Posted on 02/16/2014 3:53:48 PM PST by traumer
Jamie Coots, who starred in the 'Snake Salvation' reality TV show about Pentecostal preachers, has died after being bitten and refusing treatment
A "snake-handling preacher" who believed that he was following a Biblical command by picking up snakes has died after being bitten.
Jamie Coots, star of an American reality television show Snake Salvation, which profiled Pentecostal snake-handling pastors, died at his home in Kentucky after refusing to go to hospital.
Coots had been bitten nine times before, losing part of his finger in the process.
"It's a victory to God's people that the Lord seen fit to bring me through it," he said the day after a previous bite, in 1998.
Coots was killed by a rattlesnake, dying less than an hour after he ordered doctors away from his home. Followers of his sect frequently refuse mainstream medical care.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Rattlesnakes are one of the things which they invented shotguns for...
George Went Hensley may have been the first snake handler. I was watching a documentary, “Hillbillies,” narrated by Billy Ray Cyrus, and after talking about bootleggers, coal mining, and feuds, he had a segment on Religious Practices. In it he focused on George Went Hensley.
A former bootlegger, he was saved, and one day while walking in the woods, he pondered on Mark 16:18, “They shall take up serpents… and it shall not hurt them.” Finding a rattlesnake, he picked it up and was not bitten. He then brought a rattlesnake to the next service and challenged the congregation to handle them like he did.
They mentioned he died while handling a snake in 1955, and they showed a brief newspaper article about it. Imagine my surprise when the town mentioned was Altha, FL. My relatives live in Altha and have since the early 19th Century, so I was surprised I hadn’t heard my relatives talk about it.
I emailed my cousin and asked her if she knew anything about it. She said my grandfather married his widow, and they were there.
My grandfather and a friend had caught the snake several days before and didn’t feed it or give it water. I guess my grandfather felt guilty.
I was only four at the time, so I don’t remember her at all. The marriage didn’t last long. I asked my mother about her, and she gave the highest praise a country woman could give to another, “She kept a clean house.”
I thought most serpent handling churches use copperhead snakes which are known to be mild natured when compared to other venomous species.
Anyway, nothing to rejoice at. My faith is only just strong enough to know that my Redeemer liveth.
When harmonicas go bad.
Providing the water isn’t more than chest deep....at least until you get the hang of it.
“He may have been “living free” as you put it, but he was clearly tempting God.”
Yeah.
1Cor 10:9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;
(I saw this verse in a comment at a KY newspaper article about his death. Seems quite appropriate).
Tempting God and misleading well meaning simple sheeple. Deceiving himself. Making a fool of God.
Someone was ragging a friend of mine about handling snakes. Telling him that “they” say if you have enough faith the snake won’t bite you. His reply: If “they” believe that, then let “they” do it.” I’m not going to.
I personally think that whole scene was covered by Christ when He answered one of Satan’s enticements with, “Though shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God...”
Well at least he died doing what he loved./sarc
Really bad it gives the left a way to ridicule christians
Yes.
I also saw that in an undergraduate social studies class.
I think it was anthropology of Religion, so it was somewhat appropriate.
Yet, indeed, the snake handlers are used as examples to destroy childhood faith the students may come in with.
It’s not really a sound logic to destroy the faith, but young students have not developed the intellectual skills to see that.
“1Cor 10:9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;”
You found the perfect verse for this situation.
It is uncanny.
>>>They showed Holy Ghost People (1967) in one of my undergrad anthropology classes. The documentary was about a West Virginia church (Dolly Pond Church of God with Signs Following) which practiced snake handling.<<<
I saw that film in a Sociology class in the mid 70’s. The film can be found on Youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx8yXNGcE1Q
The minister got bit near the end of the film, about 48:15.
Philip
Good one
LOL
Maybe it was a female snake trying to tell him, “Not tonight, dear.” He should have listened.
Guess he just wasn’t feeling anointed that day.
I suspect there may have been a Church of Great Heights, where the membership believed they would be saved upon the wings of angels. Sadly, they may have been inspired by the free fall, but that sudden deceleration as they slammed into God’s earth ended the inspiration.
Thou shalt not be a sloppy typist, either.
My bad.
Evolution in action!
I tried to shoot a rattle snake once, I had a .25 semi auto. Afraid to get too close, I was missing every shot, dad came out onto the porch, told me to stand back, one blast from his 12 gauge...........end of rattle snake.
Thought they put the snakes in the icebox before handling them.
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