In an op-ed published by HuffPost last week, Cyd Chartier — a writer who grew up in the Christian Move of God group — details the "eerie resemblances" between the ministry's leader and Donald Trump.
Sam Fife, who died in 1979, founded the group in the early 1960s "after he was allegedly booted from the Baptist church for adultery," according to a Monday report by The Independent.
"Now that Trump once again threatens to take the reins of the federal government, the possibility of living under the eye of another misogynistic authoritarian regime feels frighteningly real," Chartier wrote.
Chartier's parents "bought it all," Chartier wrote, "Fife’s lies, delusions and conspiracies."
Per The Independent, the "enigmatic and autocratic leader" authored "a Divine Order doctrine in 1974 in which he claimed God had put The Move in place as a 'many-membered manchild to govern the world.'"
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The report notes that Fife declared in one of his sermons that "God had selected him and his congregation to serve as warriors in the ultimate and final battle against worldly evil."
Like Fife, Trump has suggested that the two assassination attempts on his life this year might have failed because, "perhaps it’s God wanting me to be president to save this country; nobody knows."
Thinking back on the wave of emotions she had when Trump announced his 2016 presidential bid, Chartier wrote, "Under the guise of a politician with a fake tan and bad haircut was an angry man, an arrogant man, a dark and dangerous man — a man so like Sam Fife that I immediately knew I was facing the same threat I had faced as a young woman all those years ago."
She added, "Then, in 2015, as I watched Donald Trump float down the Trump Tower escalator to announce his candidacy for the US presidency, I felt a stab of recognition."
Following Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton, Chartier emphasized, "The lying, misogyny, apocalyptic language, fear-mongering and the enthusiastic embrace of conspiracy theories all set off ancient alarms inside of me. I fell into a deep depression."
She added, "And when I imagine the freedoms Trump will endanger should he regain power, that future looks untenable."
Chartier's full Huffpost op-ed is available at this link. The Independent's full report is available at this link.
