Tony Spell's in-person Easter service went down as planned, but he seemed to try to hide how many attended.
held an in-person Easter service, as promised, and says he had more than 1,000 faithful parishioners there ... defying Louisiana's Governor and potentially spreading the coronavirus.
The minister was fired up for his flock Sunday at Life Tabernacle Church, and though he's previously been arrested for doing this -- he opened church doors again to his congregation, but also posted his service live on social media. Spell claims he had 1,345 in attendance -- which he says is higher than his usual turnout. We say claims, because the congregation was rarely shown. We don't know if it was intentional, but the camera never showed more than a couple of rows of pews.
Most of the shots are of him on stage preaching from the pulpit. You see a few others on stage around him as well ... keeping somewhat of a distance. Although, the congregation was hidden from camera view, you can hear there are way more than 10 people present. The state guidelines call for gatherings to be 10 or less, and they have to maintain 6 feet distance.
One brief shot of the pews showed at least a dozen or so people, who don't seem to be socially distant.Play video content
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