Snake handling pastor dies of snake bite during service

[OriginalGeek]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/serpent-handling-west-virginia-pastor-dies-snake-bite/story?id=16459455#.T8aXI9Wvj55

A "serpent-handling" West Virginia pastor died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before.

Pentecostal pastor Mark Wolford, 44, hosted an outdoor service at the Panther Wildlife Management Area in West Virginia Sunday, which he touted on his Facebook page prior to the event.

I've said it before and I'll say it here: I don't want to see the end of religion at the point of a gun. I wouldn't take or vote to take religion away from anyone.

But I wouldn't mind seeing it die a natural death as its' proponents either get educated or move on in some other way.

[hlthe2b]

1. well, I guess neither son nor father gets the Darwin Award...

Or perhaps the "younger" will, if he has not yet reproduced.

Incredible.... but not surprising.

[OriginalGeek]

2. Yeah I thought about that

Darwin doesn't apply if they have kids already but maybe it prevented more. Unfortunately the kids in places like that are so brainwashed they will see this as god's will and carry on the tradition. I doubt they have much of a chance to get out of the life.

He did remove himself from the voter pool this November though - I doubt he would have voted for anything I would agree with.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. Oh, that's too bad.

I guess that he wasn't as pure and holy as he thought he was.....and god knew his heart.

In god we trust.

[Starboard Tack]

4. I guess god shape shifted into a rattler this time.

Stupid is as stupid does.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

5. It's all part of god's plan

Dontcha know?

[edcantor]

6. The Pastor was passing the snake around beforehand..

so any of the church service attendees could have been bitten.

Strange!

Of all types of snakes to choose, why choose a deadly one? Is that part of the demands in the Bible, too?

It seems to me that all sorts of stupidity and magical thinking does a snake dance in all religions.


Here's a report from 2008! Youtube video.

[OriginalGeek]

7. Yep, the snake has to be poisonous for it to count.

Jesus don't take kindly to fakers. Or fakirs.


I grew up in a fundamentalist, Independent Baptist church and home and we believed every single word of the King James Version of the bible was the literal and inspired word of God. Every story in it was true and actually happened (except, of course, where Jesus specifically said he was fixing to tell a parable) (oh, and except for "wine". Jesus turned the water into grape juice because alcohol is a sin).

We believed Jonah lived in a whale. Moses parted the Red Sea. Lot's wife was turned into salt. Noah got 2 of every animal on an ark and the world was flooded, killing everyone (but hey, we got rainbows for it!). Jesus walked on water and was killed for our sins and arose in 3 days. His momma was a virgin and god hates gays and the end times are near. We didn't believe Mormons or Catholics were even christian and we were leery of anyone who wasn't a Baptist but some of them Pentecostals were OK.

And even we believed those snake handlers were batshit insane.

eta: And that is part of my problem with religion. No matter what crazy bullshit you believe you can justify it as long as someone else is a little bit crazier. And once you establish that they are really crazy, then every thing you believe is just fine and normal because at least it's not that..

[edcantor]

10. Thanks for that! Yeah, I think all religions invite...

these kinds of fantastic fiction and outright fairy tales, then incubate the nonsense of foolish rituals to go along with the made-up stories.

If religion relied upon only fact and observable evidence it would be science, and no one would show up on Sunday or whatever Sabbath day to sing and dance and play with snakes or drink grape juice and eat wafers.

[kdmorris]

8. Wonder if he already had children

If not, he should win a Darwin award!

[Arugula Latte]

9. He didn't beleeeeeeeeive strongly enough!

His faith was too weak!

Yeah, that must be it!

[MrModerate]

11. While there's no evidence for the existence of god . . .

There is some evidence for justice: this goniff didn't reproduce before immolating himself herpetologically.

Evolution in action.

[onager]

12. And now a new generation is "grasping the power!"

Young snake handlers say they grasp the power of faith

...While older serpent handlers were wary of outsiders, these younger believers welcome visitors and use Facebook to promote their often misunderstood — and illegal — version of Christianity. They want to show the beauty and power of their extreme form of spirituality. And they hope eventually to reverse a state ban on handling snakes in church.

Since the early 1900s, a handful of true believers in Eastern Tennessee and other parts of Appalachia have practiced the so-called signs of the gospel, found in a little-known passage in the King James Version of the Gospel of Mark:

"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2012-06-03/snake-handlers-pentecostal-tennessee/55354206/1

[AlbertCat]

13. Those poor snakes....

.... just wanna be left alone!

[dimbear]

14. About 6000 years ago, God sentenced all of the snakes to crawl on their bellies forever.

Result: snakes pissed.

[japple]

15. Another one bites the dust....

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http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2014/feb/16/pastor-dies-after-snake-he-was-handling-bit-him/

[OriginalGeek]

17. And his son said

he would carry on his father's work.

[uriel1972]

16. Live by the snake, die by the snake... nt