'Serpent-Handling' West Virginia Pastor Dies From Snake Bite

[웃 910]

'Serpent-Handling' West Virginia Pastor Dies From Snake Bite

Pastor Mack Wolford, a member of the Pentecostal "Signs Following" tradition, handles a rattlesnake during a service at the Church of the Lord Jesus in Jolo, W.V., in this Sept. 2, 2011, photo. (Lauren Pond for the Washington Post via Getty Images)

A "serpent-handling" West Virginia pastor died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before.

Pentecostal pastor Mark Wolford, 44, hosted an outdoor service at the Panther Wildlife Management Area in West Virginia Sunday, which he touted on his Facebook page prior to the event.

"I am looking for a great time this Sunday," Wolford wrote May 22,according to the Washington Post. "It is going to be a homecoming like the old days. Good 'ole raised in the holler or mountain ridge running, Holy Ghost-filled speaking-in-tongues sign believers."

Robin Vanover, Wolford's sister, told the Washington Post that 30 minutes into the outdoor service, Wolford passed around a poisonous timber rattlesnake, which eventually bit him.

"He laid it on the ground," Vanover said in the interview, "and he sat down next to the snake, and it bit him on the thigh."

Vanover said Wolford was then transported to a family member's home in Bluefield about 80 miles away to recover. But as the situation worsened, he was taken to a hospital where he later died.

Jim Shires, owner of the Cravens-Shires Funeral Home in Bluefield, told ABC News that Wolford died Monday. Wolford's church, the Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka, will host a viewing Friday and a funeral service Saturday morning. Wolford will be buried at the Hicks Family Plot in Phelps, Ky.

Officials at the Panther Wildlife Management Area had been unaware of Sunday's event until they were notified by callers after the service.

"We did not know that this event was happening, and if we had known about it or if we had been asked for permission, permission would not have been granted," Hoy Murphy, public information officer for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, told ABC News.

Hoy said West Virginia state park rules prohibit animals other than dogs and cats on the property.

While snake-handling is legal in West Virginia, other Appalachian states, including Kentucky and Tennessee, have banned the practice in public spaces.

Snake-handlers point to scripture as evidence that God calls them to engage in such a practice to show their faith in him. Mark 16: 17-18 reads, "And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. 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."

Wolford told the Washington Post magazine in 2011 that he is carrying on the tradition of his ancestors by engaging in snake handling.

"Anybody can do it that believes it," Wolford said. "Jesus said, 'These signs shall follow them which believe.' This is a sign to show people that God has the power."

Wolford watched his own father die at the age of 39 after a rattlesnake bit him during a similar service.

"He lived 101/2 hours," Wolford told the Washington Post Magazine. "When he got bit, he said he wanted to die in the church. Three hours after he was bitten, his kidneys shut down. After a while, your heart stops. I hated to see him go, but he died for what he believed in.

"I know it's real; it is the power of God," Wolford told the Washington Post Magazine last year. "If I didn't do it, if I'd never gotten back involved, it'd be the same as denying the power and saying it was not real."

http://abcnews.go.co...55#.T8d0vrDx0UW

Edited May 31, 2012 by ☠

[Obama 2012 1,714]

I guess his faith wasn't strong enough.

That or perhaps this was God's plan for him to die for doing something stupid.

[james&olya 1,121]

Darwin award!!!

Where can we get more of these snakes to go around to all the rest of these idiots?

[Danno 1,228]

Darwin award!!!

Where can we get more of these snakes to go around to all the rest of these idiots?

I think suggesting violence on others is a violation of the TOS. Sure these folks seem kooky but dehumanizing others is a dangerous path my friend.

Yeah I know Lefties always think that have an exception ...

What if I said the same thing about Muslins or gays?

Wishing death on people is hateful period!

[X Factor 1,112]

Stupid stupid stupid.

[james&olya 1,121]

I think suggesting violence on others is a violation of the TOS. Sure these folks seem kooky but dehumanizing others is a dangerous path my friend.

Yeah I know Lefties always think that have an exception ...

What if I said the same thing about Muslins or gays?

Wishing death on people is hateful period!

Oh No! I would never suggest they DIE! I only want that they all have that opportunity to demonstrate the power of their religion so that we might all come to know our savior!!!

[X Factor 1,112]

These folks are misapplying the scriptures to their detriment.

[Danno 1,228]

These folks are misapplying the scriptures to their detriment.

yeah, this is all too common, what they do is take one scripture and build a whole principle or even doctrine around it.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Oh ye of little faith. If ye had but the faith of a mustard seed... Or at least the brains of one...

[james&olya 1,121]

Oh ye of little faith. If ye had but the faith of a mustard seed... Or at least the brains of one...

[웃 910]

A "lifestyle" article on the dead snake handler

Grania Spingies of Atheist Ireland called my attention to a new article in the "Lifestyle" section of The Washington Post: "Why I watched a snake-handling pastor die for his faith." It's about the death of Randy Wolford, a snake-handing Pentecostal preacher who was done in by one of his rattlesnakes (I posted about this on May 30). The author is Lauren Pond, who was on the scene of the fatal bite because she's doing a documentary on snake handling. Apparently neither Wolford nor his family wanted paramedics to be called—I suspect they would have saved his life—until it was too late. Pond also decided not to override the family's wishes and call for help.

Wolford wanted to die. A pity for him he doesn't get to go to heaven, and an even greater pity that he'll never know he didn't make it. Extinction is extinction.

"His faith is what took him home," said his sister Robin Vanover, 38.

. . . Mack's family has accepted his death as something that he knew was coming and something that was ultimately God's will. The pastor believed every word of the Bible and laid down his life for his conviction, they said. For them, his death is an affirmation of the Signs Following tradition: "His faith is what took him home," said his sister Robin Vanover, 38. . .

In my mind, Mack's situation was different from that of a starving child or a civilian wounded in war. He was a competent adult who decided to stand by what he understood to be the word of God, no matter the consequences. And so I've started to come to peace with the fact that everyone in the crowded trailer, including myself, let Mack die as a man true to his faith.

Grania added this editorial note, which I have permission to post:

The nauseating aspect is how much the reporter tries to find something good and positive in this tragedy, because you know, faith is good, and unwavering faith must be even better. Even though she is clearly troubled by the stupid and primitive practices of this church, she feels she has to write positively about deep convictions and how this has helped her "understand" - although she never elaborates what "understanding" she has gleaned from watching a man die an agonizing death while his family stood around sadly.

People respect the mere word "religion" so much that they fall over themselves trying to praise a nonsensical belief that not only led a man cause his own senseless and needless death, but paralyzed his evidently loving family to stand around mutely when they should have been trying to save him.

He didn't die for his faith, he died for his stupidity. There isn't anything praiseworthy about it.

There's a short gallery of photos about Wolford taken by Lauren Pond (who wrote the article), showing him in action in healthier days, along with several photos after he was bitten, some taken immediately after the strike and some when Wolford was close to death a few hours later. Here are three that show the price of faith:

Donald Dover, left, of North Carolina and Jamie Lloyd of Sidney, Ohio, right, support Pastor Randy "Mack" Wolford after taking him to an outhouse at the Panther Wildlife Management Area. Wolford, a practitioner and defender of the faith tradition of serpent-handling, was bitten by a rattlesnake during the Sunday worship service. He later died from the effects of the bite.

Lauren Pond / Lauren Pond for The Washington Post

Donald Dover, left, of North Carolina and Jamie Lloyd, right, of Sidney, Ohio, carry Randy "Mack" Wolford, 44, to a sport-utility vehicle about 40 minutes after Wolford was bitten while handling a rattlesnake during the May 27 worship service at Panther Wildlife Management Area in southern West Virginia. Mack was then taken to his mother-in-law's home, about an hour away, near Bluefield, W.Va.

Lauren Pond / Lauren Pond for The Washington Post

Vicie Haywood, mother of Pastor Randy "Mack" Wolford, strokes her son's feet as the pastor lies on the couch at his mother-in-law's home near Bluefield, W.Va. Wolford was bitten by a rattlesnake during a Sunday worship service. He was pronounced dead early the next morning at the Bluefield Regional Medical Center.

Lauren Pond / Lauren Pond for The Washington Post

Edited June 4, 2012 by ☠

[JohnR! 5,495]

1338475613[/url]' post='5410317']

I guess his faith wasn't strong enough.

That or perhaps this was God's plan for him to die for doing something stupid.

It was god's way of reminding him of the 250 million years of the evolutionary process... LOL.