Louisiana Voice

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then it’s only a matter of time before Jeff Landry moves to duplicate last week’s action by the Texas Board of Education.

We’ve seen the signs already. Both Louisiana and Texas passed legislation requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. Last October, Oklahoma attempted, then rescinded a 2024 mandate that required teachers to have a Christian Bible in every classroom.

Now Texas has gone Oklahoma one better when last month the state education board approved a REQUIRED READING LIST that includes Bible passages, further blurring the lines separating church and state.

If allowed to stand, the new reading criteria will take effect in 2030 on a staggered basis, beginning with elementary students.

While the mandate appears to be the first of its kind in the nation, it will almost certainly not be the last as other Republican-controlled state legislatures will like follow suit with efforts of their own to force-feed Christian doctrines in U.S. classrooms to the exclusions of all other religions.

On its face, the new directive would appear to fly in the face of the First Amendment which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

Again, if allowed to stand, you can expect that Texas will not stand alone for long. Sure to follow suit will be states like Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas and…Louisiana.

You can also be assured that only certain passages of the Bible will be included in the required reading list—stories like David and Goliath, Daniel in the lions’ den, Noah’s ark but certainly none of the more than two dozen references to killing women, children, non-Hebrews or non-virgin brides.

Also most likely excluded from selective reading lists:

• Lot offering his daughters to the men of Sodom and later being seduced by his daughters (Genesis 19);
• Abraham offering up his wife in a sex-trafficking scheme (Genesis 12);
• David as an adulterer and rapist (2 Samuel 11);
• David possessing homosexual proclivities (1 Samuel 20:17);
• God directs that babies be “dashed in pieces” and pregnant women “shall be ripped up” (Hosea 13:18);
• Ezekiel 23:20;
• Numbers 22:21;

It all follows the dictum by legislators in Louisiana and other states who said schools should teach only the positives about American history. The problem with that, of course, is the courses would no longer be history. Slavery, Native American genocide, taking land by force from Mexico, denying voting rights to women and Blacks, denying basic human rights for marginalized Americans—all these are as much a part of our history, like it or not, as the discovery of the polio vaccine and the Declaration of Independence itself.

To insist these uglier chapters or our history be deleted is not history; it’s censorship.

If Northwestern State University President Jimmy Genovese has learned anything—anything at all—it’s to not trust anything Jeff Landry of Alan Seabaugh tell him.

It’s a hard lesson to learn after he gave up a seat as a justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court but hey, hindsight is, as they say, 20/20.

Maybe before he stepped down from the bench to accept the NSU presidency, he should’ve checked with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Piper Hutchinson, writing for THE ILLUMINATOR, had a particularly insightful story about how Genovese saw his vision of a law school for north Louisiana dashed upon the hard rocks of political reality.

In typical journalistic professionalism, for which The Illuminator has become known, the saga of the political ménage à trois of Genovese, Seabaugh and Landry is the classic tale of backstabbing in true Louisiana tradition with the NSU campus serving as an unfortunate backdrop. “Nobody was more responsible for putting him (Genovese) there than me,” Seabaugh said with modesty befitting Donald Trump.

Seabaugh, Hutchinson wrote, is quick to take credit for removing former NSU President Marcus Jones and promoting Genovese as his successor with strong backing from Landry. Jones, meanwhile, was recycled back into the University of Louisiana System offices as executive vice president and chief operating officer under another recycled product, former State Senator and former Grambling State University President Rick Gallot, president of the UL System.

Genovese said Seabaugh “has been made at me from day one” because he refused to fire NSU employees designated by Seabaugh—again in a manner reminiscent of Taco Don’s way of doing business. Seabaugh, for his part, says it is untrue that he asked Genovese to fire employes but did say he warned the incoming president not to take advice from the same people who had Jones’s ear.

The sticking point at this juncture is Genovese’s assurances from both Seabaugh and Landry that NSU would be the home for a new law school for north Louisiana—a promise that hasn’t been fulfilled and probably won’t.

That’s because Landry has cooled on the idea considerably after drawing opposition for a fifth law school in the state (LSU, Southern, Tulane and Loyola, all in the southern part of the state, are the existing four).

“When I came on board there were discussions coming out of the governor’s office regarding a law school, so I just went with the flow,” Hutchinson quoted Genovese as saying.

But Landry, apparently sensitive to opposition to the idea from Senate President Cameron Henry (R-Metairie) and to the message it might send that he was partial to trial lawyers (he has received significant campaign contributions from trial lawyers), has put the project on the back burner.

Meanwhile, though, Genovese provided a copy of a law school proposal he drafted and submitted to the Board of Regents and to the UL System Board of Supervisors—a proposal the full UL System board has yet to see.

It’s probably way past the appropriate time, but perhaps Genovese should’ve consulted with Johnson about the concept of a new law school. The House Speaker probably could’ve given the NSU President an earful.

Johnson, you see, was once the dean of a NON-EXISTENT LAW SCHOOL that never opened its doors to the first student.

A project of Louisiana College, a Baptist college in Pineville (now called Louisiana Christian University), Johnson was hired in 2010 as the “inaugural dean” of the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law.

An initial fundraising gala was held in Houston and was attended by Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jinal and Pressler himself.

But you see, it was already off a bad start with the choosing of the name of the school to honor Pressler, a former Texas judge, legislator, Republican Party power broker and a shaker and mover in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Trouble was, he was also a SEXUAL PEDATOR who was sued by a male employee for sexual abuse. The lawsuit—as well as other suits alleging similar sexual abuse—was eventually settled out of court.

Not the best name to stick on the façade of your proposed law school, which was to have been located in the old federal courthouse building in Shreveport but which never admitted the first student.

The Pressler name was not the only obstacle. Charges of financial impropriety arose and the president of the school was forced out as a result of the infighting.

So now, Genovese, after giving up a plum job as State Supreme Court justice, is now faced with opposition from a legislator and a governor, both of whom helped put him there and now apparently are convinced they can take him out.

That, of course, would mean another appointment as a college head based on political connections rather than real qualifications for the job.

That wouldn’t exactly be a precedent, especially for this governor.

Remember OUR STORY back in May, the one about Attorney General Liz Murrill’s heavy-handed letter to New Orleans officials in which she threatened them with jail time for their sin of disagreeing with her and her boss, Squeaky Toy Jeff Landry?

In case you don’t recall that, here is A REMINDER from the attorney general’s very own web page.

Taking his cue from Diaper Don, Landry had his own puppet attorney general fire off a letter—and even posting it for all to see—in which Mayor Helena Moreno, the entire city council and District Attorney Jason Williams WERE THREATENED / under something called the state’s “usurper statutes” for their continued support of Calvin Duncan who had won an election for criminal clerk of court for Orleans Parish.

While the Lord of Mar-a-Lardo seems to be able to get away with seemingly illegal directives of what he obviously thinks is his personal Department of Justice to go after perceived enemies, Landry and Murrill may have overstepped their authority to arrest and/or remove from office those officials who might take issue with their political opinions.

Justice, it seems, can work both ways, meaning Murrill her own self is not immune from investigation.

Accordingly, an Orleans Parish criminal grand jury is conducting its own investigation of the attorney general to determine if she may have committed a crime in her messages to the seven officials. The grand jury itself initiated the investigation.

Williams, for obvious reasons, recused himself. Former criminal court judge Laurie White was named to lead the probe and that a special prosecutor was appointed in an unusual move.

Witnesses, including some members of the city council, have already begun testifying.

While Murrill claimed the mayor and council “usurped” Napoleon’s authority by citing a statute that makes it a misdemeanor to assume office without authority or to interfere with a public official, Moreno responded by alluding to a different law against intimidation and retaliation in an effort to attempt to influence decisions or to change a position. (By way of explanation for those who might not know, Louisiana’s laws are based on the Napoleonic Code whereas the remaining 49 states operate under English Common Law.)

It’s an interesting pissing contest, to say the very least, and it puts on public display Landry’s disdain for all things New Orleans, a decidedly blue pocket in Louisiana’s sea of red.

In all likelihood, the grand jury’s investigation will not produce any indictments but at the very least, the probe should send a message to Baton Rouge that some citizens still refuse to be bullied and that all officials, state or local, are subject to the same set of laws that protect citizens’ rights despite the temporary dominance of Repugnantcans who seem to forget that the political pendulum does indeed swing both ways.

Looking for a break from the daily distractions of political strife? Need relief from the non-stop stress of worrying about wars, inflation, education, poverty, housing? Weary of trying to cope in a dysfunctional society?

Then take a drive out to Life Tabernacle Church in Central.

Stick around long enough and you’re almost certain to witness another entertaining episode of As Tony Spell Turns, the live soap opera at 9323 Hooper Road.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving, a saga that has taken on a life of its own and which now refuses to be ignored. Include it in the Nielson Ratings, and you’ve got a hit on your hands.

Oops. Guess I shouldn’t have used that word “hit,” which somehow is becoming synonymous with ground zero of the church.

The drama is such that it has citizens spellbound with anticipation for what’s next.

Shoot. Shouldn’t use “Spellbound” either; it kinda sounds like a certain preacher’s name.

I guess that’s Lif….Dang!

Well, here’s the thing:

Turns out that episode in which Rev. Spell attacked and beat up a 20-year-old neighbor wasn’t the first physical encounter between the victim, Toby Sherwin, and someone from Life Tabernacle, according to The Baton Rouge Advocate (normally, we would provide a link, but The Advocate has a pay wall, so you wouldn’t be able to open it anyway).

The accoster in the earlier case, Vance Gossett, appears to be on loan to Life Tabernacle from his previous residence at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola—which in turn raises the question if his alleged assault on Sherwin might have been some kind of parole violation.

And it also reveals that the good reverend is fully skilled of administering his own brand of intimidation and name-calling—and may even be capable of allowing others to do some of the heavy lifting on his behalf.

Spell was arrested on June 23 for SECOND DEGREE BATTERY after he charged across the road from his church and peppered Sherwin with about three dozen blows to the head and body following an exchange of words (just who called whom what is still a matter of conjecture, depending upon which of the two participants is doing the talking).

But wait. It turns out that wasn’t the first time Toby Sherwin was attacked by someone from the church. He told authorities that nearly a year ago, on July 20, 2025, to be precise, he passed the church and saw a dark truck in the church parking lot. The truck pulled out and drove alongside him, he said, until he stopped in front of his home.

He said it was his practice to stop his vehicle to wait for other cars to pass so he could back into his driveway. One this day, according to sheriff’s deputies who viewed surveillance footage from Sherwin’s home, Vance Gossett, 38, exited the passenger side of the truck and approached Sherwin’s vehicle and punched him several times through the open window before re-entering his truck and leaving the scene. Gossett was later booked with simple battery and his case is pending.

Gossett spent about a decade in Angola and by his own admission, was slated for another extended visit but he credits a pretrial diversion program for allowing him to avoid that fate. “It (the program) saved my life,” he told a BATON ROUGE TV STATION.

But conviction of a battery charge could conceivably jeopardize his freedom.

Sherwin’s encounter with Gossett aside, two days following Spell’s burst of energy expended upon Sherwin, he was out mowing grass at 4:00 a.m. That’s four in the morning. Who cuts grass at 4:00 a.m.?

Only someone desiring to further antagonize a neighbor, according to Toby Sherwin’s father, Scott Sherwin, who called out East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s deputies to complain.

The elder Sherwin had succeeded in obtaining a protective order that Spell should have remained a reasonable distance from the Sherwin residence. “He’s doing this to intimidate my son,” Sherwin told deputies.

When deputies responded to Sherwin’s call, they approached Spell and asked him to identify himself—a routine procedure. But Spell didn’t see it as routine and in typical celebrity fashion, responded with an “Everybody in the world knows my name” variation of Do you know who I am? (Actually, preacher, “everybody in the world” knowing your name seems a bit of s stretch to me. You’re a preacher and should know, so correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe “everybody in the world” knows who Jesus was. Are you saying you’re better-known than Christ?)

But then, Spell showed the truly nasty side of his character. Most of us know the Bible instructs us to “Love thy neighbor.” But Spell’s hurling a homophobic slur (twice, at that) in reference to Toby Sherwin and saying, “He needs to get back to sleep with his boyfriend” really doesn’t convey the message of love and tolerance contained in Mark 25:40 (“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”)

Spell, for his part, claims that Toby Sherwin had threatened Snell’s family which he said provoked him to “protect his sheep.”

The dispute between Spell and the Sherwins goes all the way back to 2020 when Spell sued Scott Sherwin over Sherwin’s installation of surveillance cameras at his home (on his own property), claiming the cameras were installed so the Sherwins could keep tabs on the pastor.

Seriously? Does Spell actually believe he’s of that level of importance to anyone?

By the way, Rev., you been in a bank lately? They got cameras, lots of cameras.