26 ICSA TODAY
My Story
I was only 3 years old, but my siblings, 7 and 9 at the time, and
my father have clear memories of how my mother was drawn
into The Move of God in the early 1970s, and how that led my
parents’ marriage to dissolve. While my father was locked down
at the military base near San Diego, California working, one of
The Move of God’s religious recruiters was diligently flattering
my mother, who was busy trying to raise three children while
her husband was absent. The more my father had to be gone,
the more The Move of God recruiters were able to get their
clutches into my mother, even convincing her that my father
was actually not working, but most likely spending time with
other women. They filled my mother’s head with so much
confusion and question in regard to her own marriage that
soon she was giving my father the ultimatum of either joining
The Move of God or getting a divorce. My father refused to join
The Move, trying to get my mother to somehow see reason.
My mother put my father through a brutal divorce, taking
what she could until she had depleted his financial ability to
continue fighting her in court for custody or even visitation of
my siblings and me. The Move of God funded all of my mother’s
court costs, including flying in my uncle all the way from the
South to be a character witness on behalf of my mother. My
father never stood a chance to gain custody of us. It felt that,
in the blink of an eye, my mother, funded by The Move, had
packed our lives into a U-Haul headed to Ware, Massachusetts.
We children would not have a relationship with our father until
we all became adults. My mother convinced us throughout our
young lives that he did not want us and was an evil man.
The compound at Ware was classified as a deliverance farm. Sam
Fife taught that all negative behaviors, including pedophilia,
were a product of possession by demons. Sam’s doctrine
included the belief that medical conditions, such as seizures,
were the body being possessed by demons. We were specifically
sent to this farm because my mother was overweight, my older
brother was considered to have behavioral problems, and I was
loud. My sister tended to be more on the quiet side, both trying
to protect me and to stay out of anyone’s attention. My loudness
was the result of my being completely deaf in my right ear,
something that would never be brought up while I was living
in this cult. Instead, I would be punished often for being too
loud. The act of sending us to a deliverance farm, according to
Sam Fife’s doctrines, would allow our family to get the necessary
treatment to rid my mother of the demons of gluttony that were
making her fat. It would also help rid us children of our demons,
whatever the ministry decided they were.
I spent my years from 1973 to 1977 at Ware, until I turned
7. Upon arrival at Ware, our family was split up and put into
classification units. I was put with other children my age.
Everything from our former life was sorted through, from the
back of the U-Haul truck. Anything that could be used for the
commune was put into a community clothing bank, and the
rest of our belongings, including all of our baby photos and
mementos of childhood, were burned in a bonfire. The ministry
taught that this process served to rid us of our life before the
cult, erasing all memories we might have of it. The process
would allow our minds to be emptied of the demonology of
the secular world outside and refilled with Sam Fife’s doctrines
of purification for God.
My time at Ware was filled with torture and humiliation. I was
subjected to demon-casting-out rituals while tied to chairs and
beaten, and to severe discipline, which included but was not
limited to hypothermia baths, sleep deprivation, beatings with
belts and paddles, public humiliation, and withholding of food.
I also experienced sexual abuse through grooming, petting,
fondling, and eventually penetration.
In 1977, our family was brought together, and we were flown
up to a compound in Alaska. In Alaska the sexual abuse
continued, as The Move of God still created a safe haven for
pedophiles, its leaders believing they could deliver the demon
of pedophilia out of a person. I, along with other children, still
experienced child labor, withholding of food as discipline, and
severe mental and physical abuse. Although elders and their
children seemed somewhat protected from the treatment
I endured, I have learned from survivors that some elder’s
children were not impervious to abuse within their family unit.
Armed men monitored the compound 24 hours a day, and we
were held to strict rules. For example, females were allowed
to wear only skirts, and members needed elders’ permission
to work certain jobs or marry. We were put through execution
training because The Move taught that the Communists would
eventually take over the United States and kill the Christians.
My mother, sister, and I were excommunicated from the cult
when I was 14. My sister was a teenager who was seduced by
a man in his early 40s. She was made to stand in front of the
entire congregation and say that she was the one who seduced
him. The elders made the decision that our family must be
required to leave the cult, citing as their reason that my sister
was an “untreatable harlot” and a threat to the sanctity of the
other teenagers there. We moved to Martin, Tennessee, where
my grandmother lived. The compound we left still exists today,
miles off of the highway, near Delta Junction, Alaska. Some call
it Dry Creek, the Land, or Living Word Ministries.
Surviving
Life in society outside The Move of God was severe culture
shock for me. My mother kept on living as though none of
what we experienced had ever happened. Instead, we moved
through life wearing a mask of functionality over severe
dysfunction such as alcoholism, drug use, and intrafamily
hatred and lashing out. Not only was I unfamiliar with the
...outside The Move
of God... we moved
through life wearing a
mask of functionality...
My Story
I was only 3 years old, but my siblings, 7 and 9 at the time, and
my father have clear memories of how my mother was drawn
into The Move of God in the early 1970s, and how that led my
parents’ marriage to dissolve. While my father was locked down
at the military base near San Diego, California working, one of
The Move of God’s religious recruiters was diligently flattering
my mother, who was busy trying to raise three children while
her husband was absent. The more my father had to be gone,
the more The Move of God recruiters were able to get their
clutches into my mother, even convincing her that my father
was actually not working, but most likely spending time with
other women. They filled my mother’s head with so much
confusion and question in regard to her own marriage that
soon she was giving my father the ultimatum of either joining
The Move of God or getting a divorce. My father refused to join
The Move, trying to get my mother to somehow see reason.
My mother put my father through a brutal divorce, taking
what she could until she had depleted his financial ability to
continue fighting her in court for custody or even visitation of
my siblings and me. The Move of God funded all of my mother’s
court costs, including flying in my uncle all the way from the
South to be a character witness on behalf of my mother. My
father never stood a chance to gain custody of us. It felt that,
in the blink of an eye, my mother, funded by The Move, had
packed our lives into a U-Haul headed to Ware, Massachusetts.
We children would not have a relationship with our father until
we all became adults. My mother convinced us throughout our
young lives that he did not want us and was an evil man.
The compound at Ware was classified as a deliverance farm. Sam
Fife taught that all negative behaviors, including pedophilia,
were a product of possession by demons. Sam’s doctrine
included the belief that medical conditions, such as seizures,
were the body being possessed by demons. We were specifically
sent to this farm because my mother was overweight, my older
brother was considered to have behavioral problems, and I was
loud. My sister tended to be more on the quiet side, both trying
to protect me and to stay out of anyone’s attention. My loudness
was the result of my being completely deaf in my right ear,
something that would never be brought up while I was living
in this cult. Instead, I would be punished often for being too
loud. The act of sending us to a deliverance farm, according to
Sam Fife’s doctrines, would allow our family to get the necessary
treatment to rid my mother of the demons of gluttony that were
making her fat. It would also help rid us children of our demons,
whatever the ministry decided they were.
I spent my years from 1973 to 1977 at Ware, until I turned
7. Upon arrival at Ware, our family was split up and put into
classification units. I was put with other children my age.
Everything from our former life was sorted through, from the
back of the U-Haul truck. Anything that could be used for the
commune was put into a community clothing bank, and the
rest of our belongings, including all of our baby photos and
mementos of childhood, were burned in a bonfire. The ministry
taught that this process served to rid us of our life before the
cult, erasing all memories we might have of it. The process
would allow our minds to be emptied of the demonology of
the secular world outside and refilled with Sam Fife’s doctrines
of purification for God.
My time at Ware was filled with torture and humiliation. I was
subjected to demon-casting-out rituals while tied to chairs and
beaten, and to severe discipline, which included but was not
limited to hypothermia baths, sleep deprivation, beatings with
belts and paddles, public humiliation, and withholding of food.
I also experienced sexual abuse through grooming, petting,
fondling, and eventually penetration.
In 1977, our family was brought together, and we were flown
up to a compound in Alaska. In Alaska the sexual abuse
continued, as The Move of God still created a safe haven for
pedophiles, its leaders believing they could deliver the demon
of pedophilia out of a person. I, along with other children, still
experienced child labor, withholding of food as discipline, and
severe mental and physical abuse. Although elders and their
children seemed somewhat protected from the treatment
I endured, I have learned from survivors that some elder’s
children were not impervious to abuse within their family unit.
Armed men monitored the compound 24 hours a day, and we
were held to strict rules. For example, females were allowed
to wear only skirts, and members needed elders’ permission
to work certain jobs or marry. We were put through execution
training because The Move taught that the Communists would
eventually take over the United States and kill the Christians.
My mother, sister, and I were excommunicated from the cult
when I was 14. My sister was a teenager who was seduced by
a man in his early 40s. She was made to stand in front of the
entire congregation and say that she was the one who seduced
him. The elders made the decision that our family must be
required to leave the cult, citing as their reason that my sister
was an “untreatable harlot” and a threat to the sanctity of the
other teenagers there. We moved to Martin, Tennessee, where
my grandmother lived. The compound we left still exists today,
miles off of the highway, near Delta Junction, Alaska. Some call
it Dry Creek, the Land, or Living Word Ministries.
Surviving
Life in society outside The Move of God was severe culture
shock for me. My mother kept on living as though none of
what we experienced had ever happened. Instead, we moved
through life wearing a mask of functionality over severe
dysfunction such as alcoholism, drug use, and intrafamily
hatred and lashing out. Not only was I unfamiliar with the
...outside The Move
of God... we moved
through life wearing a
mask of functionality...
