Despite being placed under house arrest yesterday — ankle bracelet and all — Pastor Tony Spell of Louisiana’s Life Tabernacle Church left his house and went to church this morning to preach… putting more members of his foolish congregation in the path of COVID-19.

Spell still showed up to the church’s Sunday service, where he was greeted with cheers, according to a livestream posted on the Facebook [the post has since been deleted, but a copy is above]. The pastor showed off his ankle monitor while standing in front of his congregation, claiming, “I’m not hiding anymore.” “It’s a dirty, rotten, crying shame when you have to hide in America,” he said.

Granted, the church is a mere 50 yards from where he lives, but the point is that he left his house, defying a court order, in order to preach as if he’s some kind of Christian martyr. The truth is he’s endangering people and he doesn’t care. He’s a literal danger to society. Remember: One church member has already died and one of Spell’s own lawyers has tested positive for the virus.

“God gave you an immune system to kill the virus,” Spell told his flock Sunday morning. “I’m not going to bind the virus.”

You can see throughout that video that no one in the congregation is social distancing and no one’s wearing masks. There are kids present in the audience.

The question now is whether the courts will punish him accordingly. If someone placed under house arrest for robbing a store defied court orders, he would likely be placed in jail or given a harsher sentence. Will a disease-spreading pastor who was arrested for “aggravated assault with a deadly weapon” get similar treatment or will he be treated much better? Just because he’s always holding a Bible doesn’t mean he should be allowed to escape justice.

By the way, the sermon video advertised a GoFundMe page for Spell’s legal fees with a $200,000 goal. As of this writing, it’s still up. He’s already raised $890.

(via Cajun Overcomer. Thanks to William for the link)

