Who are the
Twelve Tribes?
The Twelve Tribes are a
growing network of inten-
tional religous communi-
ties in the Americas and
Europe. Members give
up personal possesions,
live and work communally,
and follow the teach-
ings of Eugene Spriggs,
a.k.a “Yoneq.” Believing
themselves to be God’s
only chosen people, their
goal is to beome the per-
fect “Bride” of Messiah
and thus bring about the
apocalyptic prophesies of
the Book of Revelation.
Critical to this plan as
taught by Spriggs is the
complete submission and
obedience of all to him, of
women to their husbands
and children to adults.
The children, who work
alongside their parents
from an early age, are not
allowed to play or use
their imaginations. They
receive frequent corporal
discipline from adults and
do not normally receive
health care from profes-
sionals. They are not given
the choice to get a high
school equivalent degree,
since their intended func-
tion is to produce a future
generation of children that
will be sacrificed to the
Beast of the Apocalypse.
Things you should know
“They bombard about the
Twelve
you with love
and make you
The Twelve Tribes in the words of former members...
think that it’s like
Tribes
this every day.
But in reality, it’s
not. It’s just a way
that they court
new recruits...
they portray before you join or support them
a false view of
what the TT is
about and have
Eugene Spriggs, a.k.a. “Yoneq,” the cult leader and his wife, no qualms about
Marsha in a recent photo. Spriggs preaches that blacks recruiting new
were meant by God to be slaves to whites and that children members who
who are raised to be “martyred against the Beast” should
be disciplined with a rod until “blue wounds” appear in
are deceived by
their flesh. Twelve Tribes claim over 3000 adherents in com- this false view of
munities in North America, South America and Europe. the day to day
life of the Com-
“The Gospel of Jesus munity.
Christ should set a
person free. Howev- People need to
er, people in [Twelve know what it’s re-
Tribes] become in-
ally like for TT’ers,
creasingly weighed why its called a
down with an ever
cult and why we
expanding number
need to prevent
of rules and regula-
tions that demand them from gain-
strict adherence.... ing new mem-
The devastation in bers.”
most ex-member’s
lives, and the teach- - “Full O Faith” on
ings of Spriggs, the IOTTC blog
evidence a litany of
spiritual and emo- A depiction of the Beast of the
tional abuse.” Apocalypse to which Yoneq teaches PROVIDED BY
144,000 of their male children must
-Rev. Bob Pardon, New be sacrificed to fulfill Scripture. ITHACANS OPPOSED TO
England Institute of ©2007 IOTTC THE TWELVE TRIBES CULT
Religious Research
www.iottc.blogspot.com
 In the words of ex-Twelve Tribes members...
http://www.iottc.blogspot.com
Consider before you leap...
Twelve Tribes goes out of its way to make a good
impression on potential recruits. Before you or a
loved one of yours commits to a life with them,
make sure you know what they are about. The
statements reproduced in this pamphlet came from
ten different ex-Twelve Tribes members.
“I lived in the Tribes and was a respected
member. I can’t recommend the life to anyone.
I left because I feared my child would soon be
beaten frequently by other adults..”
http://www.rickross.com/groups/tribes.htm
Jesus a demon?
“If you go in and get baptized,
you will no longer be allowed
access to ANY information
that they don’t control. No
internet, TV, newspapers or
even all academics. They will
teach you that everything,
and I mean everything that
you ever learned and know
was taught to you through
the tutelage of the “Evil One”
and that they are the ONLY
ONES that are saved. Everyone
else is not. They wont tell you
this right off the bat. They will
teach you that no one since
the first church, the first cen-
tury, ever had the Holy Spirit.
NO ONE until their leader,
Yoneq, received it in the early
70s.  The Jesus that you know
and probably worship and fol-
low is a demon. Their Yahshua
is the true Messiah and ALL
of Christianity is doomed to
the “lake of fire” unless they
“come out of her” and join
the TT. They will tell you that
if you were baptized before
you met them, it didnt count.
You can only be saved by their
baptism.”
“I’m not sure when I did accept that it was a cult, and
that I must have been brainwashed...I do feel really sor-
ry and sad for those who have been with them longer.”
http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/t/tribes/
Real love?
“Regardless of whether you
believe in The Creator and The
Living Spirit, these people are
ruining peoples’ lives in physi-
cal, mental and spiritual ways.
They dictate that some people
who need certain medical
treatments are denied and
called faithless and treated
like real burdens...Some
members’ credit has been
ruined and they are told that
personal credit is of the world
and not needed by them now
in the communities. Some are
kicked out for unfounded rea-
sons, and even deceptive, or
cruel reasons and given noth-
ing to re-establish themselves
in society.”
Mind control
“It was about two weeks
before I realized that it was
okay to go outside. I actually
thought that if we walked
down the road God would
kill me. Because community
people told me this. I was so
terrified.This anxiety became
so bad that I couldn’t walk
down the street, for fear of
meeting up with them. It was
like a woman afraid of running
into an abusive ex-husband.”
“The life really twisted my
mind. It’s taken a long time to
recover most of the way. Yes,
I may be better for the wear
and tear, but I almost really
lost my mind there.”
Racist doctrine
“It took me a long time to see
that I had been racist in my
thinking, because I had all
these good fuzzy “feelings”
towards other races, yet ad-
hered to these teachings, that
I really had little knowledge or
understanding of.”
“It makes me so angry for how
they have been treating the
blacks in the community. The
TT are so wrong with what
they taught about how blacks
are still under God’s curse and
should still be slaves to the
whites.”
A lot of them [TTers] have a
hard time stomaching the
teachings like the Ham teach-
ing and the child discipline
stuff, however they are be
“There are “quivers” full of these varnished balloon
sticks hung in all the bathrooms for easy access and
reminders for the children of what awaits them if
they step out of line!”
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/t29.html
tween a rock and a hard place,
and it’s not worth it for them
to rebel against those teach-
ings because their survival
depends on their submission
to authority.”
Child abuse
“Black and blue marks [on
children] are very common,
and if there are concerns
about outside family members
finding out (or doctors) I have
seen two different familes be
directed to spank the children
on the soles of their feet.
These were both children of
household heads, and they did
as they were directed.”
“The children are not allowed
to play with balls or any type
of truck, car or bicycle. Their
reading is limited to approved
books and they are not al-
lowed to use their imagina-
tions. If they do something
wrong, any adult in the Com-
munity is allowed to “disci-
pline” them with the stick.”
“Ask the TT what the ‘wheel
spirit’ is and why children can’t
ride bikes..it’s because they
might escape!”