CENTRAL, La. (Reuters) - The pastor of the Life Tabernacle Church near Baton Rouge

[elleng]

held services on Sunday in defiance of a stay-at-home order issued by Louisiana because of the coronavirus pandemic, telling worshippers they had “nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Pastor Tony Spell, who was arrested last week for holding services, summoned his faithful again, three weeks after the state’s governor, John Bel Edwards, banned gatherings of 10 people or more.

Hundreds of worshippers, about half of them black and half white, converged on the church, many arriving in 26 buses sent to pick them up. Everyone but immediate family members kept a social distance of at least six feet, a lawyer for the pastor said.

“They would rather come to church and worship like free people than live like prisoners in their homes,” Spell told reporters.

Referring to depression and anxiety suffered by people forced to stay home, he asked, “Could it be that it is worse than the people who have already contracted this virus and died?”'>>>

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-church/louisiana-church-holds-services-defying-coronavirus-stay-at-home-order-idUSKBN21N0UU?

[dem4decades]

1. 6 foot social distance on a bus? Sounds like bullshit to me.

[elleng]

2. Right, clearly NOT the fact,

and pic with the story clearly shows the crowd members were closer than 6 ft.

[Tetrachloride]

4. Tell that to my boss.

[Squinch]

3. Self culling.

[sheshe2]

7. Sadly they will be passing it on to the rest of us.

They aren't just 'self culling'. They are infecting everyone else with their denials.

[Squinch]

8. I know. But the rest of us, at least, are taking steps against the virus.

[sheshe2]

10. We are trying, Squinch.

[Squinch]

12. I'm not the tidiest person, but I have become positively OCD!

Mostly because I know people like these walk among us and there is no way to distinguish them.

I keep thinking about those old gender wars we had here a few years back. Remember how some men were so insulted that we said that women have to be careful of all men because they don't know which ones are predators? Remember how they thought we were being so anti-male?

Now we're ALL being careful of EVERYONE because we don't know who is a carrier. I want to ask those men who were so insulted, "Get it NOW??"

[sheshe2]

16. I wash my hands more than Lady Macbeth.

[Squinch]

17. LOL!

[SheltieLover]

15. What She said

👆

K&R

If they had kept this guy in jail, he wouldn't be endangering the masses! 🤬

[TexasTowelie]

5. Put all of them in quarantine.

These individuals are not capable of making rational decisions to protect not only their health, but those that they associate with. All of them should be considered to be infected and therefore need to be separated from the public.

[sheshe2]

9. On another thread last night...

I said when they enter the church, the doors should be barred. They should be self quarantined for two weeks close to their Gawd. They then should receive no medical assistance or access to a ventilator should they get sick. They can however pray to Gawd for their immortal souls.

[Rebl2]

20. Better yet

Put them all in jail along with the pastor and keep them there.

[Newest Reality]

6. Persecution...

This kind of fundamentalist Christian takes persecution seriously and it is stock and staple. Somebody has to be persecuting them in some way and they look for any opportunity to find it.

Framing is a powerful tool used by many wolves...I mean Pasterds to manipulate situations based on their own, neurotic and deeply ingrained paranoia which they then utilize as a means to fleece the flock in the name of Jeehovawitz.

So, he frames people as living like prisoners in their homes rather than making a Christian sacrifice of any socializing for the benefit of all, since we are all Brother's and Sisters in that respect and he who looks to save his own life shall lose it, so to speak.

This would be a perfect time to suggest that the poorishoners go into their closets to pray secretly and consider it a good oppotunity to do as Jesus said, rather than being a hypocriticial in the Mega-Mammon-Temples and pay-to-pray establishments where Pasterds need to make some dough for their "services". They are very trumpian in that respect.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

13. Yep. They've even screamed "persecution" about contraceptives.

https://thinkprogress.org/abortion-foes-claim-new-birth-control-coverage-benefit-is-religious-persecution-bd9dae352219/

Now some Republicans and religious groups have adopted a new meme for attacking government subsidized birth control, claiming it’s religious persecution against Christians.

Edit: Tax dollars for easily the biggest military expenditures in the world? (Crickets.)

[leftieNanner]

11. Well how are ya gonna pass the plate

if there aren't any butts in the pews. Pastor Tony has a boat payment comin' up.

[redstatebluegirl]

14. No kidding.

[defacto7]

18. A few weeks? A couple of months? Persecution?

Gees, just cut down on the coffee and live.

[Karadeniz]

19. They're selfish and that's against Christian principles.