Damn, this bread is absolutely divine, I exclaimed.
Well, it is the Body of Christ.
Never knew how Tasty Jesus was!
“Doce Tribus” I read out aloud as I walked this narrow pathway about 3 miles from San Sebastian. Ah yes, I was walking to the 12 tribes Compound. The End of Days, Young Creationist Cult 12 Tribes. And it added a smirk to my face.
If you have met me, you know how much I love theology and talking about religion. So, this was the perfect opportunity to spend some time with what you would call a Cult. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t so much the teachings of Yahshua that led me down the path, but it was the smell of fresh bread being baked. The Religious cult was simply a strangely beautiful addition. Food > Religion.
A few days ago, I had stumbled upon a Bakery called the Sentido Común in the heart of San Sebastian. I bought myself some bread which could only be defined as Seraphic. So, I went again the next day to get myself another loaf. Little did I know, that a conversation with the man behind the counter would lead me to the 12 Tribes.
This wasn’t the first time Food and Religion had found its way to my stomach. Back when I lived in Manchester, I was visited by South Korean Jehovah’s Witnesses. Yes, you read that right. And to their surprise and perhaps even dismay, I welcomed them in and fed them lunch while I countered their claims with logic and common sense.
All I could think about was the airy bread that I had eaten a couple of days ago and how it had filled a void. Perhaps this is how they got you to join their congregation. For me of course, it was all about Breaking Bread.
When you have been a strong Atheist since you were 13, it its rather difficult to empathise with an ultra-orthodox religious group, but you learn to have a conversation with the people at the other end of the spectrum. These are people who live their lives based on the teaching of Leviticus in the Old Testament. People who have seek to follow the tribal life like the first followers of Yahshua. People who think that the outside world is Immoral.
For every claim they made using scripture, I countered it…..using scripture. I felt like President Bartlett from the West Wing. The problem with Believers in general is the nitpicking they do to confirm their own bias. What seems to be this wonderfully perfect commune on the outside has its own ways to immerse you into their ideology and create a collective hypnosis that stymies any free or critical thinking. To be fair to them, this is probably evident for all of us at different levels and at different degrees. This though is rather focused where the children are homeschooled and kept within the compounds so not to be touched by the dirty hands of the immorality of the world.
Death of the Individual. This has been for centuries the purpose of religious bodies. Creating a sense of belonging, an ecological and cultural haven of sufficiency and spirituality which has been designed to cancel the individual.
In a strange way, the children at 12 Tribes had lost their individuality more than the adults as they had been ingrained and indoctrinated in the ‘Way’ from childbirth. I have always wondered how social and moral conditioning has led to our understanding of this world.
As for me, I was convinced that the ‘Bread’ would lead to me the Elysian Fields
