Members Leave Over Lack of Medical Care & Discipline of Children
Some former members attribute several stillbirths to Twelve Tribes shunning traditional medical care.
The group formerly lived in St. Joseph, Mo., and divorce papers filed by a former member allege while there a member "was not taken to the hospital, even though she was in labor five days."
Court documents say the mother survived but the baby did not. The mother left the church.
Former member David Pike describes Twelve Tribes as "A high-control, fundamentalist, Christian group."
Pike networks with other ex-members on a site called
twelvetribes-ex.com.
He and other former members say official church policy for raising children is contained in a 192-page document called "
Training Up Our Children in the Way They Should Go."
The policy describes the church’s rod of discipline as a "thin stick (like a balloon stick) used on a rebellious child by his parents." It calls for spankings that begin at six-months old with "more pressure in both intensity and frequency" for a "strong willed child."
But Pike says, "Sometimes these children were switched from sun-up to sundown, just for being kids."
No one at Twelve Tribes would confirm whether the document represents church policy, nor would they agree to talk on-camera.
In 1984 Vermont authorities raided one of Spriggs' communes, alleging truancy and child abuse.
A judge threw out all allegations saying prosecutors were wrong.
The group was fined for child labor violations in a New York community, but there have been no official allegations against the group in Warsaw.
Warsaw's police chief and the city's mayor say Twelve Tribes has a good reputation in town and that the church has not been the source of any problems.
Scholars, Neighbors Defend Faith
Many religious scholars defend Twelve Tribes.
"To me the test is, are people there voluntarily," says University of Kansas Professor Tim Miller, who has studied and written about Twelve Tribes. "I guess I don't see evidence that there is anything that would raise a red flag to me."
Despite Elias's door-to-door campaign, few in Warsaw have anything negative to say about Twelve Tribes, but she did get what she wanted. Her daughter left the group and went home where she is currently living with her mother.
"I have nothing but good things to say about the 2 1/2 months that I stayed there," O'Leary said in a recent phone call to NBC Action News.
O'Leary acknowledged she saw a two-year-old spanked with a rod, but says she never saw children younger than that physically disciplined.
"The children there were extremely healthy, well cared-for and loved," O'Leary said.
O'Leary said she left because her mother's efforts were creating turmoil between her, her family and the church.
She says for now, she is focusing on her family, but she is considering returning to the church in Warsaw.
"From what I saw, it was a good thing," O'Leary says about Twelve Tribes.
