Wear pants, Pope, says banned 'Antichrist'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wear pants, Pope, says banned 'Antichrist'*
By Mica Rosenberg in Guatemala City
April 15, 2007 06:47am
Article from: Reuters
THREE Central American governments have banned a man claiming to be the
Antichrist from entering their countries, outraged by his inflammatory
preaching against the Catholic church and organised religion.
El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have banned Jose de Jesus Miranda,
who heads a cult-like movement with sermons televised from Miami to
dozens of mostly Latin American nations and wants to join followers at a
rally next week in Guatemala.
A former heroin addict who was briefly imprisoned as a youth in his
native Puerto Rico, Miranda, 60, talks openly in a video on his website
about how he loved cocaine and dreamed of working in a Colombian drug lab.
He has the number 666 identifying the Antichrist tattooed on his arm but
says he is Jesus Christ reborn on earth, arguing Saint Paul's teachings
show this is what Antichrist means.
He says other priests are "faggots", and makes fun of Holy Week customs
in Latin America, calling heavy statues of Jesus that Catholics parade
though streets "little dolls".
"The Pope should be ashamed," shouts Miranda in Spanish into a
microphone. "He should wear pants like a man. He should tell the truth
and stop teaching shit."
Tony Saca, the president of strongly Catholic El Salvador, barred
Miranda from entering the country last month, describing him as "a
danger to mental health". Miranda said the country would suffer an
earthquake because of the decision.
"It's the new Inquisition," said Carlos Cestero, Miranda's right-hand
man, known as the 'Bishop as Bishops'. "These small nations are clearly
puppets of the Catholic church," he said.
Central America, especially Guatemala, has seen a surge in converts to a
variety of Christian churches in recent decades. In Guatemala, for
instance, about 40 per cent of the population now belongs to
non-Catholic Christian churches.
Miranda's ministry began in 1986 in a Miami warehouse. He says it has
congregations in more than 20 countries, mostly in Latin America. It
counts with its own 24-hour radio and TV station.
In one video, the leader of the Growing in Grace church, sporting
slicked hair, tailored suits and gold chains, rolls up his sleeves to
reveal the number 666 tattooed on his forearm.
Hundreds of followers have now tattooed themselves with the number
saying it is a symbol of love and not the sign of Satan. They say there
is no devil, no hell and no such thing as sin.
The ministry has no formal membership system, but church representatives
say his television audience numbers in the millions, bringing
multimillion-dollar donations.
Some of his more generous followers have given him businesses, luxury
cars, jewels and opulent houses in Houston and Miami Beach.
Detractors say Miranda is not God resurrected but a dangerous cult
leader. One evangelical preacher in El Salvador called him a
"megalomaniac" and likened him to Jim Jones, who led 900 followers into
a mass suicide-murder in 1978.
Miranda's devotees plan to attend the rally in Guatemala on April 21 and
22, coinciding with his 61st birthday.