A Louisianan pastor has decided to throw all COVID-19 social distancing rules to the wind, and is still hosting an Easter service, stating that “true Christians do not mind dying.”
Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has decided to ignore the shelter-in-place order by keeping his church open for services and plans to hold an Easter service, too.
Despite the U.S. COVID-19 cases still remaining on the rise, and all public gatherings limited worldwide, pastor Tony Spell has not shut the doors to his congregation or held online services as an alternative. Week after week, Spell has brought churchgoers together by the dozens where they are pleading that current social distancing restrictions are a breach of their first amendment rights.
On Palm Sunday it’s reported that over 1,000 members flocked to service, and Spell has since been taken into custody and charged for breaking state mandates. Despite this, he will still continue with his in-person Easter service.
When asked if he would have any regrets or any qualms if someone in his congregation contracted and subsequently died of the virus, he basically stated that he wouldn’t have any regrets because “true Christians do not mind dying.”
By beginning his answer by quoting Psalm 23:4’s “yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death” in an attempt to prove that he’s in the right, he continued by saying “the bible teaches us to be absent from our bodies and to be present with the Lord.”
“So like any revolutionary, or like any zealot, or like any pure religious person, death looks to them like a welcome friend…True Christians do not mind dying. They fear living in fear.”
“People that prefer tyranny over freedom do not deserve freedom. People have been locked in their homes for 23 days now like prisoners. The only vent they have to their emotion is coming to the House of God and Worshipping, like free people.”
When asked what he’d hypothetically say to a family member of a dead parishioner dying of the pastors own ignorant stance, Spell stated that he would “have to say that they died like free people, fighting for their convictions,” closing with, “they say everybody’s going to get it, then if everybody’s going to get it, let’s get on with life.”
So, in other words, this guys stance is an absolute shit show, and maybe we should instead be following the CDC recommended guidelines, as well as our individual countries restrictions, because that is doing a heck of a lot more to flatten the curve than ol’ Spell’s way about it.
Check out Pastor Tony Spell’s full statement:
