Colorado wildfire probe focuses on Twelve Tribes fundamentalist Christian sect

[RandySF]

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 on Monday that the property owned by Twelve Tribes, which was founded in Tennessee in the 1970s, had become a target of the probe after investigators ruled out the possibility that downed power lines might have sparked the fire.

Still, Sheriff Pelle warned against jumping to conclusions regarding the fire’s origins, emphasizing that the investigation was in its early stages and that it could take weeks or even months to determine the exact cause. He said investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Forest Service were assisting his department’s probe.

“We’re going to take our time and be methodical because the stakes are huge,” Sheriff Pelle said.




https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/us/colorado-fire-twelve-tribes.html

[TreasonousBastard]

1. I have no idea what started fire, or if it was any combination of...

ignorance or menace.

But, the thought of that amount of destruction caused by menace or negligence is astounding. Whoever is responsible, if anyone, should be dragged through the streets as an example of pure evil or unsalvageable ignorance.

(kinda like Slobfather hisself)

[dalton99a]

2. Inside an American white supremacist cult

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2018/darkness

The Twelve Tribes, a Christian fundamentalist cult born in the American South in the 1970s, is little-known to much of the country, and on first impression its communes and hippie-vibed restaurants and cafes can seem quaint and bucolic. But beneath the surface lies a tangle of doctrine that teaches its followers that slavery was “a marvelous opportunity” for black people, who are deemed by the Bible to be servants of whites, and that homosexuals deserve no less than death.

While homosexuals are shunned by the Twelve Tribes (though ex-members say the group brags about unnamed members who are “formerly” gay), the group actively proselytizes to African Americans, yet one of its black leaders glorifies the early Ku Klux Klan.

The Twelve Tribes tries to keep its extremist teachings on race from novice members and outsiders, but former members and experts on fringe religious movements who’ve helped its followers escape paint a dark picture of life in the group’s monastic communities — especially for black members, who must reconcile the appalling teachings on race with their own heritage and skin color.

[garybeck]

3. There is a group of them here in Vermont

I've interacted with them many times. Most of them are very nice folks. There are all sorts of rumors about them. They do not strike me as fundamentalists.

[KS Toronado]

4. Here's an interesting article on them

https://www.cuindependent.com/2019/12/11/twelve-tribes-cui-investigation/

[gldstwmn]

5. Here's video from one of the witnesses:

[crickets]

7. Thank you, gldstwmn. nt

[tanyev]

6. God not working fast enough on that whole Armageddon/end of the world thing?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. Maybe they're trying to bring the end of the world