Editing Twelve Tribes communities (section)

=== Countercult movement ===
Bob Pardon, the executive director of [[Christian countercult movement]] [[New England Institute of Religious Research]], has done extensive research on Twelve Tribes. According to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, Pardon first became aware of Twelve Tribes when a former member reported potential evidence of child abuse. Because he was initially skeptical, he was given access to the group to research it.  He also received information on the group's teachings from high level former members.<ref name=":0" />  Pardon released his research and findings in a report that stated, "Messianic Communities, under the leadership of Spriggs, has tended towards an extreme authoritarianism" and a "Galatian heresy."<ref name="bobpardon">{{cite web |title=My Analysis of the Twelve Tribes |url=http://www.neirr.org/conclusn.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051215195028/http://neirr.org/conclusn.html |archive-date=December 15, 2005 |access-date=October 23, 2005 |work=New England Institute of Religious Research website}}</ref>  By controlling information released or that members can access, groups like the Twelve Tribes greatly discourage people from reading anything "contrary to the group and does not have TVs, radios, newspapers or books," explains Pardon. "The person has essentially no access to outside information."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nielsen |first=Jason |date=February 14, 2002 |title=Religious Cults in Today's Society |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/205202469 |journal=Jewish Advocate |volume=193 |issue=6 |pages=9 |id={{ProQuest|205202469}} |via=Ethnic NewsWatch Collection}}</ref>

Since their inception roughly 25 years prior to the publication (around mid-1970s), they have found themselves the subject of scrutiny from the anti-cult movement, first in North America and later in Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Swantko |first=Jean A. |date=December 1999 |title=The Twelve Tribes' Communities, the Anti-Cult Movement, and Government's Response |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1023/A:1022021125576 |journal=Social Justice Research |language=en |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=341–364 |doi=10.1023/A:1022021125576 |issn=0885-7466 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> In France, the group was listed on the 1995 Governmental Report by the [[Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France]] under the name "Ordre apostolique – Therapeutic healing environment."<ref name="assembleenational">{{cite web |title=French National Assembly: On Sects |url=http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/12/rap-enq/r3507.asp |access-date=May 9, 2008}}</ref>

Twelve Tribes members Jean Swantko and husband Ed Wiseman have made efforts to combat social stigma and the anti-cult movement by engaging in dialogue with the media and government authorities.<ref name="Jones">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2005 |title=Twelve Tribes |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion |publisher=[[Macmillan Reference USA]] |location=New York |last=Palmer |first=Susan J. |author-link=Susan J. Palmer |editor=Lindsay Jones |edition=2 |volume=14 |page=9409}}</ref> Swantko, who also represents the group in legal matters,<ref>{{Cite news |author=Sally Johnson |date=March 12, 1993 |title=Defender of the faith |work=The Boston Globe}}</ref> has presented at conferences<ref name="Jones" /> including the Communal Studies Association<ref name="CSA">{{cite web |year=2010 |title=Communal Studies Association, 2010 New Harmony, Indiana |url=http://www.usi.edu/libarts/communal/2010CSA-Abstracts.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720193424/http://www.usi.edu/libarts/communal/2010CSA-Abstracts.pdf |archive-date=July 20, 2011 |access-date=December 13, 2010 |publisher=Communal Studies Association}}</ref> and [[Society for the Scientific Study of Religion]]<ref name="SSSR">{{cite web |year=2010 |title=Society for Scientific Study of Religion and Religious Research Association Annual Meeting 2010 |url=http://www.sssrweb.org/pdf/2010SSSRRRAprogramv3.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128094328/http://www.sssrweb.org/pdf/2010SSSRRRAprogramv3.pdf |archive-date=January 28, 2018 |access-date=December 13, 2010 |publisher=Society for Scientific Study of Religion and Religious Research Association Annual}}</ref> as well as a chapter in [[James T. Richardson]]'s ''Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe''.

The Twelve Tribes has been cited by [[Stuart A. Wright]] as a group suffering from "[[front-end/back-end disproportionality]]" in media coverage.<!--repcite:mediacovraid--> According to Wright, the media often focuses on unsubstantiated charges against the group, but as charges are investigated and as cases fall apart, the media covers them significantly less at the end than it does at the beginning.<!--repcite:mediacovraid--> Wright then asserts that this leaves the public with the impression that the group was guilty of the disproven charges.<ref name="mediacovraid" />