A group of happy and well-dressed church
members surrounded by a mob of news cameras crowded into a
South Beach storefront parlor on a recent muggy evening and got matching
tattoos of their prophet’s symbol: 666. The members of a
very controversial religious sect located in Doral said they were following the
example of their leader, Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda,
who has claimed to be Jesus and recently declared himself the Antichrist. Critics have called De Jesus a cult leader who
manipulates followers but his Church members say he has brought them happiness
and spiritual fulfillment. “This is backing up what I truly believe,” said
Alvaro Albarracin, 38, who heads a film production company and joined the
church more than a decade ago. He showed a bandage that covered the freshly
tattooed “666? On his forearm. “It’s like a brand. It’s like a sign.” It’s
a sign most Christians would shun, because for centuries the numbers have been
associated with Satan. But for the 30 or so church members who branded
themselves with 666 and SSS — the initials of De Jesus’ motto, “salvo siempre
salvo,” or “saved always saved” — it’s a mark of their absolute faith in De
Jesus. Church members say the symbol doesn’t connect
them to Satan but rather to De Jesus’ claim that he has replaced Christ’s
teachings with a new gospel. Scholars and critics of the movement say the
tattoos offer frightening evidence of the influence De Jesus commands over his
followers. “What is he going to do next to call attention to himself?” asked
Daniel Alvarez, an instructor in the department of religious studies at Florida
International University who has studied the movement. “This means that his
control over people is so great that no matter what he says to them, they’ll
follow him.” De Jesus was was not available to comment,
said a church spokeswoman. At the tattoo parlor, one woman wore a T-shirt with
De Jesus’ picture and the phrase “The Lord Arrived” in Spanish. Others wore
shirts and baseball caps marked with 666. Spanish rap music blared from a
stereo in the back. News cameras circled the tattoo chair as artist Jessica
Segatto, wearing pink rubber gloves and a huge silver cross, carefully inked
666 on church members’ ankles, forearms, backs and one member’s neck. Some
members said they decided to attend the tattooing session — which was prompted
by a church announcement the previous week — to prove their commitment to De
Jesus’ vision. Others said they hoped the symbol would provoke questions about
the movement. “I figured if I have it on my
leg, people are going to notice it, 666, and they’re going to ask,” said church
member and spokeswoman Axel Poessy. De Jesus — who preaches that sin and the devil were destroyed when
Jesus died on the cross and that God’s chosen already have been saved — has
built a massive movement around his claim to divinity. Followers call him
“Daddy” and “God” and lavish him with $5,000 Rolexes and sometimes 40 percent
or more of their salaries. Christian
leaders have denounced De Jesus, saying he distorts the Bible. The Rev. Julio
Perez of Nueva Esperanza, a faith-based community group in Hialeah, said De
Jesus was promoting himself rather than helping members of his church. “What
he’s doing is trying to create his own sect,” he said. De Jesus had just a few
hundred followers when he launched his church in a Hialeah warehouse about 20
years ago. Today,
he commands a global movement from his Doral headquarters that boasts 335
education centers, 200 pastors, 287 radio programs and a 24-hour
Spanish-language TV network that’s available to 2 million homes — including by
special request from some U.S. cable companies. Only De Jesus and...
his right
hand man, Carlos Cestero, are authorized to preach. In his sermons,
De Jesus emphasizes wealth and success as a sign of God’s favor. Many of his
members are business owners who give a percentage of their corporate profits to
De Jesus, said Alvaro Albarracin, who oversees corporate donations to the
church and holds the title “entrepreneur of entrepreneurs.” Albarracin, who
runs the film production company MiamiLa Entertainment, said he gave 20 percent
of his profit to the movement when he sold his Web-hosting company, Dialtone,
for more than $16 million in 2001. Martita Roca, 25, a South
Florida singer and actress from Guatemala, said she sometimes gives 40 percent
of her salary to Growing in Grace. Giving a piece of her flesh by getting a
tattoo was another way to prove her commitment, she said. “For all
of those people who pray for us to come out of this movement, this shows that
this is it, there’s no going back,” Roca said of her tattoos. “This is to make
sure that everyone relates me to that vision.” Luz Fuentes, 51, a former
Catholic who joined Growing in Grace in 1990, said she and her brother give
Growing in Grace up to 50 percent of profits from their Hallandale mortgage
company, Apos Mortgage. “Apos” is short for “apostle,” one of De Jesus’ monikers.
De Jesus is listed on the company’s website as its CEO. “Antichrist”
is the latest in a string of titles De Jesus has bestowed on himself. In
1988, De Jesus announced he was the reincarnation of the Apostle Paul. In 1999,
he dubbed himself “the Other,” a spiritual superbeing who would pave the way
for Christ’s second coming. In 2004, he proclaimed himself to be Jesus Christ.
That claim caused some prominent members to defect from the movement —
including De Jesus’ first wife, Nydia, and his son Jose Luis Jr., who started
his own church in Puerto Rico. In January, during a packed worship
service at the church, De Jesus took off his coat and revealed the numbers 666
on his forearm. “This is a congregation of Antichrists,” De Jesus said, drawing
whistles and cheers. The number 666 appears in the Book of Revelation, a portion of the New
Testament that details the prophet John’s apocalyptic vision of the rise of the
Antichrist, the tribulation and Christ’s return. In Revelation, a horned beast
appears on earth and requires everyone to get his mark — 666 — on the right
hand or forehead.
Experts on
new religious movements say De Jesus’ opposition to other religions, and his
claim to be the only legitimate spiritual authority, resemble the teachings of
some cults. “It’s clearly a personality-driven group,” said Rick
Ross, an anti-cult consultant based in New Jersey. “It is defined by the claims
of De Jesus Miranda.” Nick Woodbury, director of the evangelical group Christ
for Miami, said most mainstream Christians would reject Growing in Grace’s
teachings as unbiblical. “In the Christian evangelical sector, we would consider them a sect,”
said Woodbury, who has served as a missionary in Colombia with the Miami-based
group Latin America Mission. “They take the Bible, but their interpretation is
very warped.” De Jesus’
followers have lashed out against organized Christianity because they believe
their prophet holds the true gospel, they say. His adherents have disrupted
Catholic processions on Good Friday and protested outside an evangelical church
gathering in Miami’s Tropical Park. Last July, they tore up literature
published by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other Christian movements during a
march in downtown Miami. Scholars who are concerned about the
movement’s growth say they hope De Jesus’ latest claim will insert doubt into
the mind of some members. “The symbol of the Antichrist is so negative, the
only good thing that will come out of this is that people will say, ‘Hold on,
this man is going off the deep end,”‘ FIU’s Alvarez said. (Source:
Fox News)
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