Tomorrow brings a different kind of Easter Sunday for a lot of people.
Most churches are closing their physical locations, opting for live-streaming if they have the technology to do so. Where I attend church here in the home district, we have a small congregation, maxing at 20-25. That's all. It's easy to practice social distancing. Wednesday Bible studies and post-Sunday service fellowship gatherings in the basement kitchen have been suspended for the duration, leaving a Sunday service that doubles as a monthly celebration of Communion. Once the pastor closes the service, around 11 am or thereabouts, everyone heads for home. Simple as that.
In Central, Louisiana, Rev. Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church, would rather keep on keeping on. Reportedly, he bused hundreds of people in for Palm Sunday last week.
Like, seriously?
In recent interviews, Spell has been brazen enough to claim that if any of his parishoners got sick, he wouldn't publicize it, denying the ailing members the support they really need.
In Texas, Joel Osteen decided to reach for the stars for his Easter service, to be live-streamed and probably taped for his syndicated program. Singer Mariah Carey and actor-filmmaker Tyler Perry are scheduled to "appear". Rapper-controversy magnet Kanye West has backed out. As previously reported, Osteen is continuing the tapings in a sparsely filled Lakewood Church, so he's gotten with the program, unlike fellow Southwest pastor Spell, who simply doesn't have a clue, such that even a conservative columnist trashed him.
Spell has been told not to continue with services in the church, but, as previously reported, he refuses to live-stream, believing this is what God wants him to do.
I honestly think that even Vice President Mike Pence, a born again Christian himself, would disagree. It seems Spell is just as delusional as President Trump, one of several Trumpian sheep throughout the south. He thinks he's being persecuted? No, he isn't. The cops are trying to convince him to do the right thing. Use the technology that's available, and do God's work that way. More churches in the home district are doing that.
Unfortunately, where I attend church, not only does it not have the technology to live-stream, but the pastor has trouble getting the sound just right for himself and the worship team, and hasn't heeded advice to put out an ad for a sound engineer. Must be a budget thing.
Notice that I have not given Rev. Spell the Weasel ears or the Dunce Cap. That would be too easy, and it'd be an insult to real weasels.
2 comments:
Don't you just hate it when a satanic virus ruins the holidays? Easter 2020 kind of felt like the first Easter. We were huddled in our house with the doors locked just like the disciples of Jesus Christ. We were grieving and mourning just like the women who had suffered the grievious loss of Jesus Christ. We were deemed to be threat to society and were locked away in a quarantine enforced by the authorities who threatened dire consequences. That's where Jesus was. After his death, Jesus was placed within his tomb, and the tomb was sealed.
Except that three days later, Jesus was resurrected, then ascended to Heaven. Finish the story when you read, Steven.
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