Because sometimes you can't make this stuff up!
Serpent-handling pastor profiled earlier in Washington Post dies from rattlesnake bite - The Washington Post
If only other funditards could weed themselves out of the gene pool with such efficiency.
Serpent-handling pastor profiled earlier in Washington Post dies from rattlesnake bite - The Washington Post
Mack Wolford, a flamboyant Pentecostal pastor from West Virginia whose serpent-handling talents were profiled last November in The Washington Post Magazine , hoped the outdoor service he had planned for Sunday at an isolated state park would be a homecoming like the old days, full of folks speaking in tongues, handling snakes and having a great time. But it was not the sort of homecoming he foresaw.
Instead, Wolford, who turned 44 the previous day, was bitten by a rattlesnake he owned for years. He died late Sunday.
Mark Randall Mack Wolford was known all over Appalachia as a daring man of conviction. He believed that the Bible mandates that Christians handle serpents to test their faith in God and that, if they are bitten, they trust in God alone to heal them.
He and other adherents cited Mark 16:17-18 as the reason for their practice: And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.
If only other funditards could weed themselves out of the gene pool with such efficiency.