Growing in Grace - Cult Watch

You've got to admire a guy who so directly embraces the term Antichrist. His ministry, "Growing in Grace" numbers over 2 million folowers (according to him) and is centered in Latin America. You can spot them by their "666" tattoos. As you might guess, Latin American Catholics are pretty pissed about this. If you Google his name, you'll get about a jillion hits denouncing him in Spanish. He's currently at the center of a pretty expensive divorce trial as well, which is up for discussion over on the Black Vatican forum.

He is often called "Jesucristo Hombre" (literally "Jesus Christ Man") by his followers, but his official title is "President Dr. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, God on Earth." In his theology, there is no conflict in being both the Second Coming and the Antichrist. He also claims to be another incarnation of the Apostle Paul, an Angel, and an Archangel.

The two-fingers-to-the-head pose is his trademark salute, symbolic of the power of the rational mind to make spiritual change. It's strictly coincidental that it looks like someone about the blow their brains out.

He's speaking in Ontario, Canada, in the next few days. I really wish I could afford to take my sociologist sombrero up there to interview him myself. I love guys like him. They are basically job security for people like me...