Right-wing mega churches headed by profit-driven "prosperity gospel" charlatans are continuing to encourage their gullible flocks to attend in-person services despite the coronavirus pandemic. Often they're being supported by cynical and corrupt Rethuglican politicians, like Florida's despicable Governor Ron DeSantis, whose state is suffering from his obstinate inaction on the COVID-19 pandemic, who refuses to limit in-person church attendance.
Another grim reaper can be found in Louisiana, one of several COVID-19 hotspots across the country. He's dangerous clown Tony "Under A" Spell, head of the ironically named "Life Tabernacle Church" in Baton Rouge. Spell was charged recently for violating the state's emergency order on large gatherings, which are a recipe for community spread of the virus. Earlier today, he was defiant in promising to continue to violate safe-distancing rules for his unfortunate "church:"
"Tony Spell, leader of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, tells TMZ ... he thinks true Christians do not mind dying from COVID-19. He insists that what they fear instead is living in fear. As he puts it, 'People that can prefer tyranny over freedom do not deserve freedom.'Yes, we deserve the freedom to die from a pandemic rather than the tyranny of health. Also, "let's get on with life" is his way of saying, "Come, I need your tithes." Elsewhere in his diatribe, Spell says:
He's also not flinching at medical experts suggesting most of the nation will eventually contract the virus, even if only mildly. Spell's reaction is, 'Let's get on with life.'" (our emphasis)
"The bible teaches us to be absent from our bodies so we can 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 welcomed friend.” (our emphasis)There's no better expression of the twisted world of right-wing religious nuttery than Spell saying "death" looks like "a welcomed friend" to his congregants whom he's willfully exposed to a contagious, deadly virus.
