Snake Salvation preacher evicted from church, divorcing wife

[NotALoserLikeYou]

starcasm.net/archives/276612

 

 

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Clyde Daugherty, who owns the building that housed Hamblin’s Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tennessee (note - isn't that where Whitney Bates is from) tells WBIR‘s Ashley Izbicki that he felt Hamblin was getting distracted by the attention he was receiving from being on Snake Salvation. “He was focused too much on the wrong things, like attention from the media and the TV show, instead of the word of God,†Daugherty said.

 

Daugherty, who built the church in August, 1994 and was renting it to Hamblin for $267 a month, decided not to allow snake handling in his building after he witnessed Hamblin’s co-star, Pastor Jamie Coots, bitten at a service in February — a bite that would end up killing Coots. “I was with Jamie in Middlesboro Kentucky when he was bit,†Daugherty said. “Enough is enough. There will be no snakes at my services.â€

 

 

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The writing may have been on the wall for Hamblin for a while because back on May 10 he announced a GoFundMe.com campaign to raise money to build a new church. Here is the announcement:

 

The decision has been made tonight. The Tabernacle family has voted we are gonna move and build a new church. After some pressing issues and much prayer we decided tonight. If anyone is wanting to help in anyway whether it be donations or be wanting to donate supplies or anything at all you can private message me on here and I’ll give all the information you need. Most of all pray for us as we take a new journey in our ministry.

 

Hamblin set a goal of $50,000 and at the time of this post had raised $560 towards that goal.

 

 

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Meanwhile, it appears as though Andrew Hamblin is not only having troubles with his church, but also at home. On Wednesday a Snake Salvation Facebook fan page shared the following post claiming that it was from Andrew Hamblin’s wife, Elizabeth Marie Hamblin:

 

For a preacher / pastor to divorce his wife without just cause there is something going on behind closed doors……with that being said Andrew Hamblin and I are getting a divorce.no I do not won’t to but he’s the one taking and doing this to his family who has stood behind him threw everything he’s ever went threw.so to inform u all this way but its no secret. I love him with all my heart and has begged to him not to do this but its in his hands.he knows he has preached against divorce ……..so for me and my kids I’ll take care of us.pray me cause I’m gonna need it..

 

Elizabeth later seemed to confirm the post by using her personal Facebook page to write, “Please remove the post u used from my page ASAP please.â€

 

Andrew and Elizabeth had five children at the time Snake Salvation was filmed, but that number may be up to six now as Elizabeth recently posted a photo of herself pregnant holding a sign that reads “Baby Hamblin #6″ on Facebook that she says was taken in November.

 

His facebook has been deleted and her facebook is still up, with lots of pictures of him and her, and well wishes from her friends.

 

I cannot imagine a holiness pentecostal preacher divorcing his wife (they are super against divorce and remarriage) unless he had a major breakdown/crisis of faith/life change.

[Cannelle]

WHOA. :shock: That's not something I expected to see. Wow. I feel really sorry for the wife- five or six kids, and she's, what, 24? 25? That's a lot of mouths to feed, especially when she's got so little education. I hope she finds her path. I wish her success; I don't think she's going to have an easy time of it.

Very curious as to what happened to their marriage and what's going on with Andrew now.

[uber frau]

I've watched her FB page for a fairly long while.

I've always gotten the feeling that she was really unhappy and that he was abusive.

I have no evidence, it's just the impression I got. She seems to be close to her (non Snake Handling) family. I really hope she gets the help she needs.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

I've watched her FB page for a fairly long while.

I've always gotten the feeling that she was really unhappy and that he was abusive.

I have no evidence, it's just the impression I got. She seems to be close to her (non Snake Handling) family. I really hope she gets the help she needs.

Did you follow him too? I was fb friends with him and he mainly posted about getting donations for church and at least half of his statuses were from his wife, who would "hack" his phone constantly saying things like, "I like to smell my own armpits" and other immature things. Maybe that drove him away lol but really, where is he gonna find another woman to put up with all of that?

[FloraKitty35]

I've watched her FB page for a fairly long while.

I've always gotten the feeling that she was really unhappy and that he was abusive.

I have no evidence, it's just the impression I got. She seems to be close to her (non Snake Handling) family. I really hope she gets the help she needs.

I hope she has a good support system, she will need it.

[FloraKitty35]

Daugherty, who built the church in August, 1994 and was renting it to Hamblin for $267 a month, decided not to allow snake handling in his building after he witnessed Hamblin’s co-star, Pastor Jamie Coots, bitten at a service in February — a bite that would end up killing Coots. “I was with Jamie in Middlesboro Kentucky when he was bit,†Daugherty said. “Enough is enough. There will be no snakes at my services.â€

[Emkay]

When the death of the other pastor was discussed here and the Hamblins were mentioned, I went and looked at her Facebook page. With all those kids at her age and her level of education, I truly hope she has a supportive network of family and friends who will help her get on her feet and that she is able to find a way to support those kids without him- because I think it's fairly obvious he won't be much help in that area. A perfect example of how 'Christianity' fails women.

[apple1]

I have been semi-following the whole saga ever since Hamblin's West Virginia mentor died from a snake bite.

In June 2012, based on news articles, Andrew Hamblin was 21. I never saw public documentation about Elizabeth's age, but if she is the same age as he is, she would be 23 now - terribly uneducated and pregnant with number 6.

This is, of course, a predictable outcome, although not the first outcome that came to my mind. In the short run, given where she has been, I imagine she is devastated. Her public FB pics seem to indicate that she really wants him back.

No way was an uneducated 21 year old qualified - by any stretch of the imagination, in any denomination - offical or uofficial - to be a pastor, which by definition, is shepherd of a group of believers. Added to that very inappropriate power trip, the power trip of being a "star" of a TV reality show - well... predictable. I can't imagine he wants a divorce to go off by his lonesome. So there likely has to be someone else.

My unasked-for advice to Elizabeth: Rely on support from your original family, get all the help you can from social services, get through this pregnancy, continue to get help from social services, including getting an education and obtaining skills that will allow you to support yourself financially. Oh - also, get a tubal ligation, or at least a Mirena. You already have your hands full. If you are reading here - this is not snark. I'm completely serious.

[salex]

I would say that it is refreshing to read about an anti-divorce minister who is divorcing, instead of his wife meeting with an "accidental" death when the poisonous snakes "escaped" or when the gun went off or when a mysterious stranger killed her.

:?

[ariel9]

Wow someone who handles snakes in the name of religion, did something irrational....shocker. I do feel for the girl I hope she has better days ahead of her.

[chaotic life]

Well, they are mountain folk. There is one huge difference between mountain folk and other conservative Christians. They have NO problems with government support. If she goes back to the mountains and gets all the government support she can access, she won't be terribly different than many of her neighbors. My best advice would be to find family in KY versus W.VA though because ACA has been fabulous with implementation in KY and not nearly so well in W.VA. She can easily live just over the border even and the support will be better. She'll have healthcare and food funding as well as public schooling for the kids (another common thing in the mountains is sending kids to school instead of homeschooling). She might need a relative to help find a house for her and the kids, but those can be found or someone will vacate or renovate a trailer for them.

There are also educational supports, especially in KY, if she wants to pursue an education. Lots of community college, good programs for displaced homemakers, etc. She CAN make it if she decides to fight for survival instead of pining for a man who doesn't deserve her. She won't carry the stigma of the divorce as heavily because he did it and not her. Her community will welcome her and support her. She just has to want to fight for herself and her kids.

Now, I'm not entirely sure she WILL fight for herself, but the opportunity to do so exists.

[apple1]

She lives in Duff, TN (near LaFollette, TN). Best I can see, her family is also mostly in TN, but maybe some in KY.

I'm not sure why/how her husband originally was mentored by someone in WV.

[RachelB]

I would say that it is refreshing to read about an anti-divorce minister who is divorcing, instead of his wife meeting with an "accidental" death when the poisonous snakes "escaped" or when the gun went off or when a mysterious stranger killed her.

:?

Good point. This, she can recover from.

I really hope she does.

[apple1]

Not sure exactly what has happened, not much publicly available news (probably a good thing).

Anyway, a public FB page (not Elizabeth's) says please pray for her, she is going through a very difficult time, and the same page also says that she spent at least 2 days hospitalized this week.

Hoping she can get the support she needs and move on.

[Jana814]

I wish this woman Good luck! I hope she had some family support.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

When Andrew had his page up he posted a long time ago about his wife being hospitalized, but it turned out to be an anxiety attack. She is probably prone to them, plus the stress of 5 kids and being pregnant and the shame of your preacher husband leaving you - its enough to send anyone into a panic.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

Just thought I would update this in case anyone was interested. Saw the fan page in my Facebook feed last night and shall compile a bunch of threads there into this post.

Andrew is still living a life of sin, his wife (Elizabeth) commented that six months ago he left her for another woman, a married woman. He drinks and doesn't support them and took their only car. Elizabeth is still pregnant with their sixth child, a boy. She took some flak for cussing on the page (because they keep speculating about her personal life) and she said she's not a Christian anymore and doesn't pray. They're still technically married and I think she still wants to reconcile.

Later she says she still believes in snake handling for their religion. I interpret her "I'm not a Christian" remark to mean she's not saved anymore because she's sinning and not praying, not because she doesn't believe in god. It's a common belief amongst holiness Pentecostals that you have to live a certain way always or else you lose your salvation.

The snake handling church was taken over by a new pastor who still does snake handling and has pics up on his fb page. It perseveres.

Jamie Coots is still dead. His son still runs their snake handling church. His wife is pregnant. Katrina, Jamie's daughter who had gotten married but wanted a divorce, appears to still be single. Remarriage = hell in their religion.

That's about it.