Millennium Tragedy in Uganda
The turn of the Millennium on January 1 was apparently not without
cult violence as hundreds of bodies continue to be found in Uganda.
This morning, the New York Times now reports that more than 924
people have died because of their involvement with the Movement
for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. This number
surpasses the number of people killed at Jonestown, Guyana on
November 18th 1978 at the hands of Jim Jones.
Apparently, many people were killed after the false prophecy
of the world ending failed to materialize. Credonia Mwerinde,
a former prostitute, was apparently the real leader of the group
(called The Programmer), and she successfully recruited a number
of respected individuals like Joseph Kibwetere into her cult.
Claims that the Virgin Mary spoke to Mwerinde provided a powerful
impetus to motivate devout Catholics and others to give up their
free will and obey the leadership. The cult used many well-established
mind control techniques to recruit and indoctrinate followers.
Unfortunately, Catholic Church officials who were aware of the
cult did not know how to help those who were enslaved and chose
to excommunicate them. It was reported that Ugandan "Archbishop
Paul Bakyenga of Mabarara told Roman Catholics not to feel guilty
over the Kanungu doomsday cult murder…" Furthermore,
he said "There is a lesson to learn. What is the Lord telling
us? Any form of religion that breaks people away from the Church
cannot be Godly," he said.
Naturally, my hope is that this tragedy will be another "wake
up call" to the public that we all can and should help those
involved in mind control cults. Isolating them, giving them ultimatums
just abandons them to the mind controllers. We have a responsibility
to educate ourselves and educate others. I have written Releasing
the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves for this
purpose. The book should be available at bookstores in the coming
week or two. I have added an extensive list of all the contents
of the book at http://www.freedomofmind.com/books.htm, and we
have a new banner for the book as well.
To keep up to date on the Uganda tragedy, I have been going to
www.africanews.org. Just select “Uganda” and you can
scroll through many different articles.
Also, I recommend subscribing to the free Religion News report,
compiled by Anton Hein.
Apologetics
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Steve Hassan
