Idiots of the Week: Flat Earther Dies in Self-made Rocket Crash/ Pastor: "True Christians Don't Mind Dying to attend church"

“Mad" Mike Hughes James Quigg/Daily Press via AP, FileAssociated Press

This week's FIRST idiot is a guy who thought the Earth is flat and who made is own rocket that he rode to his demise. That makes him a Darwin Award winner.
  The second Idiot is a Louisiana pastor who has already been arrested for holding church services during COVID19. This idiot thinks people should be willing to die to attend church!!

Here are the stories>

Daredevil, skeptical of world being round, dies in California rocket crash
“Mad" Mike Hughes was killed on Saturday afternoon after his rocket crashed on private property near Barstow, California.

AP February 23, 2020
BARSTOW, Calif. (AP) — A California man who said he wanted to fly to the edge of outer space to see if the world is round has died after his home-built rocket blasted off into the desert sky and plunged back to earth.

“Mad” Mike Hughes was killed on Saturday afternoon after his rocket crashed on private property near Barstow, California.  Waldo Stakes, a colleague who was at the rocket launch, said Hughes, 64, was killed. The Science Channel said on Twitter it had been chronicling Hughes’ journey. “It was always his dream to do this launch,” the Twitter message said.

Hughes also was a limousine driver, who held the Guinness world record for “longest limousine ramp jump,” for jumping 103 feet (31 meters) in a Lincoln Town Car stretch limousine, at a speedway in 2002.

A video on TMZ.com showed the rocket taking off, with what appears to be a parachute tearing off during the launch. The steam-powered rocket streaks upward, then takes around 10 seconds to fall straight back to earth. Shrieks can be heard as the rocket plows into the desert.

Freelance journalist Justin Chapman, who was at the scene, said the rocket appeared to rub against the launch apparatus, which might have caused the mishap with the parachute.  He said in a video that his goal was to eventually fly to the edge of outer space to determine for himself whether the world is round.
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IDIOT #2 PASTOR: 'TRUE CHRISTIANS DON'T MIND DYING' IF INFECTED AT CHURCH

SUMMARY:   Rev. Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in the Louisiana city of Central, is facing six misdemeanor charges after defying Gov. John Bel Edwards’ orders aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. Spell shrugged off critics saying he's putting his congregants at risk, saying: “Like any zealot or like any pure religious person, death looks to them like a welcome friend. True Christians do not mind dying.”

STORY: An evangelical pastor who is refusing to abide by Louisiana’s ban on large public gatherings and continuing to hold in-person church services suggested his parishioners would not mind dying for their faith.

Rev. Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in the city of Central, is facing six misdemeanor charges after defying Gov. John Bel Edwards’ orders aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. Each count carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $500 fine.

Palm Sunday services at Spell’s church, held last weekend, are reported to have drawn hundreds of parishioners. Local police said many arrived in a fleet of 26 buses that the church, which is located near Baton Rouge, sent to pick them up.

In a TMZ interview on Wednesday, Spell shrugged off critics who say he is putting his congregants at risk of contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

“The Bible teaches us to be absent from our bodies as to be present with the Lord,” said Spell, a Pentecostal preacher. “Like any zealot or like any pure religious person, death looks to them like a welcome friend. True Christians do not mind dying. They fear living in fear.”