I guess he didn't have enough faith... Snake-handling preacher dead of rattlesnake bite.

[backscatter712]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/serpent-handling-pastor-profiled-earlier-in-washington-post-dies-from-rattlesnake-bite/2012/05/29/gJQAJef5zU_story.html?tid=pm_lifestyle_pop

Serpent-handling pastor profiled earlier in Washington Post dies from rattlesnake bite

Mack Wolford, a flamboyant Pentecostal pastor from West Virginia whose serpent-handling talents were profiled last November in The Washington Post Magazine , hoped the outdoor service he had planned for Sunday at an isolated state park would be a “homecoming like the old days,” full of folks speaking in tongues, handling snakes and having a “great time.” But it was not the sort of homecoming he foresaw.

Instead, Wolford, who turned 44 the previous day, was bitten by a rattlesnake he owned for years. He died late Sunday.

Mark Randall “Mack” Wolford was known all over Appalachia as a daring man of conviction. He believed that the Bible mandates that Christians handle serpents to test their faith in God — and that, if they are bitten, they trust in God alone to heal them.

He and other adherents cited Mark 16:17-18 as the reason for their practice: “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

I'll just say he renewed my faith... in natural selection.

[SoutherDem]

1. This is when they would say it was his time to go

it was in god's master plan.

[pa28]

2. Oh boy. You can only imagine the level of cognitive dissonance in his flock.

For years it must have been 'look at the forbearance the lord is showing in allowing him to handle this deadly snake! Praise god!'.

Today it's something like 'he's done such good work and now he's sitting at the hand of the lord. Praise god!'

Sounds like he had a good run as a con man though. RIP.

[ladjf]

8. The congregation will just make up another phony explanation and business will continue as usual.

[struggle4progress]

3. Then did the devil carry him to the Holy City, and there stood him atop the Temple, saying

“If you be the Son of G-d, cast yourself down, for it is written, He will charge his angels concerning you and also They shall lift you up, lest your foot strike against the stones.” To which Jesus answered, “And further it is written, You shall not test the Lord your G-d.”

Matthew 4


Timber rattler bites, kills snake-handling preacher
Tuesday May 29, 2012

... A nursing supervisor at Bluefield Regional Medical Center said Wolford, leader of House of the Lord Jesus church in Matoaka, came to the hospital about 10:30 p.m. Sunday with a snakebite ...

The nursing supervisor said the hospital sees "quite a few" snake handlers ...

As a teen he watched his father die from a bite during a service, Fowler said ...

Fowler said her photographer friend, not Wolford, eventually called paramedics ...

http://www.dailymail.com/News/201205290190

Sad story

[Zorra]

4. I grew up in an area that had lots of rattlesnakes. They're dangerous.

Every kid where I grew up knew this for sure by the time they were 7 years old.

It's pretty much just common sense.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. Charlie Darwin! Charlie Darwin! Charlie Darwin!

[dimbear]

6. In the well known words of Moe Szyslak, "I was born a snake handler, and I'll die a snake handler."

Moe handles some pretty poisonous beverages, too!

[Botany]

7. Well he went out just like his daddy

"Wolford was 15 when he saw his father die at age 39 of a rattlesnake bite in
almost exactly the same circumstances."

[cbayer]

9. It wasn't faith he was lacking, it was sense.