Detailed Look At The Yellow Deli

We're learning more about a controversial group that runs a restaurant next to the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga's campus.

Some parents are voicing their disapproval of the Yellow Deli which is located near many of the dorms on UTC's campus, but some of the local leaders who run the Twelve Tribes of Israel say their organization simply promotes everyone living for each other.

Bells ring on U-T-C's campus directly next to the Yellow Deli restaurant. The Christian communal group, Twelve Tribes of Israel, owns and runs the business. The organization started in Chattanooga back in the 1970's, but left for Vermont in the late '70s, and recently returned to the Tennessee Valley.

"People here in Chattanooga were really giving into the fear from the cult scare - they really bought into the cult scare," Eddie Wiseman, a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, says.

Wiseman joined the Twelve Tribes of Israel in 1974, currently works at the Yellow Deli, and lives in this commune on the 900 block of Oak Street. He tells us they currently have about thirty members.

"It forms you together in a community where you live for one another instead of everyman living for themselves and going to church on Sunday," Wiseman says.

Wiseman says they follow the gospels in the Bible and give up everything - ranging from money to cars to mortgages - when joining the communal and turnover all proceeds made while working at the Yellow Deli.

"Those proceeds go into a common pot, we all share all of our economic resources together, we own this business together," Wiseman says.

But it's a business that some people who live in the area say is not what it appears to be and have real concerns about what some of the activities with in the group - but they would not go on camera. To them Wiseman says that any disbelievers should simply stop by the Yellow Deli and decide for themselves.

Wiseman tells us that the Twelve Tribes of Israel have fifty communities in nine countries around the world. Members home school their children and support themselves through organic farming, carpentry, hostels and small stores.