The Cults Among Us
Added 2022-01-28 01:11:10 +0000 UTCA listener is curious about a local deli run by a cult, but no one else seems to be.
Show notes:
Children of Sect Seized in Vermont (New York Times)
I Escaped From The Yellow Deli (Karen Draper)
Death of Twelve Tribes founder leaves future uncertain for international Christian movement (Chatanooga Times Free-Press)
Marshall fire investigation spotlights Twelve Tribes religious sect (Denver Post)
The Idyllic Restaurant Chain Owned by a Homophobic, Racist, Child-Beating Cult (VICE)
Comments
WHOA I grew up in Chattanooga and we always knew about the Yellow Deli cult! I've been there a time or two but they have the weirdest hours.
@Pip_Seg
2022-10-12 16:05:31 +0000 UTCListened to the episode yesterday and happened across a video from a YouTube channel I follow that does deep dives on Christian fundamentalism and a lot of the controversial groups adjacent to cults. This was an update on the 12 Tribes and includes a clip from an in-depth news report from CBS Boston that visits the Yellow Deli in Plymouth and talks about the allegations of child abuse and cult-like behavior. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xva77fxyWU
Mary Pusterla
2022-01-29 14:53:29 +0000 UTCI'm very curious about this, because I have a pretty vivid memory of going to a very hippie-dippy restaurant in TN in the 70s that may very well have been a Yellow Deli. My mom and her good friend were traveling with us five kids to a cabin in the mountains of TN. We stopped at this place that seemed very weird to all of us kids. The food was just okay, not good. My mom said she had chosen it because another friend from church (a huge, but weird non-denominational church with great music in Nashville). My brother would only eat plain hot dogs in those days, so I know it had those. This was in the mid-70s. We were very poor, so I know it can't have cost much. All the people working there were very long-haired and easy-going. They didn't seem that strange, but we were all kids, so who knows? I just checked out the Yellow Deli's history page and it has a very weird vice, but I saw they seem to have had quite a few locations in TN, so I feel pretty confident that was where we went. Thanks, Mama, for the exposure to what was very likely a cult. I wish I remembered more, but my main takeaway as someone who was very stomach-focused was that the food wasn't very good!
Caren Helms
2022-01-28 21:51:42 +0000 UTC
