An East Tennessee serpent-handling pastor’s legal woes are over for now.
After a hearing on Wednesday (January 8), a grand jury decided not to indict the Rev. Andrew Hamblin on charges of violating a state ban on possessing venomous snakes.
In November, state officials seized 53 serpents ”” including rattlesnakes, copperheads, and exotic breeds ”” from the Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tenn., where Hamblin is pastor.
I think he should be allowed to keep the snakes. Certainly, I don’t think the government has the right to tell him he can’t have them.
I also think that the next frontier for TEC could be peyote.
Maybe the same PETA folks that objected to the New Years Possum Drop could make a complaint about mistreatment of snakes by exposing them to Pentecostal theology.
#2–Good point. I’d take them all to 815 2d Avenue in Manhattan and drop them off for a proper indoctrination.