Twelve Tribes Communities - History

History

The origins of the Twelve Tribes movement can be traced to a ministry for teenagers called the "Light Brigade" in 1972. The ministry operated out of a small coffee shop called "The Lighthouse" within the home of Gene Spriggs and his wife Marsha. The Light Brigade began living communally and opened a restaurant called "The Yellow Deli" while attending several churches, before deciding on First Presbyterian Church. The Light Brigade, while at First Presbyterian, experienced friction with the establishment by bringing anyone who was willing to come with them, including different social classes and racial groups than the church normally experienced. On January 12, 1975, the group arrived at First Presbyterian to find the service had been cancelled for the Super Bowl; for the group, this was an intolerable act and led them to form The Vine Christian Community Church. During this time, the church planted churches, each with their own Yellow Delis, in Dalton and Trenton, Georgia, Mentone, Alabama, and Dayton, Tennessee.

Their withdrawal from the borders of the religious mainstream turned what had been a friction-filled relationship into an outcry against them. They began holding their own services in Warner Park calling it "Critical Mass", appointing elders and baptizing people outside of any denominational authority. The deteriorating relationship between the group and the religious and secular Chattanooga community attracted the attention of The Parents' Committee to Free Our Children from the Children of God and the Citizen's Freedom Foundation who labeled the church a "cult" and heavily attacked Spriggs as a Cult leader. This led to what the group refers to today as the "Cult Scare" in the late seventies. A series of deprogrammings starting in the summer of 1976 that were carried out by Ted Patrick. The group nevertheless largely ignored the negative press, the wider world in general, and continued their businesses opening the Areopagus and a second local Yellow Deli in downtown Chattanooga. In 1978 an invitation was received from a small church in Island Pond, Vermont for Spriggs to minister there; the offer was declined but the group began moving in stages to the small rural town, naming the church there The Northeast Kingdom Community Church. One of Patrick's last deprogramming cases in Chattanooga occurred in 1980; it involved a police detective who, according to Swantko, had his 27-year-old daughter arrested on a falsified warrant in order to facilitate her deprogramming, with the support of local judges. Kirsten Neilsen continued in the community of her own free will, with respect to her right not to be assaulted by so-called "deprogramming" to program a person into popular society. The group continued moving, closing down all the Yellow Delis and associated churches except for the one in Dalton. At one point, a leader conceded the group was deeply in debt before closing the Dalton church down and moving the last members to Vermont.

The move to Vermont, combined with an initial period of economic hardship, caused some members to leave. The Citizen's Freedom Foundation conducted several meetings in Barton to draw attention to the group. The Citizen's Freedom Foundation had made allegations of mind control in Chattanooga, but now made accusations of child abuse. In 1983, charges were brought against Charles "Eddie" Wiseman (an elder in the group) for misdemeanor simple assault; this, combined with multiple child custody cases, formed the basis of a search warrant. On June 22, 1984 Vermont State Police and Vermont Social Rehabilitation Services seized 112 children; all were released the same day while the raid was ruled unconstitutional. Due to what the group perceived as massive misunderstanding of the events and concerns leading up to and surrounding the raid, they began formal relationships with their neighbors. Two months after the raid, the case against Wiseman fell apart after the main witness recanted, saying he was under duress from the anticult movement. The case was later dropped in 1985 after a judge ruled that Wiseman had been denied his right to a speedy trial. Eddie Wiseman's public defender, Jean Swantko, who had been present during the raid, later joined and married Wiseman.

By 1989, the church had become widely accepted in Island Pond and grew substantially during the 1980s and 1990s, opening branches in several different countries, including Canada, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, and the United Kingdom. During this expansion phase, the group used the name Messianic Communities, before deciding on The Twelve Tribes. Through the mid-2000s (decade), the group remained controversial, with accusations of child labor, custodial interference, and illegal Homeschooling. In 2006 the group held a reunion for members and friends of the Vine Christian Community Church and former Yellow Deli in Warner Park, announcing a new community in Chattanooga. The movement proceeded to open a new Yellow Deli in 2008, nearly thirty years after leaving Chattanooga.