Topic: Snake handling pastor - dead of snakebite

[Halleyscomet/Wakefield]

Is that part of the test of faith - whether you can survive a bite without help?

Yes.

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.

While the verse does not explicitly mention being bitten, the next line about drinking poison tends to imply that being bitten won't hurt you.

I knew a guy in college who insisted that his faith in God meant he could never get drunk enough to be dangerously impaired while driving. Not that he would stop drinking, but that no matter how much he drank he would not be harmed by it. He stopped repeating this claim after a few frat party induced hangovers.

[Unlimited]

It's amazing how easily people will be convinced by complete bullshit when you associate it in any way with Jesus.

Yea I'm the first guy in the history of the human race to be able to do ____ because of my faith.

[Shadow Of A Doubt]

This family should get honored by a Lifetime Darwin Award.

Kind of an oxymoron though isn't it? Since by definition that's an award for succesfully passing on to the next generation the ability to take yourself out of the gene pool and prevent yourself passing on your genes. 

[Shibboleth]

Adrenaline junkies.

[Lukas]

This family should get honored by a Lifetime Darwin Award.

Kind of an oxymoron though isn't it? Since by definition that's an award for succesfully passing on to the next generation the ability to take yourself out of the gene pool and prevent yourself passing on your genes. 

Yeah, but don't forget that they also spread the word through teaching...

[Karyn]

It doesn't sound like this guy got around to passing on his genes.  They don't mention a wife or kids, so unlike his father, he would actually be eligible.

[AQB24712]

He had a wife, a daughter, stepkids, and nine grandkids.  Here's the obituary.

(click to show/hide)

Pastor Mack Randall Wolford

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph Wed May 30, 2012, 04:40 PM EDT

BLUEFIELD — Pastor Mack Randall Wolford, 44, of Green Valley, Bluefield, passed away on Monday, May 28, 2012 and was DOA at Bluefield Regional Medical Center. Born May 26, 1968 in Pike County, Ky., he was a son of the Vicie Hicks Haywood of Bluefield, W.Va. and the late Mack Ray Wolford. Mack had been a resident of Bramwell for the past five years and was a Pastor at Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka, W.Va.

Left to cherish his memory is his wife, Frances Elizabeth Dawson Wolford of the home; mother, Vicie Hicks Haywood of Bluefield, W.Va.; one daughter, Latisha McClemore of Statesville, N.C.; three stepchildren, Eva Krueger of La Plata, Md., Glenn K.  Mitchell Jr. of Lake, W.Va., Brady Scott Mitchell of Statesville, N.C.; two brothers, Kevin Wolford of Bluefield, W.Va., Christopher Wolford of Paynesville, Ky.; three sisters, Lesha G. Mullins of Phelps, Ky., Robin Vanover of Bluefield, W.Va., Shauna Scott of Abingdon, Va.; and nine grandchildren.

 Funeral services will be held on Saturday, June 2, 2012 at The Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus Church in Matoaka, W.Va. at 11:00 a.m. where the Rev. Donald Dover of Rutherford, N.C. and the Rev. Roy Lee Christian will conduct the funeral service. Burial will follow the funeral service at Hicks Family Cemetery in Phelps, Ky. where friends and family will serve as pallbearers.

 Friends and family may call at the Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus Church in Matoaka, W.Va. on Friday, June 1, 2012 after 4:00 p.m.

 Online condolences can be sent to the Wolford family at www.cravens-shires.com

 Cravens-Shires Funeral Home is serving the Wolford family.

You know, I have some kind of impulse to defend this whole mess, since it's from home, but I just can't.  I love West Virginia, but she's not perfect.

I renew my recommendation of the book I mentioned earlier, if this story has made any of you curious about snake-handling culture.  I skimmed through the chapter about Jolo last night (it's mostly set in Alabama), and Shibboleth's comment about "adrenaline junkies" may not be far off the mark.

(click to show/hide)

Salvation on Sand Mountain is a story of snake handling and strychnine drinking, of faith healing and speaking in tongues. It is also the story of one man's search for his roots--and, in the end, of his spiritual renewal. Writer Dennis Covington came to this ecstatic form of Christianity as a reporter covering a sensational murder case; Glen Summerford, pastor of the Church of Jesus with Signs Following, had been accused of attempting to kill his wife with rattlesnakes. There, in a courtroom filled with journalists and gawking spectators, Covington felt the pull of a spirituality that was to dominate his life for the next several years. Attending Summerford's church out of curiosity, he soon forged close friendships with some of the worshippers, began attending snake-handling services throughout the South, and eventually took up snakes himself.

With subject matter this lurid, Salvation on Sand Mountain could have been a Southern-fried curiosity and little more. Covington goes far deeper. Tracing the snake handlers' roots in regional history, in the deep spiritual alienation of mountain people from the secular modern world they have so recently joined, Covington is more than just sympathetic to the snake handlers; in a profound way, he considers himself one of them. His reasoning is sometimes flawed--when he attempts to find snake handlers in his own family's past, for instance, the result is belabored and unconvincing--but there's no doubt that Covington's heart is in the right place. He's also not without his own brand of sly gallows humor, as in this conversation with the elderly Gracie McAllister: "She'd swore she'd never handle rattlesnakes in July again. She'd been bit the previous two Julys. 'I decided I'd just handle fire and drink strychnine that night,' she said. Good idea, I thought. It always pays to be on the safe side."

Covington eventually breaks with the snake handlers, but comes away from the experience a changed man. "Knowing where you come from is one thing, but it's suicide to stay there," he writes.

[khendar]

My favourite comment on the WashPo article:

I hope that rattler got immediate medical attention.

Someone died. That's sad. I feel sorry for his family, even if they are religious nut jobs who probably helped killed him by not getting him medical attention. I do not however feel sorry for the guy who decided to play with a deadly animal and got bit.

[Neon Genesis]

I wonder how many snake handler Christians are aware that that verse in Mark 16 likely didn't exist in the earliest manuscripts of Mark.

[Jack R.]

Here's a first hand account of negligent homocide.

It's bad enough that these people engaged in such dangerour behavior.  But to stand around for hours, watching a man writhe in agony, letting him die when medical treatment was nearby, is criminal.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/why-i-watched-a-snake-handling-pastor-die-for-his-faith/2012/05/31/gJQA3fRP5U_story.html

[seaotter]

A family member called paramedics when Mack finally allowed it, but it was too late.

[Halleyscomet/Wakefield]

A family member called paramedics when Mack finally allowed it, but it was too late.

Well that was the problem right there. He lost faith, as evidenced by allowing people to call for paramedics. If he'd held fast to Christ he'd still be alive today. He's no doubt burning in Hell for abandoning Christ in his hour of need.

I wonder how many snake handler Christians are aware that that verse in Mark 16 likely didn't exist in the earliest manuscripts of Mark.

I can see it now. Some sinister scribe thinking "THIS should kill of some of the zealot lunatics," as he inserted the passage.

[Unlimited]

Some of the people who attended last Sunday’s service have struggled with Mack’s death, as I have. “Sometimes, I feel like we’re all guilty of negligent homicide,” one man wrote to me in a Facebook message following Mack’s death. “I went down there a ‘believer.’ That faith has seriously been called into question. I was face-to-face with him and watched him die a gruesome death. . . . Is this really what God wants?”

[riptor]

He had a wife, a daughter, stepkids, and nine grandkids.  Here's the obituary.

(click to show/hide)

Pastor Mack Randall Wolford

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph Wed May 30, 2012, 04:40 PM EDT

BLUEFIELD — Pastor Mack Randall Wolford, 44, of Green Valley, Bluefield, passed away on Monday, May 28, 2012 and was DOA at Bluefield Regional Medical Center. Born May 26, 1968 in Pike County, Ky., he was a son of the Vicie Hicks Haywood of Bluefield, W.Va. and the late Mack Ray Wolford. Mack had been a resident of Bramwell for the past five years and was a Pastor at Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka, W.Va.

Left to cherish his memory is his wife, Frances Elizabeth Dawson Wolford of the home; mother, Vicie Hicks Haywood of Bluefield, W.Va.; one daughter, Latisha McClemore of Statesville, N.C.; three stepchildren, Eva Krueger of La Plata, Md., Glenn K.  Mitchell Jr. of Lake, W.Va., Brady Scott Mitchell of Statesville, N.C.; two brothers, Kevin Wolford of Bluefield, W.Va., Christopher Wolford of Paynesville, Ky.; three sisters, Lesha G. Mullins of Phelps, Ky., Robin Vanover of Bluefield, W.Va., Shauna Scott of Abingdon, Va.; and nine grandchildren.

 Funeral services will be held on Saturday, June 2, 2012 at The Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus Church in Matoaka, W.Va. at 11:00 a.m. where the Rev. Donald Dover of Rutherford, N.C. and the Rev. Roy Lee Christian will conduct the funeral service. Burial will follow the funeral service at Hicks Family Cemetery in Phelps, Ky. where friends and family will serve as pallbearers.

 Friends and family may call at the Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus Church in Matoaka, W.Va. on Friday, June 1, 2012 after 4:00 p.m.

 Online condolences can be sent to the Wolford family at www.cravens-shires.com

 Cravens-Shires Funeral Home is serving the Wolford family.

You know, I have some kind of impulse to defend this whole mess, since it's from home, but I just can't.  I love West Virginia, but she's not perfect.

I renew my recommendation of the book I mentioned earlier, if this story has made any of you curious about snake-handling culture.  I skimmed through the chapter about Jolo last night (it's mostly set in Alabama), and Shibboleth's comment about "adrenaline junkies" may not be far off the mark.

(click to show/hide)

Salvation on Sand Mountain is a story of snake handling and strychnine drinking, of faith healing and speaking in tongues. It is also the story of one man's search for his roots--and, in the end, of his spiritual renewal. Writer Dennis Covington came to this ecstatic form of Christianity as a reporter covering a sensational murder case; Glen Summerford, pastor of the Church of Jesus with Signs Following, had been accused of attempting to kill his wife with rattlesnakes. There, in a courtroom filled with journalists and gawking spectators, Covington felt the pull of a spirituality that was to dominate his life for the next several years. Attending Summerford's church out of curiosity, he soon forged close friendships with some of the worshippers, began attending snake-handling services throughout the South, and eventually took up snakes himself.

With subject matter this lurid, Salvation on Sand Mountain could have been a Southern-fried curiosity and little more. Covington goes far deeper. Tracing the snake handlers' roots in regional history, in the deep spiritual alienation of mountain people from the secular modern world they have so recently joined, Covington is more than just sympathetic to the snake handlers; in a profound way, he considers himself one of them. His reasoning is sometimes flawed--when he attempts to find snake handlers in his own family's past, for instance, the result is belabored and unconvincing--but there's no doubt that Covington's heart is in the right place. He's also not without his own brand of sly gallows humor, as in this conversation with the elderly Gracie McAllister: "She'd swore she'd never handle rattlesnakes in July again. She'd been bit the previous two Julys. 'I decided I'd just handle fire and drink strychnine that night,' she said. Good idea, I thought. It always pays to be on the safe side."

Covington eventually breaks with the snake handlers, but comes away from the experience a changed man. "Knowing where you come from is one thing, but it's suicide to stay there," he writes.

I'm from northern WV.  It's nice to know there are other skeptics in WV.  There is also a documentary made in the 1970's about the snake handlers in Jolo, called "The Jolo Serpent Handlers".

[AQB24712]

I'm from northern WV.  It's nice to know there are other skeptics in WV. 

Alas, I am an expatriate, an economic refugee.  I'm in eastern Pennsylvania.  I do think about returning to the mountains, but at this point I don't know when to go, where to go, or what to do.  Where are you?

ETA:  However, you can count my mother, just outside of Athens, as a skeptical in-state compatriot! 

There is also a documentary made in the 1970's about the snake handlers in Jolo, called "The Jolo Serpent Handlers".

I shall look it up and add it to my ever-growing West Virginia History and Culture library!