Religion/ Spirituality

There probably is a limit to what Pastor Tony Spell can get away with, but for now ... he's still collecting stimulus dough from parishioners while dodging jail.

The infamous leader of the Life Tabernacle Church in Louisiana tells TMZ ... since April 19 when his "stimulus challenge" began, 205 people have given at least a portion of their stimulus checks to his church.

We're told this includes parishioners as well as outsiders who don't belong to Life Tabernacle. Spell would not reveal how much cash he's hauled in from these folks.

We did the math, out of curiosity, though, and if each donor gave the typical tithe of 10% of the max stimulus amount of $1,200 -- that's $24,600 for Tony. Granted, it could be less or a lot more. He seemed to be encouraging donors to give their full checks ... as he claims he did.

As we reported ... Spell's been urging folks to give their stimulus dough away to all evangelists who can't pass the offering plate during the pandemic shutdowns.

Of course, that doesn't really apply to Spell because he's not been abiding by the Governor's stay-at-home order. Not only is he still holding services where he can take offerings, but he's also disobeying a judge's order to home confinement due to his recent arrest.

Tony tells us that's not going to change this Sunday either ... he's planning on leading another church service. He says he had 800 people attend last week (though it looks like he added a zero based on video) and expects a bigger turnout this time.

Spell says he knows he's in direct contempt of the court when he leaves his house to go to his church, but adds ... "The Bible commands us to go."

However, Spell tells us he will not be participating in his church's protest of stay-at-home orders Saturday outside the Governor's mansion. He says, "I do not want federal agents to pick me up when I am off the premises of my property." For the record, it would be local cops, not feds ... but ya get his drift.

An Illinois church and its pastor believe the Governor is treating them like second-class citizens during the coronavirus pandemic ... and they're suing to open back up.

Pastor Stephen Cassell and The Beloved Church of Lena, Illinois are going after Gov. Jay Pritzker over the state's stay-at-home orders, claiming places of worship are "no less 'essential' than its liquor stores to the health and well-being of its residents."

Cassell says that under Pritzker's current stay-at-home order, his prayer and worship services are off-limits because religious nonprofits are only essential when they provide food, shelter, and social services for needy people.

Cassell also claims Pritzker's declaration that churches are non-essential businesses "reeks of rank bigotry."

The church wants the court to step in and find the Governor's order of shutting down churches unconstitutional.

According to the docs ... the church believes this violates the constitutional rights to free exercise of religion, free speech and freedom of assembly.

Cassell adds that he and his parishioners are "fully willing to comply with proper constitutional guidelines ... but they cannot abide by an indefinite shut down of their church."

He's asking for an order to keep the Governor and government officials from interfering with church business and let them be.

The pastor adds the orders rest on "shaky legal grounds," but the Governor is trying to enforce them and extend them to the end of May and possibly beyond ... and they've had enough.

The church plans to reopen and hold a public worship service Sunday.

Pastor Tony Spell should be thrown in jail for brazenly and outrageously violating a judge's stay-at-home order and conducting his Sunday service -- actually, his stay-at-home order is really house arrest -- but he's not going to jail.

As we showed you, Spell showed up and falsely claimed his congregations were practicing social distancing -- in fact, the video clearly shows the congregants were packed in. Spell also displayed his ankle bracelet as an act of defiance to the judge who ordered him to wear it after getting arrested for allegedly trying to run over a protester.

Now, here's what's really shocking. The judge could have cited Spell for contempt of court and changed his mailing address to the county jail, but he didn't do that. The judge is worried that Spell might infect the prisoners who are currently in jail, so Tony gets a pass.

The judge wrote, "in consideration of the involuntary population at the parish prison ... to avoid the exposure of this captive population to the defendant [Spell]; instead of his remand to jail until an indefinite date, the conditions previously set on his bond will remain the same."

So, in other words, Spell just goes home and stays on house arrest, until next Sunday when he'll probably defy the judge again.

The judge did say further violations will be addressed, but you gotta assume the same situation will exist next Sunday as well. There will still be prisoners who would be put at risk if Spell ends up behind bars.

Pastor Tony Spell is officially a wanted man -- cops have a warrant to arrest him for allegedly backing up a church bus toward a demonstrator.

According to Central Police in Baton Rouge ... the warrant was issued Monday based on video evidence caught by FOX 44 from a Sunday incident where Spell allegedly reversed the bus upon the shoulder of the road and nearly took out someone who was protesting his church gatherings.

Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran tells TMZ ... after speaking with Spell's attorney ... they expect the pastor to turn himself in Tuesday morning around 10:30 AM CT. We're told Spell is being charged with 2 misdemeanors, aggravated assault and improper reversing.

Spell and his attorney are not on the same page, because the controversial leader of the Life Tabernacle Church, tells us ... he will never surrender to authorities.

Video from the alleged incident shows a white bus reversing toward a protester holding a sign outside Spell's church. The bus does not hit the man.

You'll recall ... the pastor was driving a church bus last week while delivering food to people in his community.

And, as you know ... he's been stirring controversy all month, packing his church on Easter without concern for public health or the health of his congregation.

A parishioner from Spell's church has since died of COVID-19 and his attorney has also contracted the virus.

Pastor Tony Spell's lawyer has pneumonia in both lungs and is hooked up to oxygen after contracting COVID-19 ... TMZ has learned.

Jeff Wittenbrink tells TMZ he was admitted Tuesday to Baton Rouge Medical Center with the virus after his condition worsened over the weekend. In addition to pneumonia, he's battling a high fever and persistent cough.

Wittenbrink attended two services at Pastor Spell's Life Tabernacle Church ... on April 2 and April 5, which was Palm Sunday. He tells us he shook hands with the controversial pastor that day, but added Spell sanitized his hands immediately afterward. Wittenbrink says Spell does that after he shakes hands with everyone.

He also says he did NOT go to Easter Sunday service and his wife decided not to attend either ... given his condition. That being said, he doesn't think he contracted the virus while attending church.

Instead, Wittenbrink thinks he picked it up the previous week while doing his daily business and going to drug stores, grocery stores and hardware stores.

The Baton Rouge lawyer is repping Spell's Life Tabernacle Church in its fight to defy the state's stay-at-home order. All of this as Louisiana approaches nearly 2,000 hospitalizations due to the coronavirus.

As we first reported ... Spell said his parishioners are true Christians who wouldn't mind dying from the virus because they'd be doing so in the name of God and freedom.

Spell's church was packed on Easter Sunday ... and it seems nothing will stop him from continuing to do so. He's already been arrested once, and the police say they're working with the D.A. to build a case against him.

Nuns in Spain are taking a break from the mundane, yet very essential, task of making sanitary masks ... with a full-court game of basketball!!!

At the convent of San Leandro in Sevilla, nuns have exchanged making their famous sweets for sewing much-needed masks, and when they need some time to get away and stretch their legs, they pick up a rock and shoot some hoops!

Ya gotta see the video ... these nuns know how to run and gun, or should we say, nun and gun. Seriously, the ball hardly touches the floor, you'd think they were coached by Paul Westhead.

It's kinda hard to tell which team is which, they're mostly wearing the same thing, but keep your eyes on the nun wearing white, she's dominating the paint like Pau Gasol.

Pastor Tony Spell's got a plan for your stimulus check -- give it away to evangelists who can't pass the offering plate while the pandemic's closed their churches.

The controversial leader of the Life Tabernacle Church in Louisiana has whipped up another controversial idea he calls the #PastorSpellStimulusChallenge ... and it has 3 rules.

First rule is it starts this Sunday. Second rule is donate your stimulus money ... and third rule is give it to North American evangelists, missionaries or music ministers who haven't received any money from parishioners in the past month.

Interestingly, that would NOT include Spell ... who's kept his church doors open to his flock. He doesn't specify if his challenge requires folks to donate some or all of their stimulus cash, but says he's practicing what he preaches by donating all of his $1,200 ... and so is his wife.

His challenge also doesn't seem to consider many people are in desperate need of their stimulus money for food, rent or bills. Then again, this is the guy who packed his church on Easter with zero concern for public health or that of his congregation.

You'll recall Spell also told us his parishioners are true Christians who wouldn't mind dying from the virus because they'd be doing so in the name of God and freedom.

While some pastors refuse to tell worshippers to stay home amid the pandemic -- Joel Osteen is sticking to digital preaching, and getting astounding results.

Sources close to Lakewood Church tell TMZ ... Joel's total viewership this past weekend was a whopping 11.73 million people across multiple platforms like his own website, Facebook and YouTube. And yes, that's a new record for Lakewood.

The staggering numbers cover 3 webcasts across Saturday and Sunday. Osteen's service clearly benefitted from Mariah Carey and Tyler Perry's guest appearances. Of course, it was Easter ... so that alone brings a boost.

As we reported ... Kanye West and his choir weren't able to join the festivities because Ye felt the acoustic's of his Sunday Service Choir wouldn't be effective with them as spread out as they needed to be.

Joel's Easter stats actually toppled his previous record set by Ye and co. last year, when they appeared in-person at Lakewood -- drawing just over 4 million total viewers that day.

As we reported, churches in Florida, Louisiana and Kentucky ... to name just a few ... have refused to shut down, putting thousands at risk.

Pastor Tony Spell wasn't lying about the number of heads inside his church walls for Easter Sunday -- 'cause now we got visual proof ... and it sure looked like a full house.

The Baton Rouge minister posted this photo as the header on his Facebook page following his Easter service, which went down as promised ... and to just as much fanfare as he'd been hyping. There's a lot of people here, and the Life Tabernacle Church building is probably way bigger than just this. Translation ... the place was pretty damn packed.

You'll recall ... Spell broadcasted his ceremony online, but it appeared he tried keeping the cameras off people in the pews as much as possible. Still, you could see glimpses of the crowd size -- it seemed to be quite a few -- and he eventually claimed it was 1,300-plus in attendance.

The pic certainly seems to indicate about how many folks could've been there -- he'd been telling media he was expecting around 2,000 heads or so. Seems his followers were just as eager to get together for church in-person as he was last week.

We spoke with local Police Chief Roger Corcoran who tells us the actual numbers of attendees were closer to 330 for the morning and 188 for the night service ... still much larger than the suggested 10-person rule

As for what Pastor Spell is up to now ... he tells TMZ he's continuing to do the Lord's work by delivering food to the needy. On Tuesday, Tony and co. hopped aboard their church bus and went around town distributing free grub to different families and individuals.

Unclear if he's taking as much precaution as he should be while doing this ... we see gloves on, but no masks. But, maybe a good deed's a good deed -- even if it's done in close contact and with somewhat high risk.

Gavin Newsom's clueless to think churches are not as essential as burger joints and coffee shops ... so claim a group of church leaders suing him over the lockdown.

A group of pastors and church members filed the suit claiming religious services are "essential for the spiritual health of the congregation so that the congregants can exhort one another during these difficult times."

In the docs, obtained by TMZ, one pastor believes they can hold services so long as they abide by social distancing tips recommended by the CDC ... like keeping congregants at least 6 feet apart and requiring they wear masks and gloves.

The leaders claim California's "shelter-at-home" mandate coupled with its "essential workforce" criteria has denied religious groups their fundamental right to continue congregating.

In fact, one pastor claims he was fined $1,000 for holding service on Palm Sunday. The church leaders are pissed they can't hold services ... even after they disinfect churches and practice social distancing.

According to the suit, they're also pissed baristas, burger flippers and laundromat technicians are considered "essential" ... while attending church is NOT.

The battle between governors and churches boiled over this Easter ... with more than a handful defying "shelter-at-home" orders.

The evangelical pastor who vowed to keep preaching unless he was "in jail or the hospital" has died of COVID-19 ... only weeks after defiantly opening his church doors.

Bishop Gerald Glenn showed off his jam-packed congregation back on March 22 at the New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Richmond, VA ... telling followers to stand up and prove their numbers ... despite social distancing guidelines and warnings against large gatherings in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

His church announced that Glenn died on, of all days, Easter Sunday from COVID-19 a week after testing positive for the novel coronavirus.

During that infamous in-person service, the Bishop said he firmly believed God was larger than the virus and said he was proud of being "controversial" for violating safety protocols. The Bishop also claimed he was an "essential" worker, saying he's a preacher and he talks to God.

The Bishop's wife, Marcietia Glenn, is also infected with COVID-19.