Kenya cult: Children targeted to die first

[Tiny]

I'm not sure if this is current events  or political.   but, when I read it I thought "wow, there's some cross over to America's political polarization..." so it's in politics. 

I don't know if it's actionable - but I do find it scary when popular culture seems to be embrace some of the things that can quickly go horribly wrong...



The reasons driving the cult - sure sound a lot like what's going on behind our politics - conspiracy theories, what children should and shouldn't be taught, shunning medical treatment/vaccines,  and the whole "must be prepared to go off grid - prepper weirdness".    
 

www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65588273



Kenya cult: Children targeted to die first, pastor says



some bits from the article: 

Children were targeted as the first to be starved to death in the final days of a Christian doomsday cult in Kenya, according to fresh accounts emerging.



Police investigating an apparent mass suicide have so far exhumed 201 bodies in a forest in the nation's southeast.

But Pastor Mackenzie [the cult leader] preached against education, saying that it was satanic, after receiving a "revelation from God", Mr Katana [the pastor of the headline and the one being interviewed] told the New York Times.



Pastor Mackenzie also encouraged mothers to avoid seeking medical attention during childbirth and not to vaccinate their children.



Much of Pastor Mackenzie's preaching relates to the fulfilment of Biblical prophecies about Judgement Day.



The church's online content also features posts about the end of the world, impending doom and the supposed dangers of science.



And there are frequent warnings of an omnipotent satanic force that has supposedly infiltrated the highest echelons of power around the world.

[Opti]

Both politics and current events to me. 


www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kenya-hunger-cult-leader-paul-mackenzie-denied-bail-rcna83698

The death toll has climbed to 133, and hundreds of people are still reported missing. Authorities continue to search for human remains in shallow graves scattered throughout a forest where Mackenzie’s followers were living.



Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, has not yet been required to enter a plea after handing himself into police last month. A lawyer representing Mackenzie, George Kariuki, has said the self-styled pastor is cooperating with investigators.

Magistrate Yusuf Shikanda said at a hearing in the port city of Mombasa that Mackenzie and 17 other people detained in connection with the mass deaths would not be granted bail because of concerns that their release would jeopardise investigations.



“Being aware of the respondents’ right to be presumed innocent until the contrary is proved, I find that there is reasonable suspicion that the respondents may have committed the offences under investigation,” Shikanda said.



Wycliffe Makasembo, a lawyer for Mackenzie and his wife, who is also detained, said he would appeal against the decision.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

I like to think that if the pastors had led by example, many lives might have been saved. 

I can’t think of any cult leaders who told their followers they would go first.

[haapai]

I just hear echoes of Jonestown.  Kids died first at Jonestown and the whole business of leaving Oakland and relocating to almost nowhere and isolating anyone who took the trip is there.  There are other parallels too. 

On the other hand, Jim Jones was not a strictly end-times Christian preacher.  He had a talent of appealing to whatever made you tick.  This new leader of people into mass suicide seems to be a bit more single-issue. 

Currently the number of persons reported missing vastly outnumbers the number of bodies recovered.  We can hope that some of this is due to duplicate records being recorded for the same missing persons but I'm not gonna hope too hard for that.  This could be really bad and the odds are good that nobody is ever going to get a decent bead on the number of dead. 

[djAdvocate]

May 18, 2023 18:00:07 GMT -5 haapai said:

I just hear echoes of Jonestown.  Kids died first at Jonestown and the whole business of leaving Oakland and relocating to almost nowhere and isolating anyone who took the trip is there.  There are other parallels too. 

On the other hand, Jim Jones was not a strictly end-times Christian preacher.  He had a talent of appealing to whatever made you tick.  This new leader of people into mass suicide seems to be a bit more single-issue. 

Currently the number of persons reported missing vastly outnumbers the number of bodies recovered.  We can hope that some of this is due to duplicate records being recorded for the same missing persons but I'm not gonna hope too hard for that.  This could be really bad and the odds are good that nobody is ever going to get a decent bead on the number of dead. 

small correction.  the People's Temple was in San Francisco, i believe.