Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God

Beliefs Cont.

How it Ended

Beliefs

Video

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Fasts were conducted regularly, and only one meal was eaten on Fridays and Mondays

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Sex was forbidden, as was soap

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Taught that the Virgin Mary had a special role in the end, and that she also communicated with their leaders

• There was a huge fire that killed most of the population, which is said to have been planned by the leaders
• Other than the individuals who died in the fire, medical examiners determined that the majority of dead members had been poisoned
• Early reports suggested that they had been strangled based on the presence of twisted banana fibers around their necks
• For any remaining survivors, their movement was shut down by the government because of its unsanitary conditions, their use of child labor and allegations of kidnapping of children.

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Since the movement has Roman Catholic roots, the Bible was the group's sacred text. However, it must also be noted that much of the governance of the movement relied on a book titled A Timely Message from Heaven: The End of the Present Time

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New members of the group were required to read this booklet many times (sometimes for days at a time) before becoming full members

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Obey the Ten Commandments and preach the word of Jesus Christ

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Group discouraged talking, for fear of breaking the Ninth Commandment- “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” and on some days communication was only conducted in sign language

Background

Maintaining Membership

• Had to obey the 10 commandments completely. They had to follow it line or line, reading it to almost 6 times a day. They also had to know exactly what it meant.
• Follow all rules, continue reading books about their beliefs and follow everything that their leaders told them- if these rules were broken severe punishments were enforced

• Was a breakaway religious movement from the Roman Catholic Church founded by Credonia Mwerinde, Joseph Kibweteere and Bee Tait in Uganda
• Believed that they would be the only survivors at the end of the world and predicted an apocalypse
• In early 2000, followers of the religious movement perished in a devastating fire and a series of poisonings and killings
• There were speculations that their killings was a group suicide, but forensic scientists proved that it was an orchestrated mass murder by group leaders after their predictions of the apocalypse failed to come about
• Size of Group: Estimates range from 1,000 to 4,000 members
• Founded in 1989

Bora, Maddie, Katherine

Rhetoric Used

• One of the leaders had a vision of his deceased daughter and claimed that she showed him visions of heaven. He said that he could speak with Jesus and that Jesus told him that all of the followers of this movement would go to heaven.
• The leaders preached that those who followed them in this movement would be safe when the apocalypse came and that they would be the only ones saved.
• Fear was a main tactic used in gaining followers

Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God