Bro. Jacob McMorris' interview with Fox 44 News reporter, Harrison Golden

all right there so um we're just going to get your name and bring here today jacob mcmars i'm here in support of my pastor tony spell what are you spelling it j-a-c-o-b m-c-m-o-r-r-i-s so we're waiting on the decision of course from the court but i can't help but think we're waiting for something bigger you know a larger purpose if you will or a lot of your thoughts uh there is a bigger purpose uh without this decision being in our favor today we're losing more than what people realize um i myself along with eight other members of our church was terminated from my job simply for continuing to go to church i was told if you will not stop going to this church we're going to have no choice but to terminate you i was on time all the time i was a faithful worker hard worker i just got my louisiana state fire marshal license had just had it issued to me within weeks and was terminated because i wouldn't quit going to church so if we don't have favor showing that yes our first amendment right stands and yes someone's religious conviction and their religious practice supersedes any pandemic or any issue that's happening in the world then we lose that right and if we don't have that right anymore everyone after that is to follow how long have you been going to the trip uh this church i've been going for two years now but i've been in the church the majority of my life and what what draws me to it every sunday what draws me to it is i was a drug addict before i was a criminal i spent three years in prison and every time i've ever tried to live my life without the church without god i've never been able to make it when i'm left on my own not only am i bad and i fall into these bad things these bad habits these bad choices but i'm not productive i've been more successful in my life i've i've had more production in my life i'm now the owner of three businesses within just a few years that i've been coming back and being faithful to my church i can't just miss church for a 10-month pandemic i can't miss church for a service i can't go a week without church and so it doesn't matter if one man or any one person or one church ever stops doing it and never stops happening he's not just fighting for what he believes in he's fighting for what i believe in i have to have this i have to have god every day i have to give him his time i have to go into his house so you know there are churches out there that have said that they're they're moving their services online virtual services but it sounds like to me this is i mean it doesn't seem to cut it i mean this is a social gathering you know you need it's not just about necessarily working god of course it is but to be around people that's that's exactly right there is um one the bible says can change chase a thousand flight and two two can chase ten thousand of flight there's power when god's people come together for the purpose of god uh the bible says that god is attracted to noise that he inhabits the praises of his people and so there's something powerful about when god's people come together every scripture that we have about church or about gathering is about people coming together in one place for one purpose and so yes a lot of churches have moved online they've made that choice and that's their choice but even if my church moves to online which they never will i cannot get the experience from god that i need in an online service i can't get that i can't get into the house i can't have people lay hands on me and pray with me not just for me i can't operate in my gifts that god has given me and i can minister to someone online but i can't lay hands on them and pray for them i can't dance with them i can't run aisles and leap for joy and clap my hands in the presence of my brethren where there is strength and there is unity you know we just had an inauguration for a president where thousands of people were gathered for this purpose well what made that okay well because this is an important time and an important event that's okay i understand that this is an important time for me this is an important time that also includes my salvation and so i need this time i need this time of gathering and coming together i have to have it and um you know of course this can't them if there's been a lot of shutdowns a lot of places not just purchase their well do you think there's a larger issue of mental health i mean you've talked about the role that the church has played in keeping you day-to-day but um is there a conversation right now yes so my wife and i run one of our 32 buses we run our bus from central from our church in central all the way to hammond every sunday morning we go 52 miles to our furthest stop we pick up on average between 60 and 80 people every sunday morning bring them to the house of god well we're going an hour away and we're picking up people teenage girls who are fighting depression teenage boys who don't know what to do there's there's young people on our bus that are locked in their homes with their abusive parents who are used to their children homes that their eight nine children who are normally going to school every day now schools are locked down they're not going to school they're staying home they're being abused more often than not because of the mental deal that is happening where they're in this forced environment they're constricted they're stuck together they're worried how are we going to eat how are we going to get fed there's children on my bus who they're worried about politics and they're eight or nine years old because they're afraid if we don't get another stimulus check we're going to get kicked out of our house they're being told by their parents we can't eat we can't live unless we get some type of help we need to be open we need to be doing something and providing for ourselves and so during this entire pandemic our church has not had one coveted death however we've preached many funerals of suicides young teenage girls who are killing themselves because they're at home afraid of how are my mom and dad gonna make it young teenagers who don't know what to do and they're looking to the church for hope and then if we're the only ones that are still operating and still open we can't contain everybody that's out there looking for hope everybody needs to be operating at 100 percent [Music] i think there are a lot of information sir i think there are a lot of important issues oh yeah absolutely absolutely because it's so much more than just what it's not just a court case we're looking for and the problem with the case is is they're seeing the legal side of things they are not being inclined to see the mental side the spiritual side they're not wanting to see any part of that we're not looking for some you know we want to be right and make you wrong that's not what we're looking for we're looking for can't you see the greater good can't you see the more important matter here we need to have a just balance the bible says that a false balance and a is an abomination to the lord so therefore if we're doing all this to quote save lives and be cautious but at the same time we're causing more confusion and destruction in the home and more depth and more more more violence and more problems then where is our balance where are we going to stop they're so like yeah like you said there's so many more issues here than just a legal battle over whether or not our pastor should be charged for six counts of holding church service during a pandemic a lot bigger issues than that yeah we need to be standing together is what we need to be doing we need to be together we don't need to be divisive right now don't look for a reason to separate on our differences let's come together on our likenesses and the world the country the church needs god now more than ever let's not find a reason the only being that's ever wanted to cause division in the church is the devil and so let's not be divided let's unify on this let's look at what's really important here let's look at salvation and let's look at the lifestyle that's happening in our young people in our world right now of what people are having to deal with going through all this if nothing else let's at least let the church be the church in a time like this and do you mind me asking what your job was that you were done i was a state fire marshal for the state of louisiana i was in training i just went to my class to get my license and i was employed at austin fire which is a fire protection service they come out to big industrial buildings and even resid commercial buildings where there's restaurants and such and they serve as fire equipment and i had set a record for their company because i had only been employed for 30 days and then i was getting my license and it got my license and the day after i got my license i was told if you want to continue to go to church you know we're not going to be able to keep you here we're going to have to lay you off or something and the way they did it was a layoff and i wasn't the only one there was another uh brother in our church who also had been working for the company for over 10 years and they fired him and specifically told us either you stop going or we terminate you now god has blessed me so that i've been able to keep going and as a matter of fact it's the best thing that ever happened to me because my wife and i started three different businesses that are thriving now however we have to we have to draw a line in the sand to say you know you can't just do this to anybody else because what is the next person who has a true religious conviction as i do that says i'm willing to withstand the persecution of friends family the threat of a lawsuit the threat of imprisonment and even the threat of death to stand for my conviction and what if they have that conviction but they don't have the backbone to stand for it and they're in a forced position to where we say well if you don't give in to us we're going to make it where you can't feed your children and they have to make the choice that that's not america that's not the country that we live in we don't need this to turn into that and that's why this is a very important thing happening here because we need to draw the line in the sand and say this is where we're going to stand and either you're going to call what's right right or you're going to do like it said in isaiah and you're going to twist truth and it'll lie in the street while you call wrong right and things will be upside down and that's not the world we're looking for thank you so much for your time really appreciate it

Channel: Tony Spell

Views: 3,088

Rating: 4.9473686 out of 5

Keywords: Harrison Golden, 19th JDC, Pastor Tony Spell, Tony Spell, Life Tabernacle Church, Judge Eboni Johnson, Judge Eboni Johnson ruling, Apostolic Church, Pentecostal Church, Pentecostal Apostolic Church, Apostolic Churches in Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Holiness Church in Baton Rouge, The Church That Never Closed, Sermons, Bible Sermons, Bible Messages, Apostolic Preaching, Pentecostal Preaching, Life Tabernacle

Id: UYoVvXASvvo

Length: 11min 14sec (674 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 03 2021