💥 First Pastor to defy covid-19 lockdowns wins in court !
🏆 WINS OF THE DAY 🏆
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Tony Spell, the first pastor to publicly defy COVID-19 lockdown orders, has won his legal battle against the state of Louisiana two years later.
The state Supreme Court decided 5 to 2 on Friday that the governor did not have a good reason to block Spell’s Oneness Pentecostal church from meeting for worship while other venues received exemptions from public health restrictions.
A 2020 executive order in the Bayou State prohibited gatherings of more than 50, and a subsequent order limited groups to 10, following the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention early in the pandemic. Both orders carved out exceptions, however, for airports, grocery stores, factories, office buildings, and other meetings deemed “essential.”
It is a violation of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion to offer legal exemptions to secular groups and not religious ones, the Louisiana court found.
According to Justice William J. Craine, it was also kind of absurd.
“An unlimited number of people were allowed to remain in a single conference room in an office building for an unlimited period of time, all in close proximity, talking, eating, and engaging in any other ‘normal operations’ of the business,” he wrote.
“However, if ten of these individuals left the conference room, walked across the street to a church, and entered an otherwise empty sanctuary building for a worship service, they were subject to criminal prosecution.”
Craine said the government had a legitimate interest in stopping the spread of the coronavirus but couldn’t unfairly disadvantage religious groups.
Good for him! God wins!
I'm digging it !! It's a great start for sure it just takes time thru the courts !
He discouraged his congregation from getting COVID-19 vaccines, despite the fact the scientific trials showed they are highly effective.
Sounds like christianitytoday is a woke organization.
Spell also promoted baseless conspiracy theories about the virus—alleging without evidence that it was a scam to help Joe Biden steal the presidential election. He discouraged his congregation from getting COVID-19 vaccines, despite the fact the scientific trials showed they are highly effective. (Sounds like a Patriot ) !
He's one of God's warriors! 🙌🙏
That's what I was thinking, too.
The church has been infiltrated since the beginning. Even the 12 had Judas.
Awesome! Congratulations! Kudos to all who helped him along the way, and thanks to God above!
Standing up to authorities, and winning, are both rare attributes. I won't dispute firsts or bests, but Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church did a bang-up job on both counts in Los Angeles, too. For those who know others, could be a good list to have. Feel free to list your local church heroes below, in either category.
Jack Hibbs in Chino Hills outside LA too! — went to both pastors when there were none else open, all the rest cowered down to the state.
He even had recall newsom booths setup in lobby of church to fill out the petition on site. Super based. Worth checking out for sure if in area
Amen! Praise the Lord!
Christianity Today obviously gets its 'talking points' directly from the DNC and MSM.