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Divine or Dangerous, He's Got Disciples
he apostle wears a bulletproof vest when he's preaching in Colombia, retains a battalion of 50 bodyguards across the United States and drives to his Doral church headquarters in an armored Seven Series BMW. Followers say he's Jesus. Detractors call him a cult leader. And José Luis De Jesús Miranda -- a paunchy, middle-aged man from Puerto Rico who favors $10,000 Rolexes and claims millions of disciples worldwide -- believes many people would like to see him dead. It's no wonder the sect generates controversy. De Jesús' followers have disrupted Catholic processions on Good Friday, protested outside an evangelical church gathering in Miami's Tropical Park and chanted anti-Catholic slogans during a parade in Lima honoring the city's patron saint, El Seńor de los Milagros.
Today, some 500 members of Creciendo en Gracia -- Growing in Grace -- plan to march in downtown Miami to proclaim their leader as Christ incarnate. In a show of solidarity with their prophet, members say they will destroy crucifixes, rosaries, statues of the Virgin Mary and other saints and tear up literature published by the Jehovah's Witnesses and other Christian movements. Simultaneous protests are planned in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Argentina and Guatemala -- countries where De Jesús has sizable followings. ''We don't believe Christians have the right to call themselves Christians,'' De Jesús said, leaning back in a plush leather chair at his church headquarters, a gray corporate warehouse in Doral. ``For 2,000 years, they used the wrong gospel.'' Some Christian leaders dismiss the protests as ill-conceived publicity stunts. Others regard them as disruptive and even dangerous. ''He has developed a campaign against mainstream churches and they have been vicious,'' said the Rev. Julio Perez of Nuevo Esperanza, a faith-based community advisory board in Hialeah. De Jesús -- who during a recent interview wore tinted glasses, a black polo T-shirt and a conspicuous gold pendant around his neck with the moniker SSS (short for the church's motto, Salvo Siempre Salvo, ''saved always saved'') -- could more easily pass for a banker or lawyer than the messiah. Adherents call him Apostle, the Man Christ Jesus, God and Daddy and shower him with money and gifts.
''I believe he's the lord,'' said Alvaro Albarracin, 37, a Miami businessman who oversees corporate donations to the church. ``I will be thankful to him in as many ways as I can, especially with money, because money is nothing.'' When De Jesús founded Creciendo en Gracia in a Hialeah warehouse 20 years ago, he claimed a few hundred followers. As his movement and reputation grew, so did his title. In 1988, he announced he was the reincarnation of the Apostle Paul. In 1999, he dubbed himself ''the Other,'' a spiritual super-being who would pave the way for Christ's second coming. In 2004, he proclaimed himself to be Jesus Christ and the sole interpreter of the gospel. His claim to divinity led to defections -- including his first wife, Nydia, and his son Jose Luis Jr., who started his own church in Puerto Rico. |
