God Verses Snake God 0 Snake 2

[doggie]

I always thought this is crazy but I guess he proved is faith was weaker then the snakes faith.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle ... story.html

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.

[debrand]

We have snake handlers in the NC mountains. One day, I'd like to go to a service just to observe. I don't want to be disrespectful and stare like they're freaks but I'd like to see how they incorporate the snakes into their services.

edited: I keep writing their for they're. Honestly, I know the difference. :oops:

[doggie]

We have snake handlers in the NC mountains. One day, I'd like to go to a service just to observe. I don't want to be disrespectful and stare like their freaks but I'd like to see how they incorporate the snakes into their services.

except you know you would stare at them like they are freaks because they are.

[Loveday]

Maybe West Virginia will get with the program now and make snake-handling illegal. Of course, that probably won't stop these people. :doh:

[Terrie]

Maybe West Virginia will get with the program now and make snake-handling illegal. Of course, that probably won't stop these people. :doh:

Personally, I say that if people want to be stupid, well, as long as they're adults, go ahead.

[doggie]

I wonder if they practice faith healing too or depend on god to heal them or their children?

[debrand]

Personally, I say that if people want to be stupid, well, as long as they're adults, go ahead.

As long as they aren't allowing kids to handle the snakes, I think that they should be allowed to do stupid things.

[BelieveinScience]

Confession: One of my dreams is to go through the training to learn how to handle venomous snakes.

[ladypuglover]

:shock: No, no no no no no no. No snakes with in 100 miles of me. I know I live in Colorado, I know there are deadly and harmless snakes less than 1 mile of me and could encounter one at any time. But I refuse to go to some place that parades one of my biggest phobias around willynilly. Nope, no way, not going to happen in this lifetime. :snooty: :snooty: :snooty:

Even think about this has given me the chivers*. :( :shock: :( :shock: :(

* chivers are a combined case of chills and shivers.

[gustava]

Religious snake handlers and religious faith healers generally do not overlap. While I think snake handlers are certainly eccentric, I don't think they're stupid. They genuinely live that passage in Mark 16:17-18. Unlike many of the fundies we snark on such as the Maxwell's and Dougie, who would impose their beliefs on everyone, snake handlers do not and do not want to. As with speaking in tongues, one should do it only if one feels called to it.

I have no objection to it being made illegal, though there are those who would continue to do it anyway.

[Deleted05]

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/ ... ginia?lite

I have to say, this is the first time I've ever seen a preacher (or a man, for that matter) die from the implication of all out stupidity. Usually it's the children and women who fall prey to the no-doctors, no-medicine, no-common-sense rules.

[Stephers831]

I live in WV, this happens about every other year or so. This is the second man in this church to die this way. Some people don't learn.

[Witsec7]

I've always had a fascination with snake handlers. For a few years my vacations were spent out on Sand Mountain. There is talk of holiness snake handlers out in the coast range of Oregon, but I've yet to find them.

[gustava]

There's another thread on this, though thanks for posting.

[doggie]

I live in WV, this happens about every other year or so. This is the second man in this church to die this way. Some people don't learn.

the second man was his farther. too bad this did not happen before they had time to breed.

[nutella addict]

The other article that someone else posted about this said that the guy had been bitten before, and that this time when he got worse, he did eventually go seek medical treatment - only he did it over 8 hours later, and died instead. Also the other article (and I admit I didn't read this one, so maybe they mentioned it too) pointed out that this man's father ALSO died of a snakebite, when this man was a teenager.

Well, you know about those trees and their apples...

I'm with you with the chivers, ladypuglover. Copperheads are our only venomous snake - well, ok, sometimes maybe a lost cottonmouth that wound up going north - but we get all the others and I'd rather not come across any of them, thanks. My boyfriend has had to talk me around non-venomous snakes when we're hiking. I either freeze in terror or jump about 5 feet.

You know, I didn't used to be scared of them though. Maybe it was nearly stepping on a long black snake, or the time I actually stepped on a snake barefoot, that did me in...

[Mela99]

I'm going straight to hell for initially laughing at this. But really -- your father died of a snake bite, and instead of going to a hospital after getting bitten, you go home to wait it out?

My personal belief is that if you're stupid enough to play with dynamite, you deserve to get blown up.

[Stephers831]

I live in WV. This isn't the first time this has happened in the last year but it doesn't usually make the national news. Even if our state legislature outlawed this they'd have a hard time enforcing it. Many of these churches are back in tiny hollers and there is generally an armed gentleman outside to keep the uninvited out. You have to remember, almost all rural areas are only served by the state police and they have better things to do than start an armed confrontation over handling snakes. Other than the few oddballs it really is a beautiful state and we love visitors :)

[Stephers831]

Actually there was another Guy who died in the last year or two from this, it just doesn't usually make the news. I would not advise trying to see one of these churches in action, they're clannish and quite well armed, they don't like outsiders or the law very much.

[doggie]

Actually there was another Guy who died in the last year or two from this, it just doesn't usually make the news. I would not advise trying to see one of these churches in action, they're clannish and quite well armed, they don't like outsiders or the law very much.

real christian of them.

[Witsec7]

I am fascinated with snake handlers and spend some time on three different trips to Sand Mountain to watch the handlers and visit a Church of the Signs. I also spent some time in TN on two separate trips to visit CoS.

There are some good movies and videos about the snake handlers.

J79ThhMuxWg

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

I am fascinated with snake handlers and spend some time on three different trips to Sand Mountain to watch the handlers and visit a Church of the Signs. I also spent some time in TN on two separate trips to visit CoS.

There are some good movies and videos about the snake handlers.

J79ThhMuxWg

So fascinating. Thank you for posting.

[doggie]

Religious snake handlers and religious faith healers generally do not overlap. While I think snake handlers are certainly eccentric, I don't think they're stupid. They genuinely live that passage in Mark 16:17-18. Unlike many of the fundies we snark on such as the Maxwell's and Dougie, who would impose their beliefs on everyone, snake handlers do not and do not want to. As with speaking in tongues, one should do it only if one feels called to it.

I have no objection to it being made illegal, though there are those who would continue to do it anyway.

but the below passage says laying on hands will heal and drinking poison will not hurt you. They say they have to believe it all but it seems they are still selective and the speaking in tongues seems a bit too convenient.

Mark 16:17-18

King James Version (KJV)

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 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.

[Witsec7]

Religious snake handlers and religious faith healers generally do not overlap. While I think snake handlers are certainly eccentric, I don't think they're stupid. They genuinely live that passage in Mark 16:17-18. Unlike many of the fundies we snark on such as the Maxwell's and Dougie, who would impose their beliefs on everyone, snake handlers do not and do not want to. As with speaking in tongues, one should do it only if one feels called to it.

I have no objection to it being made illegal, though there are those who would continue to do it anyway.

Yea I can't snark on them. I've seen what they do. I'm a skeptic, but I know other skeptics who after being exposed to CoS have converted. CoS does not believe in Drs. they do believe in laying on of hands, anointing and praying over the sick.

[mirele]

So fascinating. Thank you for posting.

There's also a great book, "Salvation on Sand Mountain," by Dennis Covington, published in 1995. Basically, Covington went to Appalachia to cover the trial of one of the snake handlers and got caught up in it. The book came out of that.