By JAVIER MANJARRES
In a blatant pander for Hispanic support and votes, Rep. Alan Grayson (D) held an event in Kissimmee, Florida, honoring various individuals from within the Hispanic community, which included such Hispanic icons as Rita Moreno and Roberto Clemente, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, as well as some of his supporters such as DSA Vice-Chair Jose La Luz.However, in a move that can only be categorized as inexplicable, Grayson failed to honor anyone from the sprawling faith-based community, except for Juanita Garcia Perza, founder of Congregation Mita Church, who claimed to be a living incarnation of the Holy Spirit.
Instead, he gives this “Holy Spirit” group sole recognition, while shunning those he has previously derided as “religious fanatics”. But then again, doesn’t the Mita Congregation also fall under the Congressman’s “religious fanatics” label?
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Completing this poll grants you access to Shark Tank updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.Mita’s Congregation is an indigenous Puerto Rican group that developed within the larger Pentecostal movement on the island. Juanita Garcia Pereza (1897-1970), during a long illness, had a revelation that God had chosen her as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
After she was healed, she carried out the command in her revelation that she found a church, organized to accord with the teachings of primitive Christianity. Pereza was subsequently seen by her followers as the instrument of God for healings. Pereza took the name Mita, meaning “Spirit of life.”
Mita emphasized a triple message of love, liberty and unity. The God of love frees his people from sin and calls them to unite. Pereza is now honored as the promised Comforter mentioned in John 14:26. Because of its messianic beliefs about its founder, the church has been pushed to the fringe of the Pentecostal community; however, her impact was so great that following her death the Puerto Rican Senate suspended its meetings for three days.-Source
Members of the district’s Catholic and Evangelical communities will view this as a huge slap in the face. If Grayson ever bothered make an effort to really understand the make-up of his district, he would have understood that the Mita Congregation is largely viewed as a fringe cult within the Puerto Rican community.
Past members of the Mita congregation have accused the group of being nothing more than a cult, and have alleged that church elders covered up the sexual abusive ran rampant throughout the church..
Grayson wasn’t the only one to pander to the Mita cult, which has deep ties with Puerto Rico’s Popular Democratic Party (two Mita members currently serve in the Puerto Rican legislature).
In 2008,former Democratic Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, made a campaign stop in Puerto Rico to meet with the Mita Congregation.Grayson recently said that Republicans are not out to help these “brown people,” and from the looks of the skin color of Mita’s congregation, it is fair to say that the church, as a whole, fits the bill of “brown people.”
While one of Grayson’s 2014 Republican congressional opponents, Carol Platt, stayed quite regarding Grayson’s remark, his chief opponent in the race, Navy veteran Jorge Bonilla, took issue, and posed this question:
Is this the type representation and devisive rhetoric that Americans should expect from a member of the U.S. Congress? -Jorge Bonilla, Bonilla for Congress website