The Christian Cult of Child Abuse

The Twelve Tribe cult's base at Klosterzimmern near Deiningen, Bavaria

European court upholds German move to take kids from sect

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that members of a Christian sect do not have the right to abuse children and that the German child-protection agency that intervened and took the abused children into care was right to do so.

The case had been brought by four families, members of the fundamentalist Twelve Tribes sect, who had had their children taken away. A fundamental tenet of faith for the cult is that children need to be beaten regularly to drive the Devil out of them. According to one former member, daily beatings of the cult's children are normal.

The wacky (literally) cult was founded in 1972 by segregationist Elbert "Gene" Spriggs, a Tennessee high-school teacher from Chattanooga, who claimed Martin Luther King was 'filled with every evil spirit there is'. It argues for strict segregation on the grounds that multiculturalism 'increases murder, crime and prejudice'. It also argues that slavery is 'necessary'. Spriggs has preached that 'Black are destined for slavery', that gays should be put to death and that women are inferior to and subordinate to men.

There are believed to be about 3000 members in Europe and the USA.

Following exposure of the sect's barbaric child abuse practices in Bavaria in 2013, by Wolfram Kuhnigk, an RTL journalist equipped with hidden video cameras and microphones, who infiltrated the 100-strong cult, the Bavarian authorities raided the cult's base in the village of Klosterzimmern near Deiningen and took 40 children into care. According to this report, Kuhnigk recorded children being beaten on the bare buttocks with a cane for the 'sin' of not admitting he was tired. He was beaten ten times until he 'confessed' that he was tired. Within a few hours, Kuhnigk recorded six adults caning six children with a total of 83 strokes.

Children are woken at 5 a.m. and bade to stand for an hour-long prayer session, then they attend religious education before working in the cult's fields and gardens.

One 19 year-old who escaped at the age of 14 related how he was beaten for imitating an aeroplane and beaten for days at 2 in the morning for wetting the bed because he 'was out of control'. He was threatened with death if he tried to escape.

The cult's website makes no secret of their ready use of 'the rod' to discipline children and. as was shown in Germany, with no regard for the fact that assaulting children is illegal in many countries, arguing that:

In the realm of child rearing, we recognize the God-given right of parents to raise their children according to the voice of God in their conscience. It is the responsibility and prerogative of parents to train their children to choose the good they know to do. We believe parental authority is the highest authority given among men. In addition to this, as the spiritual children of Abraham, we receive the command of God, our Father, to father our own children according to His word and His way, as was spoken of Abraham:

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. (Genesis 18:19)

In other words, parents are above the law because their's is the highest authority. In a section entitled 'The Wisdom of the Rod', the cult says:

For those who have set their heart to follow the wisdom of God in raising their children, there has never been any other practice than to use the rod for discipline. The Word of God never teaches or condones striking another human being, including a child, with one's hand. Every sensible person knows that it is unwise to hit even an animal with one's hand. It is confusing even to an animal when someone tries to express warmth or affection with the same hand he just used to apply discipline. It is also unwise to spank a child with the rod out of frustration, or to intimidate him to conform outwardly. Proper discipline helps a child to take responsibility for his transgressions.

You can see the wisdom of God in prescribing a reed-like rod for discipline, since both parents can use it equally well. It does not require physical strength to deliver its sting. A thin, reed-like rod merely causes pain to the layer of skin closest to the surface of their little bottom, delivering a message right to the child's heart. The memory of loving correction stays with the child into his adult life, as he experiences the benefit of the good character that was formed in him.

It is vitally important to us that our children would grow up with a clear understanding of and respect for authority and the consequences of their actions. Discipline of any kind should never be administered in anger or frustration, for it is meant only for the good of the child. It should only be administered for actions and attitudes that the child knows to be wrong, and only after the child admits that wrongdoing and is ready to receive his discipline from the parent. It is always followed by forgiveness and reconciliation, and encouragement to overcome the things that cause them to incur guilt and judgment.

Twelve Tribes Communities on Child Discipline (anon) (accessed 25 Mar 2018)

I wonder how many abused children have been told this physical and mental abuse I'm about to inflict on you is for your own good?

But then these people have a book and a god to blame. "I'm abusing these children because God wants me to and said so in a book."

This ruling by the ECHR is binding on all signatories to the European Convention on Human Right and reinforces the principle established in several other cases that religion belief does not grant anyone the right to deny human rights to another person, even if that person is a minor. No doubt Christians and other religious groups will continue to demand the privilege of abusing people of their choice and blaming it on a god or a book, as their fundamental human right, and crying victimisation for the loss of their self-arrogated right to victimise others.

Further reading:

Luke O'Neil. Twelve Tribes: The Church Preached Child Abuse & Slavery - The Daily Beast. 17 Jun 2016 (accessed 25 Mar 2018)

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