All The Lonely People

There is a graying middle-aged woman who haunts the the Harvard Square and Park Street T stations. She stands just outside crowds and searches out the lonely. With nothing more than a quick introductory grin, she hands her targets a booklet that she believes will change their life.

This woman is a member of the “Twelve Tribes,” and the pamphlet she distributes to the sad of face—entitled “Eleanor Rigby and all the lonely people”—offers them a way out.

A quick glance through the Beatles-inspired publication and the official website (www.twelvetribes.com) and it’s clear the group’s message and beliefs are intense. Articles—signed with first names only—have titles like “Marriage is NOT the Cure” and “Heather goes to Hell High School.” The accompanying charcoal illustrations with foreboding captions offer tormented perspectives on earthly life. On page 12, one man discovers that the mask of outward happiness with which he has disguised himself has grown onto his face. On 21, a woman’s therapist shoots herself in the stomach, leaving her to her Valium addiction and post-abortion depression. The pamphlet leaves no room for question—the outside world is a swamp of loose principles, false relationships and selfish emotions. The solution? At the other end of a toll-free number: 1-888-TWELVETribes.

Stemming from the so-called Jesus Movement of the 1960s and ’70s, this self-styled “Messianic community” believes in restorationism, a return to the primitive Jewish and Christian traditions. About 20 years ago, Elbert Spriggs and his wife founded the group as a testament to their God—a God who made feelings of loneliness, alienation and self-loathing disappear. The result was an organization based on trust and the increasing purity of coming generations.

According to the pamphlet and website, the Twelve Tribes span the globe from Dorchester to Australia, Brazil and Germany. Today, the group has between 1,000 and 1,500 members, with 45 in the local Boston-area chapter. They make their living picking up rice in the church where a wedding has been, as well as making candles, futons and other products “that the community itself uses.” Not surprisingly, the cult has faced opposition from community and governmental groups. Their open inclusion of minors in production has led to child labor citations by the Department of Labor, but Twelve Tribe members maintain that the labor is harmless and even educational for children.