3. The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
In 1989 in Uganda, a man named Paulo Kashakun met Joseph Kibweteere, both of whom claimed to have seen images from God. The visions consisted of things like the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ; besides, Kashakun reported sights of his deceased daughter. Together, they formed a breakaway religious movement that they called The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. The Ten Commandments figured heavily into the group’s ideology, as did the apocalyptic belief that the world would end at midnight on the dawn of the year 2000.
The group gained many followers who were disaffected with the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda, but when January 1, 2000, came and went without anything remarkable happening, the group began to unravel. The leaders set new dates for when the end of the world would come, but it still didn’t happen. March 17, 2000, became a modern predicted day of the apocalypse, and on that day, those who were still faithful gathered in a church to pray. The church was set on fire by Kibweteere, and 530 people died. Hundreds more were killed when he threw them into wells or killed them through other means. All told, 778 people died.
