Child Abuse Did Occur in the Twelve Tribes - Don't let TT leaders rewrite history

The Twelve Tribes leadership will tell you that every instance of child abuse within the Edah (church) is due to ignorant members who "misunderstood and inappropriately applied" Sprigg's teachings. One such leader told me in a conversation on FactNet, specifically, "Many people have received help for trying to apply spiritual principles without love because of the fear of doing wrong and unfortunately they end up doing wrong anyway. One cannot apply spiritual principles without love."

The major problem is the head of this organization, Elbert Eugene Spriggs is unable to "man up" and admit that he caused the abuses to happen through his teachings and example. Eddie Wiseman, Spriggs' second in command drove these teaching home and had a key role in "teaching" through demonstration how to administer them.

Yoneq (Elbert Eugene Spriggs) is the person who wrote the teaching "Execution of Justice" which I published last night. He was the one who lead by example in that teaching by telling a story where he beat little two year old Lydia Mattattall (who will be shown in the video below) who he had taken from her mother and father to be his and Marsha's own child since she was barren. They took Lydia to Europe to avoid her return to her father which a court had ordered.

In his teaching, Spriggs brags that she had been beaten until she bore the "brand marks of Yahshua" all over her body. He did this because she refused to give her thumb to him to "cut-off" with a huge pair of scissors. She finally succumbed and presented her thumb to him (to stop the beatings). This is an example of physical and mental torture of a child by the self proclaimed apostle! So when you combine this teaching with the method of thought and behavior control the group administers where members are expected to obey without question Spriggs' commands, how could they expect anything but child abuse to occur?

Over time, due to the intense pressure from media and government officials, the group has toned down their methods and teachings on beating children. And now they parade parents and children in front of the public who have been brainwashed into thinking abuses never happened, it was all just lies told by the "evil one" through his "agents" on the "outside". This is all evidence of classic thought and behavior control techniques. The Twelve Tribes should not be allowed to rewrite history and continue to spread their lies. Therefore, I publish the following teachings and video testimony to remind people what really happened in this community of fear and oppression. Watch the following video but with your "outside" eyes and remember, Spriggs' teaches that it is ok to lie to "outsiders":

Channel 5 - Chronicle


Let me highlight two key points from the video: 1. Eddie Wiseman pleads to stop the charges of child abuse (he wants the pressure to end) 2. He makes a blatant misrepresentation of the facts around the Island Pond VT raid. He says the judge "found no evidence of abuse and dropped the charges". That is not true. The judge found the raid to be unconstitutional, which it was, and therefore dropped the charges. Government officials were unable therefore to inspect the children and had to release them. In fact, State officials were acting on a warrant issued by another judge after they presented evidence that included a previous ruling by Judge Mahady in a child custody case. In that case, Judge Mahady ruled in May 1983 that the four children involved ''have been subjected to frequent and methodical physical abuse by adult members of the community''for ''minor disciplinary infractions." The Twelve Tribes is continuing their practice of lying to the outside world and attempting to rewrite history.

In contrast, with your critical thinking (reasoning) hats on, listen to what Michael Painter and James Howell have to say about the raid in the video below. But let's start with the origin of the abuse, Elbert Eugene Spriggs:


First example: Below are quotes from Spriggs' Execution of Justice Teaching:
“Unless your son has blue wounds, by this standard, you know what kind of a standard is in you — it is the spirit that hates your son. If one is overly concerned about his son receiving blue marks you know that he hates his son and hates the word of God.” No date – Execution of Justice – Page 1

“Tell Hannah that Hephzibah (name Marsha and Spriggs gave Lydia when they took her away from her father and mother) is like Paul and says: “From now on let no one cause me trouble for I bear on my body the brand marks of Yahshua.” They are blue and she is receiving her discipline. She is growing up to be that last generation, being prepared, even in her nervous system, to be in that hour of supreme demand. Love Elbert.” - Elbert Spriggs, Execution of justice, Page 4

"Hephzibah is coming to understand that she is living for her father and belongs to him. The other day she was having great difficulty being obedient to his command: not to suck her thumb in bed. Elbert asked her to stick out her thumb because he was going to cut it off. He took a huge pair of scissors and came toward her. She was terrified, but (after receiving her discipline) she willingly stuck out her thumb to be cut off rather than let it cause her to stumble in her obedience to her father." - Elbert Spriggs, Execution of justice, Page 4

Below is the eighth video from an interview Channel 5 had with two high ranking defectors of the Twelve Tribes.



Example number two of the Leadership not the sheep abusing children:

Eddie Wiseman beat a 13 year old girl for 7 hours. This was a practice the TT started called "scourging" to break the will of a child. The father, Roland Church was forced to watch this take place. The next day, he took his children and left the Twelve Tribes after spending many years there. The following video has the testimony of both Roland and his daughter.



Example number three:

Eddie Wiseman was the Elder of the community where Michael Painter was one of his "Deacons". Eddie told Michael he needed to go support his wife in what she was doing. Michael found out his wife was told to "scourge" their 18 month old baby. She had broken 25 "balloon sticks" on the baby's body and was still beating her to make her "break". This was how Yoneq (Spriggs) and Eddie Wiseman (Yoneq's second in command) were "teaching" even the leaders within the TT to administer this teaching.



I have read so many examples from other ex-members in addition to the stories above. It is heart wrenching to hear a father lament over having to beat his child until marks were left on his body against his conscience because he felt he was submitting his will to God. The guilt and anguish still rest deeply in this man's soul. It is not acceptable to point the finger at the sheep. It was the leaders, Yoneq and Wiseman that made up these methods of abuse and lead by example on how to administer them. It is Elbert Eugene Spriggs that needs to stand in front of the entire Twelve Tribes and the World and repent for his actions.

The child abuse committed by Spriggs and his followers was a horrible thing. However, the more terrifying issue is that one man, Elbert Eugene Spriggs, was able to, with the stroke of a pen, cause loving parents to abuse their babies and small children. If he can do this, what else is he capable of talking these people into doing? The Twelve Tribes Media arm has started to put the following quote on their video and printed propaganda:

"Why do the people with the "right" doctrine persecute and kill the people with the "wrong" doctrine and not the other way around?

I asked one of the leaders of the TT Parchment press this question in my open letter published yesterday, "Are you proposing, persecuting and killing Christians next? I don't mean to be an alarmist, but, coercive control groups such as yours have done much worse. So maybe an alarm needs to be raised?"

It is very scary to think what Spriggs could convince his follower's to do. He has already convinced them to follow his commands without question. He has already proven they will do this. One of his teachings or commands is that his group does not have to obey or submit to the authority of the government if it conflicts with what God is telling them to do (via Spriggs teachings of course). They refer to this as a "moral" verses "legal" decision in which the "moral" will always outweigh the legal. They use double talk in that they will uphold the biblical teaching that all government has been put in place by God and therefore must be obeyed. The disclaimer is that is true only if the "moral" verses "legal" conflict does not exist. This group needs very close scrutiny. It is very far down a dangerous path that far too often we have witnessed only after the fact and then asked ourselves, "Why didn't we see that coming? Why didn't anyone say anything? Where was the red flag?"

I am Voice - Here is my red flag:





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