For goodness sakes
I need my snakes
Or God won’t know I love Him!
I have to show
Or He won’t know
There’s no one else above Him!
I know my sect
Is more correct
(As well as more exciting);
Among my clues,
We fill the pews
When rattlesnakes are biting!
Though some have died
At least they tried
To do as God commands
It may seem sick–
One serpent’s prick…
Their fate is in His hands
Middlesboro, KY–A pastor wants his snakes back. Middlesboro’s Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name has been in the news before, also for snake-handling. Today’s story is simply that a pastor had some $800 worth of venomous snakes confiscated in Tennessee, and wants them back… in the name of religious freedom and simple property ownership. The story from years ago was of death by snakebite. Actually, in searching for the case I knew was there, I found several others; it seems snake handlers have a tendency to get bitten and die.
The one that springs immediately to mind (I may have found that link, but it might be a different case), which my parents (who lived in the area at the time) told me about, was of a child custody battle between grandparents. Both parents were dead from snakebite, and the grandparents were fighting over the kids. One set of grandparents were snake-handlers, and argued that since the parents were snake-handlers as well, they were the obvious choice to raise the kids as the parents wanted. Honestly, I didn’t have the heart to look to see who won the battle. (They are not the only case of multiple generation snake-handling deaths in one family.)
Thinking of those kids, I am not even tempted to say “give the preacher his snakes back and let nature take its course”. I am glad this is only a fringe sect, but it is outrageous that such a deadly ritual is protected as religious free speech.
Such lovely people, and so family orientated:
Praise Jesus!
I must live a very sheltered life, but this is utterly mind-boggling.
What is the connection between snakes and religion? There must be a PhD thesis here somewhere.
Mark 16:18
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.
Doesn’t seem to work all the time.
@nothere – You will notice that these cults prefer to handle snakes rather than drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. Might die is better “proof” of faith than will die, apparently. And if their faith will heal the sick, how much time do they spend working in local hospitals, I wonder.
Don’t guys go blind or something if they handle their snakes?
Last year a snake handler pastor himself died from snake bite. There was a handwritten sign on his church wall which stated the following:
“The Paster and Congregation are not Responsible for anyone that handles the Serpent’s and get’s bit. If you get bit the church will stand by you and pray with you. And the Same goes with drinking the poision.
Paster Harvey Payne. “
I was inspired to write the following:
DISCLAIMER
I’m handling snakes for goodness sake
Cause Jesus said I should.
And no great harm will come to me
I don’t believe it could.
Been doing this for many years.
I know just how to do it.
I’m confident that God will be
The one who sees me through it.
I’m handling snakes. It is a precious
Gift I have received.
I’m showing you how safe it is
If you will just believe.
You say you will not do it?
Are you really sure you won’t?
You can truly make it through alive
Excepting when you don’t.
Give them back so that they can kill more crazy people
Except, steve84, these people aren’t crazy. They are taught by their experience in their community, just as you or I are. The system is wrong, and the people pay the price.
Just make sure he never gets his hands on any of these. What miracles he could work with them (By the power of the holy spirit, I command you to fly! – As his audience runs screaming from the room.)!
Except that these snakes are only mildly venomous rear-fanged snakes and are for all practical purposes harmless.
I’m referring to #9.
Is it worth knowing that most every Bible scholar considers Mark after 16:9 to be a later addition, “pseudepigraphical,” which is a fancy way of saying “pious fraud.”
The bitter, dark irony here is that these people aren’t even following an original teaching: some schmuck ADDED those verses later!
when and where the snake handlers religious groups found somebody please help or i will get an F FOR SOCIAL STUDIES
Josh, if you are having troubles clicking the links (say, the first one, where it says Middlesboro, KY), you have bigger problems than an F in social studies! Even Wikipedia has a good number of links to specific articles about specific states where these folks are found.