Let’s start with a journalism question about the news coming out of Colorado about possible links between the Marshall Fire and a controversial religious group known as the Twelve Tribes.
The New York Times has used that popular journalism F-word — “fundamentalist” — in a major story that ran with this headline: “Colorado Wildfire Inquiry Focuses on Christian Sect.” The read-out under that headline states: “Investigators are looking at the possibility that a fire that destroyed more than 900 homes started on property owned by a fundamentalist Christian sect known as Twelve Tribes.”
Once again, we need to talk about what the word “fundamentalist” means and what it does not mean. Let me ask this question, before we proceed: Is the “Twelve Tribes” movement a “fundamentalist Christian” group in the same sense that Black or White independent Baptist churches found in many or most American cities are accurately described, in doctrinal terms, as “fundamentalist”?
Perhaps the crucial question for journalists covering this story is whether the Twelve Tribes movement is a “sect” or, in sociological terms, an actual “cult”? Hold that thought.
First, here is the overture of the Times story, showing the context for this religion-beat F-bomb:
Investigators looking into the cause of a colossal wildfire in Colorado that forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people are focusing on a property owned by a Christian fundamentalist sect, after witnesses reported seeing a structure on fire there moments before the blaze spread with astonishing speed across drought-stricken suburbs.
Sheriff Joe Pelle of Boulder County said at a news briefing … that the property owned by Twelve Tribes, which was founded in Tennessee in the 1970s, had become a target of the inquiry after investigators ruled out the possibility that downed power lines might have sparked the fire.
With that in mind, let’s return to the pages of the journalism bible know as the Associated Press Stylebook (h/t to Bobby Ross, Jr., for checking the evolving online edition).
Let us attend.
fundamentalist The word gained usage in an early-20th-century fundamentalist-modernist controversy within Protestantism. In recent years, however, fundamentalist has to a large extent taken on pejorative connotations except when applied to groups that stress strict, literal interpretations of Scripture and separation from other Christians.
In general, do not use fundamentalist unless a group applies the word to itself.
In an “On Religion” post a decade ago — “Define fundamentalist, please” — I noted:
The problem is that religious authorities — the voices journalists quote — keep pinning this label on others. Thus, one expert's "evangelical" is another's "fundamentalist." …
Anyone who expects scholars to stand strong and defend a basic, historic definition will be disappointed. As philosopher Alvin Plantinga of the University of Notre Dame once quipped, among academics "fundamentalist" has become a "term of abuse or disapprobation" that most often resembles the casual semi-curse, "sumbitch."
Billy Graham was, for some of his critics, a “fundamentalist” — while Christians who proudly called themselves fundamentalists considered him an “evangelical” who was preaching compromise on crucial issues. Was Pope Benedict XVI a Catholic “fundamentalist”? How about St. Pope John Paul II?
The New York Times story in question does include a bite of information about the history of the Twelve Tribes, information that — at least for me — raised more questions than it answered. Here is that block of background material:
Twelve Tribes originated from a youth Bible study group in the 1970s in Chattanooga, Tenn. Since then, it has grown into an international network of self-governing communities scattered across North and South America, Europe and Australia. The settlement in Boulder is one of two in Colorado.
The group promotes itself as an assemblage of up to 3,000 people united by a common belief in God, or Yahshua, and strict adherence to the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, according to its website. Men are expected to wear long beards and tie their hair back, while women dress modestly.
As you would expect, the URL attached to the “youth Bible study group” leads readers to (wait for it) the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center. That’s a source of information that is trusted by many on the cultural left, while it has many, many critics — including voices in mainstream evangelicalism (“The Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate-based scam that nearly caused me to be murdered”).
In this case, the crucial question is whether the doctrines of the Twelve Tribes movement grew out of any specific church or Christian theological tradition, as opposed to being built on the beliefs and teachings of founder Elbert Eugene Spriggs (who died a year ago) and his wife Marsha.
The movement began in Chattanooga, Tenn., during the freewheeling days of the “Jesus Movement” in the early 1970s. All kinds of independent ministries grew out of that era, in large part ushering in the era of nondenominational churches and parachurch groups. Many of those groups were quite solid, in terms of doctrine, and others were not. In many cases, charismatic leaders — for better and/or for worse — were at the heart of these institutions.
If you dig deep into the SPLC report there is some material about the role of that infamous “curse of Ham” plays in the teachings of the Twelves Tribes:
The Cham teaching, or the “curse of Ham,” as it’s more commonly known, stems from Genesis 9:20-25. In the story, Noah’s son Ham (or Cham, in the Twelve Tribes’ Hebraic vernacular), sees Noah naked and drunk in his tent and tells his brothers, Shem and Japheth. The brothers respond by walking backward so as not to gaze on Noah’s nudity and covering him with a blanket. When Noah awakens and discovers what happened, he curses Ham’s son Canaan for Ham’s impertinence, damning him to be a “servant of servants” to his brothers.
Though the Bible does not ascribe ethnicity or race to any of the characters in this story, over history Ham/Cham has been portrayed as black by many in the furtherance of white supremacy, hence black servitude to Shem (posited as white by racists) has been biblically justified by prejudiced individuals and religious denominations over the past few centuries.
The word “denominations” really needs to be explored, in that context. What “denominations” are we talking about? Give three examples? Let’s continue:
Hate group ideologies like Christian Identity and those of the Ku Klux Klan have incorporated the “curse of Ham” biblical misinterpretation into their racist theology (Christian Identity sometimes asserting that Jews are actually the descendants of Ham and Canaan). In the 19th century, Southern Christians in America used the belief to justify slavery.
Readers seeking other sources on these loaded and often incendiary issues should see this timeline of events linked to the Twelve Tribes, care of the World Religions and Spirituality Project.
It is also interesting to note the role that debates about that Bible passage have played in tensions in some corners of modern Judaism, as seen in this essay at the Tablet: “The Curse of Ham.”
Trust me, I would like to know more about the mysterious beliefs that Twelve Tribes leaders have attempted to keep secret. Once again, it is crucial to know what kind of church or tradition — if there was one — that shaped the mind of Spriggs, before he launched out in his work as a self-proclaimed prophet.
Fundamentalist? It would appear that this label — as defined by historians — does not apply to this man. It may be true that it can be considered a Christian “sect,” one teaching some traditional doctrines while warping others or tacking on new beliefs that clash with centuries of Christian faith. We will see?
In conclusion, I think that the beliefs and practices of his group are best describes as those of a personality cult.
Cult? Yes, that is also a dangerous word. But I have reasons for using it. See this passage in a 2008 GetReligion post: “Define "cult" -- give three examples.”
Long ago, during my days in the Church-State Studies program at Baylor University, I took a course on contemporary religious movements and "cults." The word "cult" is much like the word "fundamentalist." …
In that class, the veteran researcher on this topic stressed that there are sociological definitions of the word "cult" — often dealing with the role of prophetic figures who claim radical new revelations. Then there are theological definitions, in which the leaders of a religion use the word to describe those who have surrendered or radically altered major, historic doctrines in the faith.
A “prophetic figure” who unleashed “new revelations,” creating a movement that radically controlled the lives of its believers?
That sounds like the Twelve Tribes to me. Stay tuned.
FIRST IMAGE: Illustration used with an essay on “The Curse of Ham” and Jewish history at the Tablet.