One year ago today, I was in the midst of the most difficult day of my life. The morning of May 6, 2019, we had the nurses temporarily turn off my husband’s sedation so he could participate when doctors informed us there was nothing further they could do. The fever he had started running a couple of days after they had put him on a ventilator was MRSA, the antibiotic resistant staph infection. When asked if he wanted to keep fighting to live, he shook his head. When asked if he wanted us to let him go, he nodded slowly, once, twice, as the tears poured from his eyes, mine, and those of our kids.
The decision was clear, but removing and shutting down the various life-sustaining devices was a process which would take a full 24 hours.
We had to wait for that morning’s daily shot of blood thinner to wear off before they could remove the balloon pump helping support his weakened heart. That pump was fed in through an incision in the femoral artery in his groin. Once it was removed, it would be another 12 hours waiting for a clot to form there, so he wouldn’t bleed out when moved to a sitting position. He had to be in a sitting position so the ventilator they had put him on one week previously could be removed. And in the meantime, we asked that they change the programming of his internal pacemaker so that it did not trigger again, as it had eight times during his 10-day hospital stay.
We were all – his sister, me, our children and their spouses, one grandchild – able to spend time with him, saying our individual good-byes, but the overall waiting was anguishing. I believe his spirit, his soul, departed the body about 3:30 a.m. Finally, just before 8 a.m. they came in to remove the ventilator. Once that was done, we all encircled the bed, holding his hands and each other’s, watching through our curtains of tears, as his body struggled with fewer and more ragged breaths. After an agonizing seven-and-a-half-minutes, his body ceased to function.
No, it wasn’t COVID-19. Unlike those hospitalized with this virus, my husband was able to have the comfort of contact with his loved ones, hear them talk and feel their touch. Yet his struggle to breathe, both on and off a ventilator, was excruciating, and my heart breaks for each and every one of those struggling with this coronavirus.
And no, I didn’t expect anyone else to mark this day as I did, but in view of my heartbreaking memories, what I saw and heard coming out of the state Capitol could only be categorized as “callous disregard” for the value of life.
Meanwhile, at the Legislature today, one of the first things hitting my social media feed was this post from the executive director of the Louisiana Partnership for Children and Families, Susan East Nelson:

Rep. Rick Edmonds (R-Baton Rouge), who serves on House Appropriations, Education and Municipal Affairs, is the Vice President of the Louisiana Family Forum, and the Outreach Pastor for Bethany Church.
Callous disregard for the potential of spraying his neighbors with spit droplets and germs as his bubble pops.
Late in the morning, the Senate Insurance Committee heard four bills by Sen. Jay Luneau (D-Alexandria), designed to halt auto insurance rating practices practices proven to hike the premiums paid by certain sectors of the population.
The first of the measures to be heard, SB 14, would prohibit the use of credit scores in setting auto insurance rates. Sen. Luneau phrased the dilemma succinctly, asking, “The issue here is that if you’ve had a perfect driving record for 20 years, why should some credit problems you’ve had make you pay more for insurance?”

During Sen. Luneau’s presentation of this bill and of his subsequent measures, Sen. Kirk Talbot (R-River Ridge), the committee chair, was furiously texting with someone, and barely looked up from his phone.
Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon defended the practice, saying, “Credit worthiness has shown to be an accurate predictor of the likelihood of incurring a loss. If we ban the use of credit, then the insurance companies will pass along higher overall rates to all, as part of their cost of doing business in Louisiana.”
Rich Piazza, Chief Actuary for the Louisiana Department of Insurance, testified, “While this does not affect how much money insurance companies will pay because of their losses, not using credit ratings ends up subsidizing one part of the driving public at a cost to all the rest.”
The bill failed to pass.
“I don’t know why we treat the ladies of our state as second-class citizens when it comes to insurance rates, but SB 13 would prohibit using gender as a factor in setting vehicle insurance rates,” Luneau said of his next bill to be heard.
“Women live longer than men, so charging them more is actuarially sound,” Insurance Commissioner Donelon responded, before he launched into a rant.
“All of this was brought by the trial lawyers last year, as a red herring to distract from tort reform! It is discrimination on its face, and the only thing it will do is change who pays,” an agitated Donelon said before adding heatedly, “By the way, I got a letter last week from the Louisiana Bar Association, of which I am a member, supporting all of Sen. Luneau’s bills and opposing all the tort reform bills. I absolutely resent that and urge you, don’t take the bait!”
Sen. Luneau wasn’t going to totally turn the other cheek, so he gave a staunch but soft-spoken response, expressing his disappointment in the Insurance Commissioner’s attack.
“I have tried to stay away from personalities, but I am quite honestly tired of having a statewide elected official castigating me, trying to besmirch my reputation based simply on my profession,” Luneau said sadly.
“Look, this is common sense. We should not be discriminating against women!” he remonstrated with the committee members. “If we continue to let insurance companies do whatever they want, we’re never going to get our rates down. Regulation is the only way to do it. These guys make a lot of money. I’m not against profits, but this is a product we are mandated to buy.”
That bill failed.
SB 15 would prohibit raising someone’s auto insurance rates when their spouse dies.
“A lady I know had a spouse who was bedridden for six years, and suddenly her driving became a worse risk after his death? How does that make sense?” Luneau asked.
Donelon was still fired up, and ready to whine about how he has been treated over this issue.
“I got phone calls, and special interest groups paid for ads claiming I was discriminating against widows. That’s just a lie! I am treating single women – whether widowed, divorced, or never married – the same. They pay higher rates because they are driving more, because they are not sharing the driving duties with a partner.”
(It wasn’t that long ago that Donelon “mansplained” this issue and the gender rate thing to me, a widow.)
Luneau shook his head ruefully. “Do you hear what the ‘facts’ are – they’re driving more? What about he lady I told you about? For her and how many others that is certainly not true? It’s fiction. It’s smoke and mirrors. And it’s unconscionable to charge someone more because their spouse dies.”
That didn’t pass either, though Luneau’s SB 16, to prohibit premium penalties being assessed when a military member has been deployed, advanced without objection.
“I’m glad to know the Insurance Commissioner supports the bill this time. Apparently he likes military members better than he likes women and poor people.”

The most egregious display of callous disregard came through the afternoon and into the early evening hours, with the House and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing testimony for and against HCR 58, a resolution to strip the Governor of some of his emergency powers.
The measure, filed late last week and authored by the House majority leader, Rep. Blake Miguez (R-New Iberia), is being brought to try and force the Governor to fully reopen the state immediately.
“This removes the governor’s ability to extend the stay-at-home order, and removes his enforcement power,” Miguez explained. “We have to take a balanced approach to protect both lives and livelihoods. People back home are losing their livelihoods, while the governor is taking a one-size-fits-all approach, and we need to empower the parishes and municipalities to to as they see best.
“The Governor is a pitbull. This doesn’t turn him into a chihuahua, but it does take his teeth away,” Miguez continued. “This is a respectful request. I would be happy to throw this resolution in the waste bin with a phone call from the Governor saying we’re reopening the state now. Instead, we’re doing this from desperation. We need to start reopening today. We needed to start reopening yesterday.”
Rep. Dodie Horton (R-Haughton) was completely supportive of the measure, though she had a couple of questions for Miguez.
“I’m a healthy person, and I don’t wear a mask because I’m an American, and I can choose. I mean, have you ever known healthy people to be quarantined in the history of our country? Have you ever known our economy to be shut down? I mean, are we in Nazi Germany? Seriously, we should have opened May first!” Horton effused. “But what does this actually do? Will our hair salons and nail salons be able to open immediately if we pass this resolution? And can the Governor just ignore it?”
“I’d like to think and feel the Governor will follow the law. These powers were given to the Governor by the Legislature, and the Legislature can take them away,” Miguez said, then added with a smirk, “He doesn’t have veto power of this because it’s a resolution.”

Vice chairman of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, Rep. Royce Duplessis (D-New Orleans), had some questions for Rep. Miguez.
“Do you think the Governor enjoys making these tough decisions?”
“No, but that’s the cost of being in public service,” Miguez replied.
“You’ve said you want to save livelihoods, but you realize you have to save lives first, because you have to live in order to have a livelihood?” Duplessis asked , somewhat rhetorically. “Yet throughout your entire presentation, there been a lack of acknowledgment of the human cost. You said you’ve consulted with the Attorney General. Did you consult with the Department of Health?”
“No, because I’m not trying to set up a health plan,” Miguez answered, snippily.
“I don’t think anyone wants to open the economy faster than the Governor, and he’s been consulting with the experts, which you have not on this resolution.” Then turning to the committee chairman, Rep. Stephen Dwight (R-Lake Charles), Duplessis asked, “Can we get a fiscal note on this?”
“I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Miguez objected. Then when the chair ruled one would be requested, Miguez got angry. “You want to talk about a fiscal note? What about the fiscal impact on the business owners of this state? And experts have weighed in – the White House, the CDC.”
“Tell me how that goes with your assertion that locals, being closer, know best, to rely on the feds versus state authorites?” Duplessis asked. “Is it true or not true that a majority of the people believe the Governor is doing a good job with his response?”
“That depends on which poll you read,” Miguez said. “People in my district, people in our churches support this legislation.”
“Earlier you said this is a ‘respectful request.’ I think it’s more like a shot across the bow,” Duplessis remarked.
“I said I would toss it in the trash if he changed his mind,” Miguez said, gloatingly. “And there are more nuclear options on the table than this. I’m trying to be respectful.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards’ executive counsel Matthew Block spoke in opposition to the bill (as, ultimately, did Louisiana Health Secretary Dr. Courtney Phillips and Assistant Secretary for Public Health, Dr. Alex Billioux.)

“Obviously, the Governor does not support this resolution,” Block told committee members. “While Mr. Miguez and I don’t see the world the same way, I do appreciate the oppty to address this. Recovery from this is not something the Governor, the Legislature, the parishes can do on their own. Each has a critical role to play and this has to be done together. Without working together, we’re not going to have the recovery we need. If we just go back to how things were before, we’re soon back in the same boat as in March, with the highest per capita number of cases in the world.”
Rep. Tanner Magee (R-Houma), the House Speaker Pro Temp, quizzed Block, “You said Legislature has critical role in recovery. Don’t we have a critical role in the response?”
“Of course,” Block replied.
(Block forbore to point out that playing a role, even a critical one, is nowhere near the same thing as directing the play.)
“Didn’t the Governor say, I think it was in March, that we would run out of ventilators?” Magee asked.
“Yes, but fortunately that didn’t happen,” Block answered.
“I believe the Governor said, ‘It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.’ To my mind, that’s a promise, and it didn’t come true,” Magee came back. “My mother taught me, ‘to trust is good. To not trust is better’.”
“What you are creating with this resolution is a hodge-pode of responses to the biggest health disaster in more than one hundred years,” Block remonstrated with the committee members. “You are taking away the authority of the state, which is the funnel between federal and local governments for emergency management. That’s the way the federal laws and state laws are designed.”
“We mourn the loss of every life that COVID claims, but there’s the slippery slope of shutting down our constitutional rights,” Rep. Valarie Hodges (R-Denham Springs) declared. “Our constitutional rights supercede everything else that we are facing.”
There was a motion to delay a vote on the resolution until after the Governor makes his scheduled Monday announcement regarding plans for lifting the stay home orders, but it failed to pass. And with a 9-7 vote, the committee moved the resolution to the full House, where, with suspensions of the rules, it could be voted on as swiftly as Thursday evening.
Breaking Tony’s Spell
By now, it should be plainly obvious to anyone who has followed the news about Baton Rouge-area pastor Tony Spell that he’s pretty obviously the worst kind of charlatan.
No, it’s not an attack on anyone’s religious liberties to point out the newly-minted celebrity is nothing more than an outlandishly delusional huckster who has commanded the predominately poor and working class members of his breakaway Pentecostal church in suburban Baton Rouge- Life Tabernacle- to break the law, endanger their health, jeopardize the lives of those in their community, and keep showing up every Sunday to hear him speak.
Disabuse yourself of the idea that Spell’s motives have anything to do at all with politics or the United States Constitution. He realized long ago that his gravy train runs on the collection plate he passes out once a week.
But if there had been any doubt that the man was about something other than enriching himself, that was put to rest after he recently encouraged members to also sign over their stimulus checks to him as a condition of insuring against eternal damnation. Today, Spell’s wife posed for a few helpful photographs, just in case you are more of a visual learner.
And until recently, he’d been able to simply over-apply some hair gel and memorize a couple of dozen verses from the Bible without anyone pointing out the obvious: That his routine is just a cheaply-produced, grotesque imitation of Houston mega-church pastor Joel Osteen.
Considering the backlash Osteen received after getting caught lying about why he refused to allow people to shelter inside of the basketball arena he converted into his church’s new home when Houston was devastated by Hurricane Harvey, he must be thankful Tony Spell is dumb enough to want to take over the role of villain.
Jimmy Swaggart, a few miles down the road from Spell, will never need to worry again about anyone claiming his adultery scandal was the biggest embarrassment ever for those in the Baton Rouge evangelical community. Swaggart never endangered the lives of his flock, and the overwhelming majority of his fortune wasn’t made by passing around an offering plate but through the church’s donation hotline.
Yes, Brother Jimmy, you are forgiven.
TMZ has been having a field day with Spell; they specialize in mocking trashy wannabes, and this guy showed up already in costume for them, delivering lines more absurd and idiotic than they could have ever scripted themselves.
And amazingly, without even asking for it, Tony Spell got himself arrested on Tuesday, a necessity in any great tabloid story. Spell, to borrow a word from fellow hair gel enthusiast Donald Trump Jr., was triggered over a handwritten protest sign. What a snowflake!
If any of this seems hyperbolic or, pardon the pun, overindulgent, consider the parade of terribles that Spell has marched through the news recently.
He generated notoriety by being one of the first in the nation to exploit his status as a religious leader to undermine the efforts to curb the spread of a pandemic that has infected millions across the globe. In the United States, the pandemic has especially ravaged Louisiana.
As of Thursday, more Louisiana residents have been killed because of the COVID-19 pandemic than were killed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when the failure of the federally-owned levee system surrounding New Orleans flooded 80% of the city. The current death toll is now nearly three times larger than the death toll in the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, and with the exception of the Civil War, has now killed more people on the state’s soil than anything since the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1853.
According to analysis compiled by the nonprofit group PAR Louisiana and based on data from the state Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, when one compares the average causes of death from the same week in previous years with the deaths caused in 2020 by COVID-19, it’s not even close.
Frances Spencer, a freelance photojournalist and writer, has spent a considerable amount of time researching Spell’s distortion of the Christian faith. She’d been familiar with the kind of damage men like Spell can inflict on the institutions they lead. As a proud graduate of Louisiana College, Spencer had been horrified by the man who replaced the school’s longtime president. Fortunately, Joe Aguillard’s Reign of Terror has ended, in no small part because of the efforts of graduates like Spencer.
When Tony Spell began to defy the law and hold regular Sunday services, Spencer decided to perch herself at a safe distance to snap some photographs of the church’s front door and parking lot. According to Spencer, reports that as many as 1,300 people had heeded Spell’s mandatory attendance order were wildly inaccurate; the real number appeared to be about a quarter of that. And while it was true that Spell had a fleet of buses driving up to the church’s entrance, many- if not the majority- of the busses arrived without passengers.
Still, there’s no denying Spell has continued to attract an audience.
Spencer also happened to get a few photos of the lone protestor whose homemade sign had infuriated the pastor to the brink of violence.
39-year-old Trey Bennett lives in the same community as Spell’s church and had been understandably concerned that the pastor was recklessly endangering people’s lives. His concerns, as he learned personally last Sunday, were well-placed.
In Bennett’s hometown, which named itself Central, LA after incorporating in 2005 (somehow without having any awareness of its own geography in the state or the fact that there is an entire region 90 miles away that’s named Central Louisiana), simply being a nonbeliever is enough to inspire Woody Jenkins, the town crier and the sorest loser in state history, to declare you to be just as bad as someone as vile as Tony Spell.
Trey Bennett of Central protests Sunday, April 12 outside the grounds of Life Tabernacle Church, a congregation that has continued to meet in violation of state orders to limit mass gathering to combat COVID-19 outbreak. Bennett’s sign lists historical instances of what he sees as church-related atrocities and then credits Christians for COVID-19. Rev. Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle, was accused of trying run over Bennett with one of the church’s buses the following Sunday and surrendered himself before being arrested Tuesday April 21 at the Central police station. Photo and image credit: Frances Y. Spencer/Spencer Media Solutions
Jenkins, who is best known for losing a race for the U.S. Senate to Democrat Mary Landrieu and then spending months on a pathetic effort to contest the election’s results, posted a screed against Bennett on the Facebook page of his news publication, claiming, among other things, that the protestor was well-known as a ne’er-do-well atheist who had a long record of offending people in town.
He attached a few screenshots he had taken of the troublemaker’s personal Facebook account that he’d found particularly objectionable.
To most outside observers, Bennett’s comments were nothing especially noteworthy. If anything, Jenkins came across as more than a little creepy and unwittingly helped underscore the kind of petty and judgmental gossip that Jenkins tries to pass off as newsworthy.
All of that said, there’s no question Bennett understood the sign he held up outside of Spell’s church contained a provocative albeit unoriginal message facetiously thanking Christians for a series of historical atrocities. It’s a riff that Tony Spell may have heard before had he received any halfway decent education in religion.
Despite Jenkins’s characterizations of the protestor and his homemade sign, there isn’t any evidence that Bennett professes to be an atheist. His protest sign blamed people who professed to be Christians- not Christianity itself- for the horrors of the past.
Of course, so what if Bennett is an atheist anyway?
Spell deserves to be ridiculed and quickly released back to obscurity.
***
In the first of three letters the Apostle Paul wrote to his young colleague Timothy, he begins by reminding him of the advice he had given him the last time they’d spoken. “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies,” he wrote.
He was just warming up. “Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.”
Later, Paul warned against men who claimed to be preachers but “have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions, and constant friction between people of corrupt mind.”
People like this, he told Timothy, rob their followers from the truth because they use their self-professed “godliness as means to financial gain.”
***
Already, at least one member of Spell’s church has died from COVID-19, and a lawyer representing the pastor was hospitalized after becoming infected with the virus. His other lawyer is accused pedophile and former Alabama judge Roy Moore.
Remember, Spell only earned his notoriety by being one of the first in the nation to exploit his status as a religious leader and convince congregants that their physical presence during church services was mandated by God and to disregard the governor’s orders.
The real lesson here isn’t that the Christian faith is to blame for all of history’s worst atrocities, which is a fairly unsophisticated understanding of the past two millennia and one that just completely disregards anything that ever occurred on the other side of the planet. If you don’t think there have been self-professed Buddhists who waged war and murdered people, you’d be sorely mistaken.
The lesson here is that the only way to stop men like Tony Spell, who exploit religion to justify their own quest for wealth and fame, the only way to ensure their credibility is diminished and their fraud is finally revealed is by not being afraid to call them out.