Pastor Tony Spell is the Pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; a Pentecostal Church with nearly 2,000 members. Its weekly activities involve singing and preaching the Word, baptisms, laying hands on the sick to pray for them, and providing food for the hungry in the community.
In early 2020, Louisiana’s Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards capped gatherings, including churches, at 10 people! Pastor Spell concluded that complying with the Governor’s orders would violate God’s command to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews 10:24-25) and decided to keep holding services. As a result, he was served with six criminal summonses. Shortly afterward, he was arrested for allegedly trying to run over a protestor outside his church, although video evidence showed that he neither hit him nor even approached him. At his arraignment, the judge told Pastor Spell that he could no longer preach to his congregation. When Pastor Spell could not agree, the judge ordered him to be equipped with an ankle bracelet. He was confined to his house and told that he would be arrested if he left.
Never before, to our knowledge, has a pastor in America been criminally charged and confined to house arrest for doing what Christians have done for two thousand years: going to church! The trial judge eventually backed down and had the ankle bracelet taken off of him, but the criminal charges against him were still pending.
We have been fighting this egregious infringement of religious liberty in court for over 2 years now. In May 2022, the Louisiana Supreme Court quashed the criminal charges against Pastor Spell because the Governor’s executive orders violated his fundamental right to exercise his religion. This was a great victory, but the fight is not over.
Pastor Spell’s case for damages against the Governor is still live in federal court. Most recently, in February 2023, the Fifth Circuit ruled against us. As soon as we learned this, we began preparing our final petition at the United States Supreme Court.
Our Petition, which you can read by clicking the button below, is completely unique. Every COVID-19 “victory” for religious liberty has been based on an “unfair treatment” argument, i.e., that the government cannot restrict churches any worse than it restricts department stores. However, government should not allowed to close the Church just because it also closed Wal-Mart. This is a very dangerous precedent because there is no limit on what government can deem an “emergency.”
Our Petition argues that, based on the text and history of the Constitution, the Founders intended the First Amendment to enshrine a strict jurisdictional separation of Church and State that forbids the State from shutting down the Church. The Church is a special and separate institution that cannot be “equally” restricted with just any other secular entity.
Spell v. Edwards is an excellent opportunity for the Supreme Court to untangle the mess that has been made of our religious freedom; to declare once and for all that the State cannot keep a church from assembling. Our duty to “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together” (Heb. 10:25) is for us to decide as a Church, not to be dictated by a Governor, President, or any government! Please join us in prayer that the Supreme Court will take up Spell v. Edwards and affirm this vital truth. Visit our News page here to read the latest on this case.
