“That which can be destroyed by the truth should be. ” ~P.C. Hodgell
Because I was raised in a religious cult, and taught a doctrine that was largely based on lies and half truths, the truth has become more important than almost anything to me. I am a truth seeker. I question everything and everyone, until I am satisfied that I have found the truth. The truth is one of the most powerful tools we have, and it makes cultic leaders very uncomfortable and even hostile, because they know that the truth will destroy their abusive and controlling doctrines and practices.
The question I have posed to many a cult leader and member is this: “If you honestly believe that you have all of the truth, that you always act within the law, and that your doctrine and practices do no harm to anyone, then why do you become so defensive when challenged with the truth?” I have never yet gotten an answer to my question…apparently they think it is a rhetorical one…so I will answer it myself. They become defensive because there is no way, even using scripture, to justify beating and whipping children starting at 3 days old. Or raping and molesting children. Or water boarding adults because of their sexual orientation. Or tying children and adults alike in chairs against their wills to exorcise imaginary demons. Or forcing children to work 10-12 hour days of hard labor. Or denying children their basic human rights–education, healthy food, medical care, sleep, love, happiness, a fear free childhood.
Sam Fife strongly believed that doing all of these things was necessary, and based the founding of the Move of God cult on teachings such as these: (quotes taken from Fife’s Divine Order For Child Raising)
“How many parents say to me, ‘I don’t want to whip my child and keep whipping him. He can’t do what I have told him to do. It is too hard for him. The rule and the law I have made for him is too hard for him and I just don’t want to keep beating him. I beat him and beat him and beat him, and still he keeps on doing it. He can’t keep that law. I better stop beating him and starting praying for him.’ No. You better keep whipping him, every time he breaks it to keep him ever conscious that there is a Righteousness that must be fulfilled and that he is going to suffer every time he doesn’t fulfill it, whether he can fulfill it or not, so that one day he can be conscious that he needs a Savior to help him fulfill it. That is the purpose of whipping him.”
“…you’ve heard the doctors say, don’t whip your child, you’ll put fear in him. And I don’t want my child to fear me, I want him to love me. You better first teach him to fear you or you’ll never have him love you; he’ll hate you all the days of your life. Let me say that again. You better teach him first to fear you or he’ll never love you, he’ll hate you all the days of his life.”
“God gave me this revelation many years ago, and that’s the way I brought up my own daughter. I laid down the laws for her, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. As a young Baptist preacher I didn’t have all the deep revelation I have now but I had this one. And I put the whip behind them and for twenty years I deceived her about her father’s nature for her own good. When she’d break my rules, I’d take my belt and I’d come at her. She had the same idea about her natural father that some of my spiritual children in the ministry have about their spiritual father. She thought I was hard. Sometimes I’d take my belt and I’d come at her, from her standpoint as a little girl, like I was going to eat her up. But then I’d always sit down and carefully explain to her what rule she had broken and why she was going to get it, and that if she broke the rule again, she was going to get it again, and again, and again. And then I’d take my belt and I’d lay it on. And I didn’t get upset, it didn’t shake me a bit like all the foolish parents today, that there were red welts on her little back end when I got through. And there were. They always go away. Better to have red welts on her back end than to have scars on her soul throughout all eternity.”
“Now there is one more great truth that fits in with this. My wife will tell you, though I whipped her every time she broke the law, I never did it when I was out of the Spirit myself. I never did it when I was angry with her. The one or two times that she got to me, and got me angry about what she had done, I would tell her to go to the bathroom and wait for me until I came in. And then if it took me 30 minutes, I’d get down on my knees until I got back in the Spirit of God and I could discipline her for her own good; not just take my frustration and anger out on her. And of course, that 30 minutes waiting in the bathroom did a greater work than anything else. There was a method in that madness, too. Then when I’d come in and explain things to her, and lay it on, I’d be so free of anger, so calm, that in all her gyrations that she’d go through as I would lay it on her, sometimes I couldn’t help but laugh. I had to overcome that because she thought I was laughing at her and that would make her mad.”
“And here is one more point. If you’ll really work at this, start consistently when your child is a baby, when he’s about 3 days old, he is just about old enough to start getting the five-fold ministry on the backside of the desert. You’re kidding yourself if you think he can’t get the message, if you do it right. And do so as long as he needs it. Then when he grows up to the age – and I don’t mean the natural age, I mean the spiritual age – and through giving him truth while you’re doing it, one day you’ll have him born again.” (five fold ministry = your hand. Back side of the dessert = baby’s bottom)
“The first thing you need to know as parents is that you are no longer called to just raise your children naturally and to prepare them for the natural life; it is in this area that most parents have failed their children. They have prepared them just to face natural life. Send them to school, send them to college, send them to get a career. They spend practically all their time, all their labor, preparing them to have a better life than they themselves had. “I want my kids to have it better than I had.” And so much so that they sold the child himself the idea that is all he needs to be prepared for and that idea is what the child grows up with. The fulfillment of the natural letter is always directly contrary to the Spirit. If you as parents in the move of God are going to raise your children right, from here on out you are going to have to go directly against that, contrary to it. Not only not spending your effort, time, money, preparing them to have better than you had in the natural, but try your best to teach them that they’re a fool and you’re a fool also if they spend any of their time preparing for a natural career, getting themselves a degree.”
Those are all the words of Sam Fife, the founder of the Move of God cult. Current members argue that these teachings are not taught today. I argue that they are, and here is why–Fife’s teachings were carefully taken from reel to reel and recorded onto CDs by my father and other devoted followers as recently as a few years ago. These, as well as the booklets (Fife’s sermons transcribed word for word) are widely circulated throughout the Move even today. Fife is quoted in the pulpit by Move leaders more than they quote the Bible. And, most importantly, these teachings are still practiced through out the Move. As recently as April 2013 I rescued my own brother from being abused in these ways in the cult. The way that the cult leaders and other members rallied around our parents financially and provided them with moral support while simultaneously attacking me for my stand against abuse and control, speaks for itself. You cannot openly support and align yourself with known abusers, without yourself being tainted by their illegal actions.
So what is the truth about the Move of God? That it is a highly abusive and controlling cult. What makes The Move a cult?
A cult is…
“Any group with an elitist cause and view of itself, which has a pyramid type of authoritarian leadership structure with all teaching and guidance coming from that person/persons at the top. The group will claim to be the only way to God, Nirvana, Paradise, Ultimate Reality, Full Potential etc., and will use thought reform or mind control techniques to gain control and keep their members.” (Henrietta Crampton in ‘Cults and their Consequences’.)
From this definition we see that a cult is a totalistic society, or a high demand group, that demands total allegiance. The group becomes all-consuming and adherents often undergo a personality transformation and neglect family, former friends, studies and interests. And that, in a nutshell, describes The Move.
If you are still not convinced that The Move of God is a cult, I would encourage you to study Steve Hassan’s BITE Model. It examines the behavior control, information control, thought control, and emotional control found in cults, and all of these forms of control can be found in The Move. Hassan’s BITE Model can be found at https://freedomofmind.com/Info/BITE/bitemodel.php
If the truth I have spoken here can open even one current Move member’s eyes, or confirm the suspicions of even one former Move member, then I have accomplished much. If the truth can in any way damage or destroy the cult, then it should be damaged or destroyed. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Truth can stand by itself.”
Truth's Song 