Common Ground Internet Cafe

Twelve Tribes Photos - Moved from Yoneq and the Twelve Tribes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:49:00 +0000

If only the life was a good as it looks in the pictures. The Twelve Tribes is full of loving men, women and children who have given up everything to live for God. The problem is they were manipulated into denouncing their former faith and following a man who demands loyalty without question. In fact, Yoneq (Gene Spriggs) suggests they not think (reason) for themselves at all because he and elders will do it for them. Elbert Eugene Spriggs has built a multi-million dollar industry on the backs of these people who gladly work 80-90 hours per week for no pay.

New Wedding and Betrothal Photos

Additional Wedding and Betrothal Photos

Photo Album One

Group 1

Photo Album Two

Group 2

Photo Album Three

Group 3

Photo Album Four

Group 4

Photo Album Five

Group 5

Photo Album Six

Group 6

Twelve Tribes Bar / Bat Mitzvah and Baptism Related Photos

Twelve Tribes Bar-Bat Mitzvah and Baptism Related Photos
Twelve Tribes Betrothal and Wedding Related Photos

Twelve Tribes Betrothal and Wedding Pictures

Twelve Tribes Betrothal and Wedding Pictures

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Twelve Tribes around the Globe

Twelve Tribes Album 1

Twelve Tribes Album 2

Twelve Tribes Album 3

Twelve Tribes Album 4

The Twelve Tribes Early Days

Consolidated TT Photo Album

My Twelve Tribes Consolidated Photo Album

My Private Shoebox

Twelve Tribes Properties and Photos

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More pictures. If you know any of these folks, leave a comment and discuss.

Open Letter For Pilgrum - Current TT Leader in the Boston area community

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:38:00 +0000

Lydia Mattattall (Renamed Hephzibah Salem Spriggs by Marsha and Gene Spriggs after Marsha was unable to have children)

Pilgrum - in our last conversation on FactNet, you stated, "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." and then you said, "When I talk about people that have made mistakes over the years I don't distinguish between "shepherds & sheep" as you impose upon me in your response. your responses to all that I have said shows quite well that even if all the "leadership" repented for their errors you would not be satisfied in the least."

My response was, "You say, "Even if, the leadership would repent......" Again and Again and Again, I say, "THAT IS THE POINT" the leadership, Yoneq, has never and will never repent. You have to ask yourself why that is?"

The Twelve Tribes leadership Yoneq and his top men, Eddie Wiseman being one of them always blame the sheep, whether they are heads of households, elders or regular members with no special position, when mistakes are made. Yoneq (Elbert Eugene Spriggs) is the person who wrote the teaching "Execution of Justice" which I plan to publish in the next week. He was the one who lead by example in that teaching by telling a story where he beat little two year old Lydia Mattattall (pictured above) who he had taken from his mother and father to be his own child. He took Lydia to Europe to avoid her return to her father which a court had ordered. Spriggs he beat her 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) and then he used this as an object lesson of how Abram was to give up his son as a sacrifice. This is an example of physical and mental torture of a child by your Apostle, prophet and Elijah! And you all act surprised when one of your sheep, "get it wrong and administer the teaching inappropriately and administer spiritual principles without love"????

Below are quotes straight 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

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.

So Pilgrum - It is not acceptable to point the finger at your shepherds, members and elders and say, "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". In saying this you are throwing these people under the bus and stating your leaders know how to do this right, when it was your 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 misguided, self praising warped teachings.

Voice

Let's Discuss Yoneq's Statements on Race

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:52:00 +0000

The Twelve Tribes emphatically state they are not racist and even have people of color living in their communities. However, members of the Twelve Tribes are required to submit to their apostle's (Yoneq) teachings without question. The following excerpts are from Yoneq's inner teaching concerning Race and Slavery. (see main story on my home page). What is your opinion? Are these statements evidence of racism? Use the comment link at the bottom of this post to respond.

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"Martin Luther King and others have been inspired by the evil one to have forced equality. Ham is totally delivered in Messiah. If we are prejudiced in any way it is the flesh because the heart, the new heart is never prejudiced. This is essential." - Yoneq

"Submissiveness - If slaves were mistreated because of the civil war, it was because of their unsubmissiveness. Lincoln set slaves free with the Emancipation Proclamation. Was it good or bad that Lincoln set the slaves free? Was the purpose of the civil war good??" - Yoneq

"If the slaves were mistreated, it was the fault of the slave. Even if the master was unreasonable the slave was to bear up under it. This was Ham's discipline. For 4,000 years Israel had slaves. Servant and slave in the Bible is interchangeable. Ham was a servant (slave) to Shem. This is the Word. You can't break the Word. The more men try to liberate Ham the worse he gets. It is more destructive for man to try to redeem himself, changing the social order. The 3 races are to be distinct." - Yoneq
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See the entire story on WWW.YATTT.blogspot.com

Answer to TT Leader's Question

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:15:00 +0000

My response to a question asked of me by a current TT member (head of household?) concerning why I choose to openly criticize Yoneq.

It was Yoneq who said "Judge me by my fruit". Yoneq wrote the teachings implying he is the Elijah of the end times. Yoneq started the Twelve Tribes and took the position (and created the doctrine) that the Twelve Tribes is the only church on planet earth that has had the Holy Spirit for the last 1900 years. Yoneq is the one who expects his followers to blindly follow him without question or reasoning because he speaks from God. And now it appears that either his Word from God was not blessed by the Holy Spirit or it needs to be revised because he or the community is hearing a new teaching? (This is concerning beating children until you leave blue marks on their bodies) If you truly believe he has the anointing, then how can this be? The teachings are in black and white and Yoneq says "This is the standard, otherwise you hate your children". People followed that standard because they felt Yoneq was speaking from God. And whenever they are exposed to the outside world, the TT leadership blame the parents as “not understanding” the teaching.

Let's use an analogy that is often popular in the Tribes. An army is made of soldiers who are taught to follow their superior commander's orders. If they do not follow these orders, they and or their peer soldiers may die. Soldiers are to assume, the superior commander has information they can't see and therefore, although a command may seem odd or outright crazy (charge into the enemy front lines) they obey it and put their trust in their commander. Because of this chain of command, an officer who commands his troops to commit an act of crime or otherwise violation of the Geneva Convention is held responsible for the actions taken by his soldiers. The soldiers are reprimanded for their actions, and they have to live with those actions for the rest of their lives but they are not held accountable.

This is why scripture places a higher standard on teachers. This is why, I am so passionate about the fact Yoneq is leading people into the bondage of the law (those laws that he wants to implement) and additions to the law (fanciful ideas he makes up). He is the superior commander in the TT and he is accountable because he believes and teaches he is speaking for God.

Voice.

This is a discussion board - So let's discuss

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:04:00 +0000

A few questions to get things going:
1. What do you think of the song I dedicated to Yoneq and his not so merry band of elders? Click box to the right to play.
2. So far 22% of those who took the poll say they are considering joining the TT. What attracts you to them?
3. There are a number of concerned family members (44%). What is your situation? Share and we can help you. You don't have to give names.
4. There is at least one person who has indicated they are a current member. What is your story? You are anonymous here so you can be honest. Are you satisfied in the TT or do you have doubts?

Yoneq - Man of God, Deceitful Leader or Delusional?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:40:00 +0000

What is your vote? Is Yoneq simply a man of God, a deceitful leader or just plain delusional? Here a few points you may not be aware of:

- Teaching that the TT is the only church with the Holy Spirit
- Teaching that he has a direct line to God
- Teaching that he and his followers will rule galaxies and be like God (in essence, be gods)
- Controlling people's lives to the point of bondage.

Many have said that he is a humble generous man who really believes what he preaches.

His teachings are pure heresy by the standards of the Christian Church. And I know, many of ex-members (not all) no longer (or perhaps didn't prior to joining) value Christian tenants. However, the reason Christians defend their faith against the TT and the reason the TT spends most of its energy in attacking Christianity more than other religions is that the TT is a fundamentally Christian based NT cult. The TT's main outreach and draw is to very sincere Christians who are looking for a way to better serve Christ. I know they reach others and have a draw to those seeking utopia as well. But there is a reason they park their bus outside Billy Graham crusades and Promise Keepers and not the Moonies.

So if Yoneq is deceitful then would it be because he is deceived himself? Many have mentioned how similar the TT's practices and beliefs are to other questionable religious groups. Could that be because they are all deceived by the same spirit? I know, I am in danger of condemning myself to the Lake of Fire for saying such a thing. I have come to believe that is just a scare tactic that Yoneq has instilled in his followers (and in others as well) to get them to stop questioning his authority.

So I really want to know what others think about this.

Open Posting for All

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:43:00 +0000

By popular demand, I have configured this discussion board to allow open commenting without requiring membership etc. If you do not have a Google account then choose the Nickname option and call yourself whatever you want (preferred). You can always use the Anonymous option if you want. I have not figured out a way to allow open posting of a new thread, but will continue to investigate this. If you would like to start a new thread, then leave a comment under this post and I will start it for you. Please be civil but speak your mind. Thanks. Voice.