TYLER PERRY is a black writer, actor, producer and director who is a native of St. Helena Parish, just up LA. 16 a few miles from my home in Denham Springs.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the name, perhaps you may know him as the actor who plays three characters, including the lead character in the Madea movie series.
Perry, 50, who now lives in Atlanta, also developed several television series, most notably Tyler Perry’s House of Payne. In 2011, Forbes magazine named him as the highest-paid man in entertainment, raking in $130 million between May 2010 and May 2011.
Tony Spell is pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, also a short drive from my home.
Life Tabernacle is a sprawling edifice that boasts more than a thousand members and a fleet of 26 buses to transport the faithful to services.
Jerry Falwell, Jr., is president of Liberty University, an evangelical school
In July 2009, Perry sponsored 65 children from a Philadelphia day camp to visit Walt Disney World after learning that a Pennsylvania swim club had shunned them. He wrote on his website, “I want them to know that for every act of evil that a few people will throw at you, there are millions more who will do something kind for them.”
Spell, on the other hand, has defied Louisiana’s ban on large public gatherings as he continues to hold services in his church, exposing members to the spread of the coronavirus.
Last week, Perry gave a $500 tip to every out-of-work server at Houston’s Restaurant in Atlanta. There were 42 servers who were idled by the pandemic. That amounted to a $21,000 tip by Perry.
Snell, meanwhile, was soliciting donations from attendees at his church.
Falwell brought students back to the campus even as the virus was spreading across the U.S.
This week, Perry upped his game when he PURCHASED THE GROCERIES for elderly and immune-compromised shoppers at 26 Winn-Dixie stores in Louisiana and 44 Kroger stores in Atlanta.
Snell, meanwhile, was gearing up for a legal fight against Louisiana authorities, even bringing in former Alabama Supreme Court justice and unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore to lead the fight for the right to expose parishioners. Even U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins has weighed in on the right to stare down COVID-19.
Falwell said on Wednesday that ARREST WARRANTS had been issued for reporters for The New York Times and ProPublica after the publications published articles critical of his decision to resume classes.
Winn-Dixie and Kroger are currently designating an hour or so exclusively to high-risk shoppers and this week, as they entered the stores, they were given vouchers. They had no idea what the vouchers were for until they checked out. Needless to say, the scene at the checkouts was pretty emotional.
While Perry did not comment on his gesture, Winn-Dixie and Kroger certainly did. “We would like to join our customers in thanking Mr. Perry for his kindness and generosity during this unprecedented pandemic. It was truly a pleasure to see our customers fill with joy and gratitude as the news spread throughout 44 stores across Metro Atlanta,” Felix Turner, manager of corporate affairs for Kroger’s Atlanta division said.
Winn-Dixie tweeted a statement thanking Perry for “paying it forward by purchasing groceries for elderly and high-risk customers shopping at Louisiana stories this morning. Winn-Dixie applauds your love for community and sincere generosity.”
Snell, at the same time, was IMPLYING that Christians didn’t mind dying from coronavirus as long as they contracted the illness at church. “Like any zealot or like any pure religious person, death looks to them like a welcome friend,” he said. “True Christians do not mind dying. They fear living in fear.” Of those who have already died from the virus, he said, “They died like free people, fighting for their convictions.”
Matthew 25:40 says, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the lest of these my brethren, you did it to me.”
Taking that one verse into consideration, which of the three men—Snell, Falwell or Perry—best exemplifies true Christian values here?
Louisiana Voice 
Can Edwards call out the National Guard on Snell?
Seems to me that the Christian thing to do is help those who have less than you. In this particular case (Virus era) that would be the people who are hourly workers and have lost their ability to work through no fault of their own. Mr Perry is to be commended on his act of charity. I think the two ministers are more concerned about their own cash flow than the health of those they serve. Isolation has helped this virus come under control at the great expense of a badly damaged economy. I think these ministers need to have some inner reflection about the harm that they may cause by exposure of followers to a potentially lethal virus. If their actions cause harm or even death, they should face consequences. On a global scale, I feel the same way about China and their concealment of facts. And the complicity of the W.H.O.
So, Ms. Zoe, are you suggesting that China and W.H.O. were in a conspiracy to hide the facts of the CV? If so, on what facts are you basing this on? This is a pretty serious charge. I would love to know the connection.
I think that most of us would have known the answer before your post, but nicely done anyway. It’s good to have facts to back up one’s convictions.
Great job Tom! Again, this RepublicanTrump response to the Virus is disgusting, dividing and dumb. Our republican congressmen are disgusting dividing and dumb and COWARDS. I cannot speak to their understanding of Christianity, but it is nothing I ever learned at church, at home or at school, plus the military. If Trump is reelected, my feelings will be the same and I will never shut up. ron thompson
“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed–in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical–and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) from his Letters and Papers from Prison (1951)
In these words, Bonhoeffer was referring to people and forces in a political sense, but they can just as easily be applied to Spell and Falwell.
[Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German evangelical pastor, theologian, author of many Christian writings and a staunch resister to Nazi dictatorship. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp.
He was executed there by hanging at dawn on 9 April 1945, just two weeks before soldiers from the United States 90th and 97th Infantry Divisions liberated the camp three weeks before the Soviet capture of Berlin and a month before the surrender of Nazi Germany.]