In a remote Northeast Kingdom village that makes its money from snowmobiling and maple sugaring, summer can be sleepy. But this Saturday, operators of the coming Yellow Deli hope to draw a crowd to Island Pond, population 750, with a preview open house.
“It’s an opportunity,” said an organizer who identified himself only as Rod, “for us to gather and celebrate.”
And, perhaps surprisingly, observe the 40th anniversary of a state raid on his religious group.
On June 22, 1984, residents watched as some 90 police officers and 40 social workers arrived with a warrant giving them permission to examine more than 100 children of the Northeast Kingdom Community Church, known today as the Twelve Tribes.
The communal group, formed in 1978 to follow a strict, literal interpretation of the Bible, had refused to answer questions about how members disciplined their young, leading Vermont officials to carry out a surprise dawn raid.
“It is the intent of the state to determine whether any of the children have been subjected to abuse or neglect,” a spokesperson for then Gov. Richard Snelling told reporters at the time.
But hours after the start of the raid, then District Court Judge Frank Mahady ruled it unconstitutional because it wasn’t based on any specific claims involving any specific individuals.
“The theory is that there is some evidence of some abuse at some time,” Mahady, who is now deceased, wrote in his decision. “Such generalized assumptions do not warrant mass raids by the police.”
The news went national, with reporters descending on Island Pond — the village is part of the town of Brighton — to seemingly step back in time and speak with men with long beards and women in peasant dresses.
“We spank them,” one church member who wouldn’t identify himself was quoted in The New York Times. “We discipline them. Our Lord Jesus tells us to discipline them. I was spanked, you know. We don’t abuse them. We love them.”
Four decades later, most locals have moved on from the raid.
“My guess is we’ll probably note it in the history column,” said Joseph Gresser, editor of the Barton Chronicle, “but it’s not something that needs to be relitigated.”
The weekly Northeast Kingdom newspaper was the first to report local questions about the group, which in turn led to state interest, the raid, the court ruling, release of the children — and a lingering debate about what happened.
“The incident was seen as a clash between modern and traditional attitudes toward child-rearing and as demonstrating the difficulty of accommodating the values of ‘closed’ communities with those of society at large,” historians John Duffy, Samuel Hand and Ralph Orth wrote in their Vermont Encyclopedia, published in 2003.
Others have their own opinions. A public defender turned church member has produced a research paper and documentary in support of the group. But former believers who have left have released their own work calling it a cult.
Everyone else in Island Pond only talks about the raid when asked.
“We’re not holding anybody to blame,” said the Twelve Tribes member named Rod, who counted “40 to 50” peers in the current group. “We really feel like the God of heaven whom we serve has delivered us, and that’s where our emphasis is.”
At the Barton Chronicle, Gresser has heard from a fervent few on both sides. But the editor knows most people haven’t thought about the event in years, if not decades.
“It’s complicated,” he said. “It’s something that happened and shouldn’t be forgotten, but in the long run, it didn’t have a huge impact on the community as a whole. Whatever rough edges were there, time smoothed them.”
The editor speculated that more locals remember a 2004 Phish farewell concert in nearby Coventry that made national news after many of the 70,000 attendees, stuck in traffic, parked their cars along Interstate 91 and walked up to 12 miles to the show.
“Life goes on,” Gresser said. “There’s plenty happening today. If we can get that in the paper, we’ll be happy.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: 40 years later, Island Pond has little interest in revisiting its historic raid.