(ChurchLeaders) Pastor Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is stirring up controversy again by asking people for their stimulus money. According to Spell, the church is not forcing people to give their money away, but rather, “We are challenging you [to give] if you can.”
Spell has already made headlines for continuing to hold in-person worship services long after the governor banned them. As of the first week in April, an attorney representing the church has been hospitalized after contracting COVID-19, and one of the church’s elderly members has died from complications due to the coronavirus. The pastor has flatly denied the coroner’s conclusion about the church member’s cause of death.
“The #PastorSpellStimulusChallenge is to help people who do not get stimuluses, such as evangelists and missionaries,” according to Spell. These are people, he said, who have not had financial support for five weeks now.