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Top Ten Deadliest Cults
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
The followers of the Ugandan doomsday cult The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God believed that the apocalypse would occur in the year 2000. They fiercely kept the Ten Commandments and supposedly preached the the word of Jesus. The group so feared damnation for accidentally breaking the ninth commandment, to not bear false witness, that they spoke little and used only sign language on some days. Sex was forbidden, soap was forbidden and only one meal consumed Fridays and Mondays.

The group was a break-away Catholic cult that found its origins with Paulo Kashaku, who claimed to have divinely inspired visions. His daughter Credonia Mwerinde (inset) claimed to have similar visions. She, along with Joseph Kibweteere and Bee Tait founded the group in 1980. Though the group had broken with the Catholic Church, it attracted many defrocked priests and nuns, who were given positions of authority.

After frenzied preparations, January 1, 2000, passed without incident. Followers began to lose faith and cult leaders set another date for the end of the world: March 17, 2000. On the big day over 500 worshipers in the town of Kanungu arrived at a church, but soon after, it exploded and burned down. At first it was thought to have been a mass suicide, but when signs of strangulation and poisoning became evident, the cause of death was changed to murder. A search of other cult properties turned up hundreds of bodies, more followers apparently murdered days before the final explosion and fire (pictured).
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