Pastor Jamie Coots, a 42-year-old Pentecostal preacher and third-generation snake handler from Middlesboro, Ky., spoke to NPR in October about his unusual way of leading church services.
“We sing, we preach, we testify, take up offerings, pray for the sick, you know, everything like everybody else does,” he said. “Just, every once in a while, snakes are handled.”
On Saturday night, Coots was handling three rattlesnakes at his small church, the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name, when one of them bit him on his right hand….
Read it all and there more comment at Christianity Today
Very sad.
Sometimes heresy kills directly and publicly, and sometimes not, but it always kills.
+1 to what Sarah wrote. Prayers for his family. But seriously, is there anyone who did not see something like this coming? Setting aside the man’s theology, if stupidity were a virtue the man would be a strong candidate for sainthood.