Rattlesnakes In Church

[BoneKrusher]

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/201...WS02/706019874





Rattlesnake bite kills snake-handling pastor

Pastor Mack Wolford handles a rattlesnake during a service at the Church of the Lord Jesus in Jolo, W.Va., in 2011.


MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- A West Virginia preacher who followed his father into the rare practice of handling snakes to prove faith in God died after being bitten during an outdoor service involving the reptiles.

Mark Randall "Mack" Wolford, 44 -- whose own father died in 1983 after suffering a fatal bite -- had been bitten before and survived. But he died earlier this week after witnesses say a timber rattler bit him on the thigh. Wolford's sister and a freelance photographer said it happened during a Sunday service at Panther State Forest.

Lauren Pond, a freelance photojournalist from Washington, D.C., told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph she was among 25 people at the service. She saw Wolford bitten but said congregants were unfazed.

"I don't think anyone necessarily expected it," she said, "but they've dealt with it before so it's not such a huge shock, maybe."

Bluefield Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Becky Ritter said Thursday that Wolford was a patient and died Monday, but privacy laws prevented her from releasing additional information.

Born in Pike County, Ky., Wolford had lived in the Bramwell area for the past five years and was a pastor at Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka. Unlike many Pentecostal preachers, he embraced publicity, welcoming journalists and photographers.

Ralph Hood, a religion professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, saw Wolford bitten by a copperhead about six years ago.

Wolford and others prefer to be called "serpent handlers" as a reflection of Scripture, and Hood said his friend would want people to remember him as "a Christian who was living his beliefs and being obedient."

"Serpent-handling was only a small part of that," he said. "He was trying to revitalize a strong tradition that doesn't make a distinction between beliefs and practices."

"A common misunderstanding is that handlers believe they can't get bit or it won't kill them," Hood said. "What they'll tell you is, 'No one will get out of this alive.' They'll also tell you it's not a question of how you live; it's a question of how you die. ... This is how he would have wanted to die."

Wolford and his followers have a literal belief in Mark 16:17-18. "And these signs will follow those who believe," the verses say. "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 know it's real; it is the power of God," Wolford said last year. If he hadn't started handling snakes after returning to his church, he said, "it'd be the same as denying the power and saying it was not real."

Although most Appalachian states have outlawed snake handling, it remains legal but rare in West Virginia. Wolford acknowledged that last year, saying his mother was the only relative who still followed the tradition. Her husband died of a rattlesnake bite at age 39 in 1983.

Cody Ford, interim executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches, represents 15 mainstream denominations and has little interaction with independent churches. But he said serpent-handling is "absolutely not" common in West Virginia, and churches that do it are hard to find.

"To the ordinary person sitting in the pews in any one of our churches, the snake-handling concept would be as strange and foreign as it would be to the most erudite reader of the New York Times," Ford said.

But Hood said the serpent-handling tradition remains scattered throughout the region, from Alabama to Ohio to New York. Its popularity waxes and wanes with the passing of generations, and it is currently seeing a resurgence of sorts.

"It tends to be transmitted through families, and as these young kids mature, the tradition grows and becomes strong again," he said. "And that's what's happening again now."

[Hammock Parties]

whar is ur gawd nao

[durtyrute]

Starring.......

[Kyle DeLexus]

He really bit the big one.

[Radar Chief]

So I’m watching this Amish outcast, or whatever the name of the reality show Mrs. Radar was recording, and this guy that left the Amish was thinking of joining another church but on the way to the baptism his car ran out of gas. He opined that it was God’s way of saying he isn’t ready to join a different church. I figured it’s more likely that its God’s way of saying he should have topped off his gas tank before hitting the road.

[Dave Lane]

Evolution in action.

[Dave Lane]

"It tends to be transmitted through families, and as these young kids mature, the tradition grows and becomes strong again," he said. "And that's what's happening again now."

I wonder if this is just a general comment on religion or is meant to somehow be exclusive to the snake people.

[BoneKrusher]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

"It tends to be transmitted through families, and as these young kids mature, the tradition grows and becomes strong again," he said. "And that's what's happening again now."

I wonder if this is just a general comment on religion or is meant to somehow be exclusive to the snake people.

exclusive to the snake people i think.

[GoHuge]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

So I’m watching this Amish outcast, or whatever the name of the reality show Mrs. Radar was recording, and this guy that left the Amish was thinking of joining another church but on the way to the baptism his car ran out of gas. He opined that it was God’s way of saying he isn’t ready to join a different church. I figured it’s more likely that its God’s way of saying he should have topped off his gas tank before hitting the road.

That's the first time I had seen an episode of that show and that's exactly what I was thinking. After all he went through all he learned is that God and his ****ed up mom don't like him. Must be his voice.........annoying as hell.

[Fish]

"A common misunderstanding is that handlers believe they can't get bit or it won't kill them," Hood said. "What they'll tell you is, 'No one will get out of this alive.' They'll also tell you it's not a question of how you live; it's a question of how you die. ... This is how he would have wanted to die."

Wolford and his followers have a literal belief in Mark 16:17-18. "And these signs will follow those who believe," the verses say. "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 know it's real; it is the power of God," Wolford said last year. If he hadn't started handling snakes after returning to his church, he said, "it'd be the same as denying the power and saying it was not real."

This is one of the most despicable aspects of religion.. Giving followers false belief of protection that causes them to completely ignore common sense.

Regarding the first bolded quote... do they really think this is how he would have wanted to die? That's just absurd. The entire point of them handling snakes is to supposedly show that God is protecting them. Why would he want to die in a way that goes completely against the idea that they're being protected from this idiotic practice? And saying it's not about how you live, but how you die? That makes zero sense. None.

Regarding the second bolded part... WTF logic? If he hadn't handled dangerous venomous animals(which killed him), it would have been the same as shunning his religion? So it was either die from religious encouraged idiocy, or you'll be denying the "power" of said religion. Yeah.. that's just great...

I'm glad this loony practice is confined to the ultra idiots of religion...

[Kyle DeLexus]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

So I’m watching this Amish outcast, or whatever the name of the reality show Mrs. Radar was recording, and this guy that left the Amish was thinking of joining another church but on the way to the baptism his car ran out of gas. He opined that it was God’s way of saying he isn’t ready to join a different church. I figured it’s more likely that its God’s way of saying he should have topped off his gas tank before hitting the road.

I don't get people like this that feel they control nothing in life.

[QuikSsurfer]

[boogblaster]

prolly had his finger sumwhere he shouldn't ... good place for rape'n priests to end up at .....

[Simply Red]

Jesus doesn't care for the Pentecostal 'Church Of God'

[ReynardMuldrake]

The thing is, Mark 16:17 wasn't originally part of the gospel. Which is funny when people try to take it literally. That passage was written later and inserted into later versions of the bible.