WUNRN
UK
CULT/COMMUNE USES PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT TO “CLEANSE CHILDREN OF THEIR SINS.”
A
UK Devon cult canes tiny children to ‘cleanse their sins’: As social services
launches an investigation, a mother’s shocking testimony lifts the lid on the
mysterious commune. The commune is linked to the controversial US Twelve Tribes cult.
Forty children were taken into care at two German branches recently. The NSPCC
has now raised concerns with Stentwood Farm in Devon. NSPCC is the leading children's charity fighting
to end child abuse in the UK and Channel Islands.
·
By DAVID JONES FOR THE DAILY MAIL
– 4 October 2013
·
The first mists of autumn have descended on the Blackdown Hills,
and next weekend one of the alternative communities who have gravitated to this
moody, legend-steeped part of the West Country will attempt to lighten the
spirits by staging a seasonal festival.
The two-day event, at a rambling farmstead near the small Devon
village of Dunkeswell, will feature such local traditions as circle-dancing and
apple-pressing to make fresh juice, and it will end with a play — a homespun
morality tale enacted by the group’s 20-odd children.
To many villagers, news of this performance has come as a
surprise. For although members of the Twelve Tribes, a controversial, US-based
cult, began squatting at abandoned Stentwood Farm 14 years ago, and have built
it into an impressive smallholding, with a quaint tea-room serving home-baked
food, their children are so seldom permitted to leave the commune — hidden down
a little-used lane — that few outsiders knew so many live there.
Children in a German commune similar to the one being probed by
social services in Devon, UK
While their baggy-smocked parents greet passing hikers and
cyclists with a cautious wave as they do their chores, and the chosen few are
permitted to sell their locally-renowned bread and cakes at markets and pop
festivals (at the same time trying to recruit converts), for their sons and
daughters, contact with non-believers is severely restricted.
Dressed puritanically in bonnets and canvas trousers, they are not
permitted to attend local schools, join sports teams or clubs, watch TV or use
the internet, much less make friends beyond their closed community. Indeed,
they are forbidden from playing any game involving imagination or fantasy.
To most parents, this controlled upbringing alone would be cause
for concern. Yet it is not the darkest trial facing the Twelve Tribes children,
as they have to conform to the cult’s stultifying doctrine.
Supposedly to cleanse them of sin and prepare them for salvation
when the world ends (the cult insists it will, within the next century or so),
they are repeatedly ordered to bend over to be thrashed on their bare bottoms
with a willow rod soaked in resin to make it more pliable.
And as these so-called ‘correction’ sessions are central to the
cult’s beliefs — a mishmash of Judaism and Christianity devised by its
messianic leader Eugene Spriggs, a former carnival showman from Tennessee — the
children are often thrashed several times a day.
They are ‘spanked’ for even the most minor infraction, such as
talking out of turn, and according to the former Devon member, Vicki (who wants
her surname withheld) the thrashings are very painful, leaving ugly red and purple
weals. The cult’s aim, she says, is to break their children’s resistance and it
begins almost from the day they are born.
As babies, if they repeatedly drop their bottle, for example, or
won’t stop crying, parents are told to grasp their heads tightly and push them
forwards and downwards — as if they were puppies being trained.
Or they might be swaddled tightly to restrict their movement.
Then, when they reach an age where they are deemed capable of understanding
instructions — which might be before their first birthday — the ritual beatings
begin.
Eventually they become a meekly accepted part of a cult child’s
daily life, so that, by the time they reach their early teens, they are so
totally conditioned to being hit that they not only accept their punishment but
actually ask for it to be administered when they have misbehaved, fearing God
will punish them if they don’t atone for their sins.
‘I want it to be clear we are not talking about the occasional
smack for a naughty child here,’ Vicki told me.
‘I think every parent has the right to discipline their child as
they see fit, and use the occasional smack if they wish, but this is something
entirely different. This is systematic conditioning — a sort of aversion
therapy of the most brutal kind.’
In Germany, the child protection authorities clearly agree.
Shocked by scenes in this month’s TV documentary, immediately after it was
screened they raided the cult’s two Bavarian communes and took all 40 children
into protective care, where they remain pending court proceedings.
Given that the law prevents German parents from striking their
children at all, and the film showed a four-year-old boy being led to a
punishment cellar and caned until he screamed for mercy — simply for refusing
to admit he was ‘tired’ — they are likely to remain in foster care.
The NSPCC is sufficiently ‘anxious’ over claims that children are
being similarly mistreated at Stentwood Farm that it has alerted Devon social
services. This week a spokesman said it had launched a ‘review’ in conjunction
with the police, and the Mail understands that they plan to inspect the
commune.
However, the 2004 Children Act allows British parents more
latitude than Germany’s, permitting ‘reasonable punishment’, and as no action
was taken when Vicki first made allegations of child abuse, after leaving the
cult in 2005, she fears the beatings will continue with impunity.
In the light of the story she told me this week, this would beggar
belief.
Like many of Twelve Tribes’ 3,000 worldwide devotees, Vicki was
vulnerable when she was enticed into its gentle embrace nine years ago. Then in
her 20s, unemployed, and caring alone for her six-year-old son, she was a
disillusioned Christian searching for fulfilment.
Attracted by the cult’s website, which promised a new way of
living that would restore the spiritual and communal values of Israel’s
original 12 tribes, she made visits from her home in Bournemouth to the Devon
commune — always greeted with hugs and fruit in her room — and, in the summer
of 2004, she was baptised.
Up to that point, she says, she had not been told about the
beatings, and certainly not that she would have to thrash her son. Whenever
guests came to stay, members made sure they couldn’t hear the swishing of
willow and muffled the children’s cries.
But soon after her induction her allotted ‘shepherd’ — a bearded
American named Lawrence Stern who remains among the commune’s hierarchy — told
her it was time to begin ‘correcting’ her boy.
‘I can’t remember what he was supposed to have done wrong, but he
was only six and it was something very minor,’ she recalls.
Beatings: Parents at Stentwood Farm are encouraged to physically
discipline their children
‘I was told he must touch the floor with his hands so his bottom
was in the air. Because he was young and just starting to be disciplined, I was
told “only” to hit him five times, and to explain to him beforehand why I was
doing it: to cleanse his conscience. It’s all supposed to be done very calmly,
never in anger.
‘But when you hit a child [with a stick] for the first time, they
instinctively drop to the floor and curl up to protect themselves, so I went to
Stern and said I was having difficulties.
‘He just said that if my son wouldn’t let me complete all five
strokes I would have to keep going back to the beginning and starting again,
even if I had got to number four, because a child who hadn’t willingly accepted
the discipline hadn’t been cleansed.
‘Eventually, my son stopped resisting, but I had to hit him a lot
of times. He had stripe marks and bruises.’
Vicki says the willow rods would sometimes snap as a child was
being beaten, but Stern’s wife, Chassida, kept a stock of replacements.
Children weren’t only beaten by their parents, she says. If they
were being looked after by another adult in the group, that person was also
permitted to ‘correct’ a child with the stick.
Today, living a new life in Yorkshire with her son (now in his
teens and remarkably well-adjusted, she says) Vicki is clearly ashamed of her
actions. But she was then so thoroughly ‘brainwashed’, she says, she was
convinced she was ‘saving him from Hell’.
Had she known the dark secrets she has since learned about the
Twelve Tribes and its dubious leader, Spriggs — or Yoneq, as he prefers (all
members have ancient Israelite names) — she might have been less gullible.
Now a wizened 76-year-old with a straggly grey beard and
shoulder-length hair, Spriggs was a high-school guidance counsellor as well as
a carnival front-man before dropping out and living as a hippy in California,
where he formed his own church.
Then, 40 years ago, reputedly declaring himself to be a
reincarnation of the prophet Elijah, he decamped with 1,000 followers to
Vermont and set up a commune, later sending missionaries to start 12 new ones
in Europe, Australia and South America: each representing an original tribe of
Israel.
They are run on the profits of a string of bakeries, delis and
small factories, and it has been reported that the cult has a sizeable fortune,
stashed in offshore accounts. Though it must be said that by comparison with
other American religious cult leaders, Spriggs appears to live relatively
modestly.
The scandal surrounding him concerns his private life. Along with
homosexuality and racial equality (both of which go against Old Testament
teaching, the cult claims) the greatest sin in the TT’s eyes is adultery, which
is punishable by banishment. According to former members, however, the rules
abruptly changed when Spriggs discovered that his younger fourth wife, Marsha,
had enjoyed illicit affairs with at least two young ‘disciples’.
Perhaps fearing a mass defection, Spriggs ordered her
transgressions to be covered up, it is claimed. When the truth emerged, in an
email from one of Marsha’s lovers, he forgave her.
All this is documented on anti-cult websites. Among followers,
however, their prophet is beyond reproach, not least for his stance in the
Twelve Tribes’ greatest victory. It came in 1984 when, alerted to the child
beatings and other alleged offences, state authorities raided the Vermont
compound and took 114 children into care.
Quoting Proverbs 13:24 — from which derives the adage ‘spare the
rod, spoil the child’ — Spriggs stood defiant, hiring a slick lawyer (who later
joined the cult) to persuade a judge the state had acted unconstitutionally and
order the children’s release.
Since then, the U.S authorities have tolerated the cult’s
child-rearing methodology, which is now enshrined in a 147-page manual,
littered with Biblical references which supposedly justify ‘spanking’, as the
group call it.
Entitled ‘Our Child Training Teachings’, the parental handbook is
adorned with happy family photographs, glossing over another uncomfortable
truth: that many Twelve Tribes families have been torn apart by their views
over whacking their children.
For Vicki, the iniquity of striking children in the name of
religion dawned as she witnessed the fear of two of Stentwood Farm’s youngest
infants.
One was a four-year-old girl, whose ‘sin’ was to bundle up some
rags (since dolls are banned) and pretend she was cradling a baby in her arms.
The other, also four, was a boy who, though suffering from some form of autism,
wasn’t taken for professional help, for the Twelve Tribes only resort to that
in the most desperate circumstances (in France one couple were jailed for
failing to seek medical treatment for a child who died of a heart defect).
Instead, he was regarded as persistently naughty, and suffered the
painful consequences. So after living amid this regime for six months, Vicki
sunk into a deep depression, the cult-prescribed therapy for which was that she
must ‘roar like a lion’. It only lifted after she and her son fled the farm.
A few weeks later she gave a nine-hour statement to a police child
protection officer, reporting not only the beatings, but circumcisions carried
out without medical training and other apparent offences.
Social services were alerted, but to her disgust nothing was done.
This week, a spokesman for Devon council told the Mail: ‘They [the allegations]
were looked into but we were unable to substantiate the concerns which were
raised then.’
Now, he said, a fresh review had been launched and they would
‘gather as much evidence as possible . . . from any possible source’ and decide
whether to begin a formal investigation.
But the commune’s elders told me they had nothing to hide and would
gladly open their doors to the authorities. Yet they were deeply discomfited by
my arrival, demanding I leave the supposedly welcoming tea-room.
But before I left the farm, one of the elders — I believe he was
Stern — told me: ‘We do correct our kids when they are wrong, but we believe
this promotes love, like the Bible says. We want to learn to love one another.
We don’t go out on the streets and tell other people how to live their lives.
We’re not closed about our methods but we aren’t trying to shove them down
people’s throats to change society.’
Had I been permitted to meet the children, Vicki says they would
probably have seemed deceptively well cared-for, having been cowed into an
almost robotically tranquil state.
This may also explain why, even as they were being snatched from
their parents, the German children seemed devoid of emotion.
So, next weekend, when they have the rare privilege of staging a
play, villagers will doubtless be charmed by the seldom-seen tribal children —
never suspecting how they might suffer once the curtain falls.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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by WUNRN 7/19/2015
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DOWN SITE TO FILM SEGMENT: http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/trailer-watch-amy-berg-tackles-cult-leader-and-child-rapist-warren-jeffs-in-prophets-prey-20150717
“Prophet’s
Prey” - Fundamentalist Mormon Sect Leader & Child Abuser, Now Convicted,
Featured in Film
Article by Laura Berger
| Women and Hollywood - July 17, 2015
Filmmaker and Academy Award nominee Amy Berg’s latest
feature, Prophet's Prey," focuses on Warren Jeffs, the former president of
the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and current convict. The
one-time leader of the most prominent polygamous Mormon sect in North America
was charged and found guilty of sexually assaulting underage girls.
In 2010, Warren Jeffs landed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted
List when he tried to flee from prosecution in the State of Utah.
"Prophet's Prey" opens in the fall of 2015 in
US theaters and will also air on Showtime, TV and online.
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Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 12:56 PM
To: WUNRN ListServe <wunrn_listserve@lists.wunrn.com>
Subject: New Zealand - Study Reveals Impact of Commune Life on Children
WUNRN
Direct Link to Full 269-Page Report:
Direct Link to 12-Page Executive Summary of Report:
____________________________________________________________________
NEW ZEALAND - STUDY REVEALS IMPACT OF COMMUNE LIFE ON CHILDREN
27 May, 2010
A
three-year study involving a group of children in Auckland's Centrepoint
Community from 1977-2000 has revealed the extent of abuse and its ongoing
effects on their adult lives.
A
260-page report by a research team from the Massey University's School of
Psychology was made public today.
The
psychologists, Dr Kerry Gibson, Dr Mandy Morgan and Cheryl Woolley, were
commissioned by a trust set up by a High Court order a decade ago to manage the
Centrepoint assets after the commune was disestablished and its "spiritual
leader", Bert Potter, had served jail sentences for drugs and child sex
offences.
Centrepoint
is described as an "intentional community" - a term that embraces
cults and non-cults to describe people drawn together through shared principles
in a communal environment. Centrepoint was based on therapeutic encounter
groups popularised in California in the 1960s promising social transformation
by encouraging open communication. At Centrepoint the open philosophy included
sharing toilets, showers, sleeping quarters, and open sexual relations among
adults and children.
The
report, based on interviews with 29 men and women, now in their 20s, 30s and
40s, looked at their experiences of growing up at Centrepoint, including how
psychological manipulation, neglect, sexual abuse and drug taking affected them
at the time and subsequently. About 300 children lived at the Centrepoint in
Oteha Valley Rd, Albany, over the 22 years it operated.
The
qualitative study, titled A Different Kind of Family: Retrospective accounts of
growing up at Centrepoint, and implications for adulthood, contains testimonies
from some of the 29.
Researchers
reported a variety of experiences, both good and bad. Participants spoke of how
their being given drugs and coerced by adults into having sex either with other
children or with adults made it difficult for them to adjust to life since they
left the community. However, some also reported positive effects, such as
developing resilience, independence and good social skills.
Potter
was convicted and sentenced to three and half years in jail in 1990 on drug
charges and seven and half years jail in 1992 for indecent assaults on five
children. Five other men were convicted on charges of indecently assaulting
minors, sexually assaulting minors and attempted rape of a minor. Two women
also faced sex abuse charges but were not convicted.
The
study authors say while the court cases and related allegations attracted
considerable public attention, little has previously been revealed about what
it was really like for the children who lived at Centrepoint and how their
experiences continue to affect them.
Some
of the key findings are: "Centrepoint was an environment which potentially
exposed children to a range of adverse circumstances that extended well beyond
the widely reported sexual abuse. Drug use, psychological manipulation,
parental neglect, witnessing abuse, corporal punishment, adult conflict, peer
bullying and a parent's imprisonment were just some of the additional factors
that may have impacted on them.
"Negative
impacts include psychological disorders, substance abuse problems, difficulties
in intimate and family relationships, financial problems, lack of direction in
education and career, fear of social stigma and, for some, uncertainty about
their perception of reality.
"Different
experiences, beliefs and coping strategies create a tendency towards
factionalised perspectives about Centrepoint with some [study] participants
arguing it was fundamentally abusive and others that it was an ideal place to
grow up. "Stigmatised perceptions of Centrepoint were reported as being
further sources of psychological distress for participants." The study
says most participants agreed it was common for young people to have sex for
the first time between the ages of 11 and 13. Boys "propositioned" by
older women found it easier to resist unwelcome advances, while sexually abused
girls - some as young as 10 - were "idealised" in the community as
"being in touch with their loving".
"From
the perspective of some participants, sexual abuse was widespread at
Centrepoint. For others, though, the way in which sexual activity was valued
and normalised...led them to doubt the incidents they witnessed or experienced
were abusive at the time," the report says.
Many
expressed anger at the passivity and lack of responsibility shown by their
parents, with one woman recalling being chastised as a teenager for
"shaming" her mother after she challenged Potter's lewd suggestions.
One
participant is quoted, saying: "What's really fascinating to me is how
reasonable human beings, adults, can suddenly alter their thinking in a way
that allows them to normalise abhorrent behaviour...why are people more
comfortable doing nothing when they know something is so terribly wrong, than
get uncomfortable stopping it."
For
some the impact on them was as a result of witnessing what happened to other
children. A woman said she felt "sick" after resisting Potter's
sexual advances then watching her sibling engage in sexual acts with him. She
said she later learnt that Potter blackmailed children into having sex by
threatening to separate them from their families.
The
study authors say the varied experiences of the participants reflect changes
during the 20 years the community existed, from its initial phase when
"open communication and sexual practices appeared to have dominated the
life of the community..." and included children and underage adolescents
as both observers and participants in sexual practices. A second phase revolved
around a greater use of drugs, and in its last years, sexual activity and drug
use declined as a result of police raids, interventions by welfare agencies and
the threat of dissolution of the community.
The
researchers were told of former community members who now avoided all contact
with other former members as a result of the damage they had apparently
suffered, which they say "raises the possibility that some of those worst
affected by their experiences chose not to participate in this research".
"There
were, however, others that valued their sense of belonging at the community,
and who miss their childhood home."
Although
participants spoke about traumatic experiences, some felt strongly that they
had experienced good things, such as the value of having contact with a wide
range of adults and children and learning more open communication, and gaining
independence and a good work ethic.
The
study's authors say that recognising and respecting those quite different
experiences was one of complex aspects of the research. They say a flexible
package of responses is needed to meet the needs of former Centrepoint children
and help some of them cope with ongoing psychological, substance abuse,
financial management problems, life skills deficits, educational and career
issues and justice as well as housing and health needs.
"The
publicity around Centrepoint made it difficult for people to feel they could
talk about their experiences," says Dr Gibson. "A better
understanding of what it was like to be a child at Centrepoint will be useful
for health professionals and the broader public to respond more sensitively to
the needs of former members of the community."
The New
Zealand Communities Growth Trust, which was established by High Court order in
2000 to manage the former community's assets and is administered by the Public
Trust, commissioned the study. It hopes to use the findings to help determine
what further assistance it should provide the beneficiaries.
Study
authors: Dr Kerry Gibson is the Director of Massey's Centre for Psychology in
Albany. She is a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in trauma work
with adults and children.
Dr
Mandy Morgan is an Associate Professor in Critical Psychology and head of
Massey's School of Psychology. She is currently involved in a research
programme on domestic violence services and interventions.
Cheryl Woolley is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology, and is coordinator of clinical training at the Manawatu campus. She is a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in sexual abuse research.