Members are required to follow strict rules, dictating everything from how much toilet paper a member should use to the shape of a member’s eyeglasses (source)

Practices public humiliation as a form of discipline (source)

According to a former member, most members live in fear (source)

Perpetrators of sexual abuse have reportedly been forgiven and allowed to stay in the community (source)

Members are discouraged from independent thought that strays from the leader's biblical teachings (source)

Reportedly hides children from parents and shuffles members to other locations to help them avoid criminal charges (source)

Former members have claimed the sect requires members to work long hours without receiving a paycheck (source)

Reportedly believes that it is permissible to lie about the cult, citing the Biblical story of Rahab as a justification (source)

Does not attend college, believing that it is not a "healthy environment, either for learning or social development" (source)

Most members reportedly stop attending school around the age of 12 or 13 (source)

Young adults caught kissing or holding hands are forced into marriage as a "punishment," according to former members (source)

Two companies terminated their contract with the community after it was reported that teenagers were helping their parents in a family-owned business. (source)

If a child is too noisy, members physically restrain their arms and legs and cover their mouth until the child surrenders, which can take over an hour (source)

Spanks children as young as six-months-old with flexible rods, although the pain from spanking is intended to be "more humbling than harmful" (source)

According to former members, it was not uncommon for parents to spank their child 20 or 30 times each day (source)

One former member said that children could be spanked for asking for more food (source)

One former member told reporters the cult used "scourging" as a punishment, in which a child was stripped naked and beaten with a rod from head to toe (source)

According to former members, adults routinely withheld food from children as a form of discipline, sometimes for days at a time (source)

One former member testified to being locked in the basement without food for more than a day as a punishment for taking food from the refrigerator (source)

Ron Williams, who was staying in a twelve tribes community, was arrested in 2020 after authorities discovered more than 1,000 images of child sexual abuse in his possession (source)

According to former members, child abuse is neither condoned nor allowed in the community, but is rarely reported to authorities  (source)

Children who report sexual abuse have reportedly been punished, threatened with expulsion, or told the abuse was their fault (source)

According to a former member, leaders said that they wouldn't report alleged child abuse to authorities because the father didn't want to testify in court. The father contradicted this claim, saying that he was willing to work with law enforcement, but was told by a leader not to testify because "it would shame our Master’s (Jesus’) name" (source)

After the community stopped co-ed education, around 10 boys reportedly confessed to bestiality and were commanded to kill the animals they had sex with, further contributing to their trauma (see the "Unique Sexual Practices" section below) (source)

Many critics accuse the cult of ignoring child abuse and protecting members from criminal charges (source)

in 2013, German authorities removed 40 children from a commune due to reports of spanking, which is illegal in Germany (source)

The FBI investigated the community after people claimed that the community was abusing children, but did not find them guilty of any crime. They publicly released this information in 2019 (source)

Members live together in communes (source)

Believes that a return to a communal way of life will mark the beginning of the apocalypse (source)

Believes that they will play a central role in the end times (source)

Anti-homosexuality:

• According to a 1990 teaching, homosexuals "must be put to death." It asserts that "It is they [homosexuals] who are detestable, not just their sin," and anyone who disagrees "will go to the Second Death" (source)

• The same sermon also asserts that homosexuals have the "vile" and "insatiable appetite for new (young) flesh," presumably referring to pedophilia, and that "It is doubtful that someone with AIDS could be saved." (source)

Racism:

• Teaches that Black people are cursed to be subservient to White people. Poverty, unrest, and other problems in black communities are the consequence of Black people not remaining subservient to White people, and the only way to break this curse is to join the cult. (source, source, source)

• Teaches that "Slavery is the only way for some people to be useful in society" (source)

• Has condemned interracial marriage and asserted that people of different races were "meant to be separated" (source)

• Suggests that Abraham Lincoln should not have freed the slaves, that Martin Luther King was "[an] antichrist," and that civil rights is an "evil thing" (source)

• Rejects "multiculturalism" (source)

• Their website states that it is "just not reasonable" to expect people to live alongside people of other races and cultures. They assert that this is "unnatural," "goes against the natural grain of humanity," and forces people to abandon "God-given boundaries" (source)

• A black leader praises Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the KKK (source)

• Believes in the racist interpretation of the "Curse of Ham," in which the enslavement of Black people has been ordained by God as a result of an inter-generational curse (source, source)

• The founder taught that "Submission to [white people] is the only provision by which [blacks] will be saved" (source)

• Teaches that Jewish people are responsible for the death of Jesus and are "still cursed" (source, source)

• Argues in favor of racial segregation, claiming that "multiculturalism increases murder, crime and prejudice," and "politicians who rally different races to be one are forerunners of the antichrist" (source)

Sexism:

• Women and young children are reportedly forced into servitude (source)

• Operates as a patriarchal society, where older males are considered elders capable of making decisions for the group (source)

Spriggs and his Elders said they received a revelation concerning Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and the “Stone Kingdom” (source)

An early outreach method was to send out “Walkers” to meet prospective converts through hitching rides and asking for water at farmhouses (source)

112 children were forcibly removed from the community in 1984, but were returned the same day, after the act was ruled unconstitutional. This situation happened because cult deprogrammers pressured a member into testifying against the organization. The ACLU said that this was "the greatest deprivation of civil liberties to have occurred in recent Vermont history" (source)

Ted Patrick, acting as a cult "deprogrammer," has illegally kidnapped members of the community and held them captive:

• Melinda Horton - Kidnapped in 1996 by Ted Patrick, who later convinced her to participate in the kidnapping of others (source, source)

• Naomi Kelly - Abducted by Ted Patrick, and later helped Patrick kidnap others (source, source, source)

• Johanna and Kirsten Nielsen - Kidnapped in 1979 on the day of Johanna's wedding while she was still in her wedding dress. The women's father paid Patrick $10,000 to abduct the women and traffic them to a secondary location, where they were held as prisoners (source, source)

• Rebecca Westbrooks - Kidnapped and held captive for two weeks in January 1980 until she agreed to be trafficked to a second location on the other side of the country, where she was held for a month while being subjected to psychological abuse before she was able to escape. (source, source)

• Barry Goss - Kidnapped by Ted Patrick in 1980, with the help of Naomi Kelly (source)

Other kidnappings:

• Stuart Lavin - Abducted his four daughters in 1994. The girls who were in the custody of their mother, who was a member of the community (source, source, source)

• Robert Martinez - Kidnapped by three relatives in 2015, but was able to escape after the men's erratic driving caught the attention of police. A fourth person, an unidentified "cult expert," managed to flee the police and avoid charges (source)

Members are required to give up all their possessions when they join (source, source, source)

Believes that people must share all their property in common, resembling the early Christian church as described in Acts 2 and 4, to achieve salvation and to be one with God (source)

Scott Moss, director of the division of labor standards and statistics in the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, suggested that the group might be acting illegally by not providing members with traditional paychecks for their labor (source)

Members are encouraged to cut off all contact with the outside world (source, source)

After being stripped of earthly possessions, new members enter into a sacred covenant, similar to marriage, dedicating their lives to the entire community. The men adopt a new name and modify their appearance to resemble the Messiah. (source)

Local residents of one community have accused the sect of indoctrinating forlorn youth, keeping them from reading certain material, from owning computers, and from forming individual identities (source)

Members change their name when they join (source, source)

Children are not allowed to have access to television, movies, toys, candy, or pocket money (source)

Around 2008, Marsha Spriggs, the founder's wife was discovered to have carried out a series of extramarital affairs. While members have been kicked out for less serious crimes, she was forgiven, resulting in a decline of trust in leadership (source)

Adults considered to be out-of-bounds are ostracized, shamed and “cut off” from the community until they repent and leaders approve their return (source)

One former member said that he was taught that anyone who left the cult would die (source)

Members who choose to leave are not able to tale any money with them (source)

One former member said that 15 members blocked his path when he tried to leave, warning him that there would be consequences if he walked out of God's protection (source)

Leaders have been known to separate families if they find out someone is considering leaving (source)

Reportedly teaches that the community is under God's protection and that bad things will happen to those who leave (source)