LATimes | Pentecostal preacher Tony Spell didn’t just stand before his congregation on Sunday in defiance of the governor’s order to stay home: He leaped into the pews, paraded, hugged and laid hands on worshipers’ foreheads in prayer.
“We’re
free people. We’re not going to be intimidated. We’re not going to
cower,” the Rev. Spell said from the pulpit of Life Tabernacle Church in
a suburb of Baton Rouge. “We’re not breaking any laws.”
Across
Louisiana, the coronavirus has infected more than 3,500 people and led
to 151 deaths as of Sunday, with one of the highest per-capita death
rates in the country down the interstate in New Orleans.
To limit its spread, Gov. John Bel Edwards banned gatherings of more
than 50 people earlier this month and on March 22 issued a stay-at-home
order.
To comply, Catholic churches canceled Mass and
switched to virtual services. Many Protestant churches did too. But some
have continued to gather, with none drawing more attention than Life
Tabernacle.
The 60-year-old church has continued to use its fleet of two dozen buses
to bring hundreds of congregants to services three times a week from
five surrounding parishes, including congregants from mobile home
parks and public housing in low-income neighborhoods. More than 1,100
people of various races worship by age group at seven sanctuaries on the
property. In addition to spiritual guidance, the church offers free
breakfast. Only about 10% have stayed away, said Spell’s father, the
Rev. Tim Spell, 66, including his own 90-year-old father who has been sheltering at home.
