Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda
• Scotomisation
Jesus Christ is living in Puerto Rico:
Some observers call Growing in Grace a cult. De Jesus exerts total authority over the ministry. As a result, many have defected over the years, including Albarracín’s mother, Regina, who initially turned her son on to the church. “They brainwash you,” she says. Because of their disagreement, Regina and her son haven’t spoken in years (she now attends an evangelical church). “This is my only family,” Alvaro says of Growing in Grace. Such submission concerns Daniel Alvarez, a religious-studies instructor at Florida International University. “I hope [de Jesus] doesn’t metamorphose into Jim Jones,” he says, referring to the cult leader who led his followers to mass suicide in Guyana. “He has that kind of control over people.” (De Jesus responds that congregants are free to come and go as they please.)