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The Branch Davidians are an apocalyptic cult founded in 1955 by Benjamin Roden. They regard themselves as a continuation of the General Association of Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists, established by Victor Houteff in 1935.
A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and principles. Sects are usually created due to perception of heresy by the subgroup and/or the larger group.
Cult is a term, in most contexts pejorative, for a relatively small group which is typically led by a charismatic and self-appointed leader, who tightly controls its members, requiring unwavering devotion to a set of beliefs and practices which are considered deviant. This term is also used for a new religious movement or other social group which is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular person, object, or goal. This sense of the term is weakly defined – having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia – and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.
Mass suicide is a form of suicide, occurring when a group of people simultaneously kill themselves.
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God was a religious movement founded by Credonia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibweteere in southwestern Uganda. It was formed in 1989 after Mwerinde and Kibweteere claimed that they had seen visions of the Virgin Mary. The five primary leaders were Joseph Kibweteere, Joseph Kasapurari, John Kamagara, Dominic Kataribabo, and Credonia Mwerinde.
Kanungu District is a district in the Western Region of Uganda. The town of Kanungu is the site of the district headquarters. The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Kanungu District is among the sites shown in aerial footage in the movie Black Panther.
The Magnificat Meal Movement International (MMMI) was formed in 1986 as a "missionary" offshoot of the 'Celtic Corma Adoration' group of Australia, which was founded in Melbourne in 1976 by J. Phelan, F. Eaton, D. Burslem and E. Burslem. The original name, "Celtic Adorers", was chosen by J. Phelan. This name changed in the early 1990s. The Magnificat Meal Movement is regarded by mainstream Christian churches as a cult. Debra Burslem, its most prominent ongoing leader, now lives in Vanuatu which some claim is for the purpose of avoiding the Australian Federal Police on multiple charges of embezzlement and tax fraud.
The Twelve Tribes, formerly known as the Vine Christian Community Church, the Northeast Kingdom Community Church, the Messianic Communities, and the Community Apostolic Order, is a new religious movement founded by Gene Spriggs that sprang out of the Jesus movement in 1972 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The group calls itself an attempt to recreate the 1st-century church as it is described in the Book of Acts. The group's origins in Chattanooga led to planted churches in surrounding areas. In the late seventies, the group began a community in Island Pond, Vermont. As their relationship with the Chattanooga community deteriorated, the group eventually left Tennessee and moved primarily to Vermont.
Joseph Kibweteere was one of the leaders of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, a group that splintered from the Catholic Church in Uganda and became infamous after 778 of its members were found dead. Although Kibweteere was assumed to have died in the incident, the Ugandan police shortly afterwards issued a warrant for arrest against the other leaders of the group. In 2014 it was announced by the Uganda National Police that there were reports that Kibweteere was hiding in Malawi.
Restoration Branches movement is a Christian/Latter Day Saint religious sect which was formed in the 1980s by members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in a reaction against the events of the RLDS 1984 world conference. The movement holds in the traditional RLDS theology of the 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries and hold that events leading up to and surrounding the 1980s and decades since have introduced sweeping, fundamental changes into RLDS doctrine and practice which are illegitimate because they contradict the long-standing RLDS theological tradition this sect holds as true. It is also a part of the Mormon religion.
Veronica Lueken was a Roman Catholic housewife from Bayside, New York, who, between 1970 until her death in 1995, reported experiencing apparitions of the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and numerous Catholic saints.
The application of the labels "cults" or "sects" to religious movements in government documents usually signifies the popular and negative use of the term "cult" in English and a functionally similar use of words translated as "sect" in several European languages. Government reports which have used these words include ones from Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, and Russia. While these documents utilize similar terminology they do not necessarily include the same groups nor is their assessment of these groups based on agreed criteria. Other governments and world bodies also report on new religious movements but do not use these terms to describe them.
The Community of the Lady of All Nations, also known as the Community of the Lady of All Peoples or the Army of Mary, is a Marian sect that has been condemned as heretical by the Catholic Church.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christianity:
The Universal Alliance, formerly known as Universal Christian Church and followers as Christ's Witnesses, is a Christian-oriented new religious movement founded in France in 1952 by Georges Roux, a former postman in the Vaucluse department. Roux claimed to be the reincarnation of Christ and was thus named the "Christ of Montfavet", a village on the commune of Avignon where he lived then.
The Dami Mission was a Christian religious movement founded in South Korea by Lee Jang Rim. It received worldwide attention after Lee predicted that the rapture and end of the world would occur on 28 October 1992. After the prediction failed, Lee was convicted of defrauding his followers out of millions of dollars.
The Iglesia Watawat Ng Lahi, Inc. is a socio-folk religious group based on Lecheria Hill in Calamba, Laguna, Philippines which believes in the divinity of José Rizal, a historic figure of the Philippine Revolution. It is often considered as the original Rizalist group among the many other Rizalista religious movements.
Abajiri, roughly translating to "The People of theจตุ666 Gospel," and also known as 666, is a minor eschatological Christian sect in the Luweero and Nakasongola districts of Uganda, and has since spread over the country. It was launched in 1992, when its founders split it off from the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The sect's most distinguishing practices are prohibiting the usage of mobile phones, attending local hospitals, state schooling for children, immunization, and census-taking. Members of the sect believe that when children go to a government school, or when people are subject to a census, they come into contact with Satan's number (666). Because of this, they prevent their children from attending. These beliefs are based on 1 Chronicles 21:1–16, in which David orders a census of Israel. God became angry, considering David's order a grave sin, and punished Israel. Since many of the children in this sect are not vaccinated and do not go to school, the local government in regions where Abajiri is prominent fears a possible outbreak of disease and illiteracy.
On 17 March 2000, over 500 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God died in Uganda, during a fire at the group's main compound. The initial suspicion that all of the members died in a mass suicide was revised to mass murder when hundreds of other bodies were discovered in pits at sites related to the movement that had died at least weeks prior to the event, some with signs of strangulation while others had stab wounds. At least 778 people died in total.
The Good News International Ministries (GNIM), or Good News International Church, commonly referred to as the Shakahola cult or " Organized Criminal group and previously referred to as the Servant P. N. Mackenzie Ministries, is a new religious movement which was based in Shakahola, Kilifi County, Kenya, and was founded by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and his first wife in 2003.
References
- ↑ Uganda Cult's Mystique Finally Turned Deadly April 2, 2000 Ian Fisher New York Times
- 1 2 3 The preacher and the prostitute BBC News March 29, 2000
- 1 2 3 Fateful Meeting Led to Founding of Cult in Uganda Henri E. Cauvin New York Times March 27, 2000
- 1 2 3 4 The power behind the cult The Telegraph April 2, 2000
- ↑ "Winners of the 2011 Ig Nobel Awards". Boston Globe. September 29, 2011.
- ↑ "Wasabi alarm, beetle sex win Ig Nobel spoof prizes". Reuters. September 29, 2011. Retrieved July 7, 2022.