than 1,000 images of child sexual abuse in Williams’ possession in 2020. At the time, he was living in a home in Superior; that home burned in the Marshall fire. When he was arrested in January, he’d been staying with the Twelve Tribes, though it’s not clear for how long.
Sometimes, a man accused of sexual abuse will be kicked out of the cult, ex-members said. But sometimes, he will be forgiven and allowed to stay. How a case is handled often depends on how much status the abuser has within the cult. Frequently, children who report sexual abuse are not believed; some are punished or told the abuse was their fault.
After escaping the group at 19, Post went to college and in his sophomore year poured out his heart in a 10-page letter to his father in which he detailed sexual abuse he’d suffered as a young teenager.In a Twelve Tribes leadership meeting sometime around 2011, Wiseman asked why a particular case of alleged child sexual abuse wasn’t reported to outside authorities. Leaders told Wiseman that the girl’s father didn’t want to testify in court, Wiseman said.
“That’s horrific psychological abuse,” Wiseman said. “These boys were repressed, not allowed to be normal kids, not allowed to talk to girls, and then when they confess their sin they’re made to go kill the animals.”“Really all we are about, really, honestly, is loving people, loving our creator, loving our children and that’s really it,” he said. “All we know is if we love one another and we try to love everybody, it’s all going to work out.
In 2007, a former Twelve Tribes teacher pleaded guilty to molesting two boys in the 1990s, according to The Boston Globe. In Germany in 2013, 40 children were taken from a Twelve Tribes compound amid concerns of child abuse,But abuse cases that lead to criminal charges are the exception, ex-members said, and many more allegations are handled behind closed doors within the Twelve Tribes.
Amanah Whittner, 12, rear, swings into the pond as Chalamiysh McShane, 12, watches from the grass as the two kids enjoy themselves on a hot summer day at the Twelve Tribes farm in Hillsboro, Virginia, on June 26, 2007. Around 2008, the Twelve Tribes learned that its founder’s wife, Marsha Spriggs, had carried out a series of extramarital affairs. Eugene Spriggs, the founder who, ultimately decided his wife should be forgiven. The scandal rocked members’ faith in the group’s leadership.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
“Real horror underneath”: Ex-members describe child abuse, control inside Twelve Tribes religious cultThe Twelve Tribes presents a peace-and-love message, but underneath lies a manipulative cult that seeks to maintain complete control of its followers, former-members told The Denver Post. This is the first in our three-part series on Twelve Tribes.
Read more »
Twelve Things to Do for Free in Denver This WeekDown-to-earth and out-of-this-world events.
Read more »
Virginia Republicans kill bill giving Indian tribes a role in reviewing development on ancestral landsRepublicans in Virginia's House of Delegates killed a bill Wednesday that would have given Indian tribes a role in reviewing development projects on ancestral lands. Former governor Ralph Northam issued an executive order mandating that federally recognized tribes be notified during the permitting process, but supporters had hoped to codify the practice in state law, as it is in federal law.
Read more »
“Real horror underneath”: Ex-members describe child abuse, control inside Twelve Tribes religious cultThe Twelve Tribes presents a peace-and-love message, but underneath lies a manipulative cult that seeks to maintain complete control of its followers, former-members told The Denver Post. This is the first in our three-part series on Twelve Tribes.
Read more »
Texas Parents of Transgender Teen Win Legal VictoryA Texas judge granted a request by the parents of a transgender teen girl to temporarily forbid the state from investigating whether helping their daughter obtain certain medical treatments constituted child abuse
Read more »
The Biggest Threat to Trans Kids in Texas is Now Child Protective ServicesInvestigations by Child Protective Services of families with gender nonconforming children are already happening in Texas and beyond.
Read more »