Saturday, April 19, 2014

The Twelve Tribes Community in Savannah, GA

This is the first time I can experience by myself about one of the utopia community, the Twelve Tribes Community, or the Commonwealth of Israel. I can feel the utopia feeling when I get into their house and know their daily lives. The members were gathered by the common faith in God, Jesus Christ (who they call Yahshua), and the holy spirit, and the teaching from the bibles (old and new testament). The community in Savannah which moved from state of Tennessee has about twenty members with elderly, young adults, teenagers, and some little children. They all give up their possession and live communally in some nearby houses. The guys work at some restaurants around their homes and do other works using hands like carpentry, etc while girls mainly do housework. However, both genders can help doing chore. They cook their own food every day. Some of their delicious food are Maté tea, and bread. They all feel peaceful and friendly because they work and do things for the wealth of the whole community and receive daily supply from the community. Folk music is popular and used in daily entertainment with dancing. It seems that there is not any stress or worry for life.Nevertheless, they also have their own rules in the community and whoever chooses to not follow the rules will be expelled from the community. Some of their rules that seems to be dystopic to me are that all members are not allowed to go to school, that they do not watch TV or entertaining movies or video games. The guys have pony-tail hair, and the girls wear long and untied hair,  plainly and modest clothes (which is usually in white and simple clothes, or long dresses that cover legs for ladies). In addition, the guys have to ware a band and ladies have to cover their hairs as prayer time. They also keep some Hebrew restrictions against eating pork and shellfish, and give other Hebrew name.  In my opinion, the community has no freedom to choose what some wants to do for their happiness. Instead, they have to follow the rules of the community if they do not want to expel from the community.

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