Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, a former taxi driver turned religious leader, has been accused of convincing hundreds of followers to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus.

For the past several months, Kenya has been rocked by macabre revelations about the dealings of Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, a cult leader suspected of orchestrating the deaths of over 240 of his loyal followers through starvation. A former televangelist in charge of the Good News International Church, which officially closed down in 2019, Mackenzie Nthenge is believed to have continued his religious activities after moving to the remote village of Shakahola, spewing his extremist beliefs and exploiting people’s fear of the unknown. Evidence suggests that he was somehow able to convince his followers that starving themselves and their loved ones, including children, was a faster way of reaching heaven and meeting their savior, Jesus Christ.

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A pastor in Mozambique, south-eastern Africa, recently passed away after suffering digestive organ failure attempting to emulate Jesus Christ’s 40-day fast.

It’s unclear why exactly 39-year-old Francisco Barajah, the founder of the Santa Trindade Evangelical Church, decided to imitate Christ’s 40-day fast in the desert as described in the Gospel of Matthew, but one thing is for sure – it was a fatal decision. 25 days into the grueling fast – no food or water – Barajah had become so weak that he couldn’t even stand, let alone move around or perform any menial tasks. Still, he insisted on going through with the Biblical fast, and by the time his family and followers finally decided to take him to a hospital, it was too late.

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A South African pastor recently sparked controversy online after it was revealed that he was charging people serious money for real-life miracles, like seeing God in heaven.

If you’ve always wanted to see your maker without actually ending your mortal life, MS Budeli, one of the many shady pastors in Africa, claims he can help, if you can pay his fee, of course. According to a promotional poster that has been doing the rounds on social media, Pastor MS Budeli has the power to help people see their future in their smartphones, cancel all their financial debt and even see God. All people have to do is show up for his “Worship Conference” and pay the special prayer fees.

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‘I Am Jesus Christ’, a controversial video game that literally lets you play as the Messiah, from His birth to His crucifixion and subsequent resurrection, recently became playable on Steam.

We wrote about I Am Jesus Christ in 2019, back when it was first announced by indie developer SimulaM. The premise of the game was as bold as its title suggested – it put players in the shoes of the Son of God, from his birth to his resurrection, allowing them to perform all sorts of biblical miracles, meet Jesus’ disciples and other characters, and even battle Satan. It got a lot of people talking, either out of excitement or outrage, but apart from some pre-rendered content and a short teaser, we didn’t get anything for the next three years. Well, the wait is over, thanks to a playable prologue of I Am Jesus that recently became available on Steam.

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An Indian ‘sadhu’ monk has been holding his arm in an upward position continuously for more than a decade in honor of his god.

Mahant Radheypuri Juna Akhara, an Indian sadhu – a religious or holy person who has renounced their worldly life – from Allahabad has been keeping his right arm raised high above his head for more than 10 years in honor of a Hindu deity. He was recently featured in a viral Twitter video, telling the interviewer that he wanted to do something for his god, so that it notices him. So he raised his right arm up and never put it down again. Today, it’s sort of stuck in that position, and he claims he doesn’t even feel it anymore.

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Police in Nigeria recently released 77 people, including young children, from the basement of a church where they had been waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ for several months.

The raid on the Whole Bible Believers Church in the Valentino area of Ondo Town came after a local mother approached police about the disappearance of her kids and told them that she suspected they had gone to the church. When they entered the place of worship, policemen found 77 people being kept in the basement by the Pastor and his deputy, who had told them that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Authorities claim that the church encouraged people to “stay behind” and wait for the Rapture, and some of them are believed to have lived in the church for several months.

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A Catholic priest who has performed thousands of baptisms over the last two decades recently resigned after learning that they are all invalid, because of a simple mistake.

Father Andres Arango recently resigned as a priest from St. Gregory’s Catholic Parish in Phoenix, Arizona, after a 25-year career. He stood accused of botching thousands of baptisms while serving as a priest in California, Brazil, and Arizona, and he was recently found guilty. Interestingly, it all came down to a simple wording issue, which apparently mattered a lot more than Aango or anyone outside the Catholic CHurch ever imagined.

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During a live-streamed event last week, a controversial Tennessee pastor burned tens of fantasy books, including Harry Potter and Twilight, in an alleged attempt to fight “demonic influences”.

Pastor Greg Locke of the Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, near Nashville, began his sermon last Wednesday by telling his congregation that he had received a missive from God to skip Holy Communion and instead organize a good ol’ fashioned book burning. The event, which was live-streamed on Facebook, was organized to denounce “witchcraft,” and involved dozens of copies of books like Harry Potter and Twilight, as well as other “dangerous” objects that Locke claimed symbolized witchcraft.

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MtoP is a parody religion created solely to give followers the chance to refuse things like working overtime simply by invoking “religious reasons”.

Short for “Motohiro to People”, the MtoP religion was created in 2018 by a young man named Motohiro Hisano, who acts as a deity/sage. He does point out that he doesn’t perform miracles and has no superpowers other than that of bestowing the power of “religious reasons” onto his followers. In fact, that is the only purpose of MtoP, as its founder does not wish to be worshipped, nor does he accept any sort of financial contributions. Although the parody religion does have its own doctrine, believers don’t have to abide by strict commandments. All they have to do in order to be considered followers of MtoP is to follow the religion’s official Twitter account.

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James Sakara, the pastor of a Zambian Christian church, was found dead after asking to be buried alive in the ground so he could come back to life in three days’ time, like Jesus…

To say that 22-year-old James Sakara was overconfident in his ability to emulate the resurrection of Jesus Christ would be an understatement. Be that as it may, the pastor of the Zion Church in the Zambian town of Chidiza managed to convince his congregation that he could in fact come back to life after three days, just like the Son of God. He somehow got three members of his Church to assist him by digging a shallow grave, tying up his hands, and burying him alive, only instead of coming back to life after three days, Sakara was found dead by members of the Zion Church curious to see why their leader hadn’t fulfilled his promise.

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An Ohio woman reportedly crashed her car into two other vehicles and a house after taking her hands of the wheel and letting God take control at a speed of 120 mph (190km/h), as a way to test her faith.

Authorities claim that the unnamed 31-year-old was driving a car with her daughter, aged 11, down the streets of Beachwood, Ohio, at around midnight on June 15. Security footage shows her car running a red light and eventually spin out of control, hit a utility pole and two other vehicles before stopping into a house. Luckily, neither the driver nor her child were seriously hurt, and the house they crashed into, which was empty at the time, suffered only minor damage. Upon questioning the driver about the accident, police officers were shocked to hear that she had been going through trials and tribulations lately, and simply decided to “let go and let God take the wheel”.

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Miracle believers all over Mexico have been flocking to the city of Monterrey, where a chalk drawing of the Virgin Mary inexplicably reappeared 13 years after it was drawn.

An outdoor parking lot in Monterrey recently became a pilgrimage spot for Christians, after a detailed drawing of the Virgin Mary appeared on the asphalt. Its origin was unknown at first, but after photos of the mysterious artwork started circulating online, local authorities revealed that it had been drawn during a celebration  called “Bella Vía”. The weird thing is that this particular chalk drawing dates back to the 2007 festival, and no one knows how the artwork lasted for so long, or how it had gone unnoticed for 13 years.

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An artificial intelligence engineer has created an intriguing algorithm that learned human language from reading “the bible and nothing else” and is now churning out ominous prophecies based on the Holy Book.

George Davila Durendal, a childhood coding prodigy and current AI engineer and entrepreneur, recently unveiled his wackies creation yet, an A.I. algorithm trained solely on the King James Bible and dubbed “AI Jesus”. Described by Durendal himself as an “A.I. clone of Jesus”, the software is a Boltzmannian natural-language processing model that “tries to replicate the style of the King James Bible without quite copying it”. Designed to write about 3 different topics – ‘The Plague’, ‘Caesar’ and ‘The End of Days’ – using the language of the Bible, AI Jesus has so far come up with some pretty scary, if somewhat nonsensical, prophecies…

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India is one of the most affected countries by the Covid-19 pandemic, and people are turning to spiritual and divine powers in an attempt to protect themselves from the new coronavirus.

Last month, Indian media reported on a group of women from a village in West Bengal who had decided to fight the coronavirus in their own way – by worshiping Corona Mai, or ‘Corona Goddess’. They set up a small shrine on the banks of Chinnamasta pond, near Asansol city, and started singing songs and mantras, burning incense and bringing offerings like fruits, vegetables, ghee, and jaggery. The women said that they planned to worship and pray to the goddess until she takes away the coronavirus. That may take a while…

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Photos of what many religious people are describing as a detailed representation of Jesus Christ discovered inside the branch of a recently-pruned willow tree have gone viral in Brazil.

Last Thursday, while pruning a willow tree in Itaquiraí, Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul, municipal maintenance workers noticed a strange pattern on the inside of a branch they had just cut with a chainsaw. After examining the pattern, some of them were convinced that it was a natural representation of Jesus Christ. Odimar Souza, a civil servant who was overseeing the pruning operation on Monte Castelo Avenue, in the Monte Castelo neighborhood, was intrigued by the discovery and took a piece of the branch home with him.

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