As It All Turned Out, Those Who Fought Covid Tyranny Came Out Pretty Darn Well

By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News – Baton Rouge

Soon after March 2020 when Gov. John Bel Edwards began his attack on the Constitution with his illegal orders to close churches and businesses except for those he deemed “essential,” compliance was almost universal.

Churches closed, “non-essential” businesses closed, people wore masks, and the world seemed to grind to a halt.

Yet, there were hardy souls who never complied with Edwards’ orders or yielded to his illegal commands in any way.  There were still others who complied in part but found ways to quietly resist.

Now, four years later, those who fought Gov. Edwards’ commands appear to have fared very well.  Here are a few examples:

•Governor. The most vocal opponent of Edwards’ mandates — then Attorney General Jeff Landry — replaced John Bel Edwards and is now the Governor of Louisiana.

•Attorney General. The person who led the fight in court against Edwards’ usurpation of the Constitution — then Solicitor General Liz Murrell — is today the Attorney General of Louisiana.

•Freedom. The only person to be arrested in Louisiana and put in jail for refusing to close his church — Central’s Rev. Tony Spell — has had a series of triumphs. In Louisiana v. Pastor Tony Spell, the Louisiana Supreme Court dismissed all criminal charges against the pastor and ruled everything Gov. John Bel Edwards did to Rev. Spell and Life Tabernacle was illegal and unconstitutional.

•Constitutional Protection. The people of Louisiana voted by a 75 percent margin to amend the Louisiana Constitution to prohibit worship services from ever being closed again. It should probably be called ‘The Spell Amendment.’  Now it is almost impossible for a governor to ever again order churches closed in Louisiana.

•Life Tabernacle Church has grown from a small local church to a nationwide ministry.  Since March 2020, it has met continuously and held 600 worship services.

•More than 3,000 people have been baptized.

• 5,800-Seat Conference Center. The church has built Revolution Square conference center seating 5,800 and held three national conferences serving more than 15,000.

•The church has grown from 34 to 41 acres and the bus ministry from 27 buses to 47 buses.

•The Haven café has opened.

•Allies Prosper.  Pastor Spell’s attorney, Judge Roy Moore of Alabama won an $8 million libel judgment against the DNC.  He was represented by Rev. Spell’s other attorney, Jeff Wittenbrink.

•The church is seeking civil damages against John Bel Edwards.

•Pastor Spell says many miracles have occurred in the church and many people have been healed.

Rep. Beryl Amedee pointed out other positive results:

•People have awakened. They realize we have been lied to and cannot trust the government.

•People are doing their own research about things like their health and education.

•When children were learning remotely, parents got to see what their children were studying, and they didn’t like it and got involved.

•Out of the disaster, much good has come.

Others made these observations:

•Irrational things were said by people we respected — things that were clearly wrong but that we were expected to accept.

•We learned the obvious — just because someone says something doesn’t mean it’s true.

•We realized there is a time to resist, as our parents and grandparents learned long ago.

•We saw public opinion swing back and forth but ultimately the people landed on the side of common sense and freedom.

At the Central City News, we were named Newspaper of the Year in Louisiana for the past three years, in large part because of our coverage of the pandemic and especially Life Tabernacle Church, the story of the decade in Central.