Coffin Conversations - by dementia

Jose Luis De Jesús Miranda, a 60-year-old Puerto Rican ex-convict and former heroin addict, has followers in over 20 countries, including the United States. The question isn't why he's doing it -- as De Jesús said in an NBC interview, "Everyone should be rich," -- the question is why are people actually listening to him? The man is leading a cult, one that preys on the most universal and important of beliefs to human beings: religion. It is brainwashing at its most fundamental, but, disguised as religion, his movement is unstoppable.

"I believe he's the lord," said Alvaro Albarracin, in a Miami Herald interview. "I will be thankful to him in as many ways as I can, especially with money, because money is nothing." According to the Herald, Albarracin, who started Dial tone Internet, a very successful Web-hosting company he recently sold for $16.5 million, contributes $12,000 a month to the ministry and now dedicates his life to "Dad." Named the entrepreneur of entrepreneurs, Albarracin helps other parishioners set up businesses that feed money into the ministry. According to the Miami Herald, the most devoted of these hundreds of business owners make De Jesús their CEO. The rest simply give him 20 to 80 percent of the take, which, for Leonel Martinez, a medical equipment importer, is $50,000 a year.

"I won't die. Even if you tried to kill me," De Jesús says on CNN. Perhaps this one statement will be his downfall; for while many things cannot be proven, death is always pretty obvious. Good thing he has all those bodyguards then.