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EADD Theology Megathread - Book II - Exodus

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US snake-handling Pastor dies of snakebite after refusing treatment

A Kentucky snake-handling preacher who appeared in a television show about the religious practice has died of a snakebite after refusing medical treatment, authorities said on Sunday.

Jamie Coots was found dead about 10pm local time on Saturday (3am Sunday GMT) at his house in Middlesboro, Kentucky, according to Middlesboro police chief Jeff Sharpe.

Emergency personnel had gone to his home about 90 minutes earlier after getting a call, police said.
They found Coots suffering from a snakebite wound to his right hand, Sharpe said in a statement.

“After examination and discussion of possible dangers if the wound was not treated, treatment and transport to the hospital was refused,” the statement said.

The emergency responders left after failing to persuade Coots to get help but returned less than an hour later, the statement said.

They “discovered Mr Coots had passed away, apparently due to a venomous snakebite”, it said.

Coots appeared in a National Geographic television show titled Snake Salvation about Pentecostal preachers who defy the law to use serpents as part of their religious services.

Snake-handling, which is illegal in most places, is practised as a test of faith and guided by the theory that true believers will not be harmed.

It is particularly popular in parts of Appalachia. Middlesboro lies near the junction of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee and is about 60 miles (100 km) north of Knoxville, Tennessee.

YouTube videos credited to pastorcoots2012 depict serpent-handling services at his Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name church.

They show him and congregation members dancing with snakes in their arms as music plays.

Appearing last year on ABC’s Nightline, Coots said he had been bitten nine times, including once that cost him a part of a finger.

“If the Bible told me to jump out of an airplane, I would,” he said on the show.

About a year ago, Coots was charged in Tennessee with illegally possessing poisonous snakes.

As part of a plea deal, he surrendered the snakes and his sentence of just under a year in jail was suspended, according to local media.
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Must you? :/

If the guy did do as it allegedly says he did then he was in error. Venomous snakes bite and can kill.

If Mr Coots put his hand in the basket or hole or whatever thinking it was a cuddly, toy snake that's a different thing all together. :)
 
The guy clearly believes this, and literally:

Mark said:
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18They 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.
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Obviously this does not represent literal truth, but rather spiritual truth, and as such cannot be understood by the profane.

That's what you're going to say, isn't it?
 
You've got a point Sam actually..but doesn't there need to involve discernment of Gods will? Not just a mucking about with snakes and taking authority over them as a showboating kinda thing.

Ed: If a snake slithered into my home uninvited i think i'd affirm that verse but i'm not sure it would be right or stewardly to stride around abusing random snakes.
 
As far as I can work it out, God has to pretend not to exist for fear of giving conclusive proof that He exists, which would ruin the point of faith. This means for example that He could not create any animal or plant that could not have evolved from an earlier ancestor, nor can He intervene in any miraculous way without a non-God-requiring scientific explanation. Anything else would blow His plausible deniability.
 
StoneHappyMonday said:
You may think so. I couldn't possibly comment.
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Thing is, SHM. What's your actual objective here? There's millions, maybe billions (can't be arsed to google figures) of religious folk... so some get it a bit wrong and look a bit silly. Are you trying to say ALL religious folk are like this?

This isolated case doesn't really say much by itself. What are you trying to prove?

Or is it just another case to blindly serve your biased, self-fulfilling prophecy that religious people are idiots and you are so much more intelligent, superior and in a position to look down contemptuously?

If this is the case as I suspect, i suggest at some point you must break out of this delusional thought process, and realise that the few wacko stories do not represent the religions as a whole.

You're gonna hate me for saying this even more... but .....even Sammy_g is leaping and bounding ahead of you in terms of religious understanding:~

Sammy_G said:
The guy clearly believes this, and literally:

Quote Originally Posted by Mark, Ch 16:

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18They 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.
Click to expand...

Obviously this does not represent literal truth, but rather spiritual truth, and as such cannot be understood by the profane.
Click to expand...

Dammit Sammy... You've hit the nail on the head with your bible understanding. What's going on?


BecmingJulie said:
As far as I can work it out, God has to pretend not to exist for fear of giving conclusive proof that He exists, which would ruin the point of faith. This means for example that He could not create any animal or plant that could not have evolved from an earlier ancestor, nor can He intervene in any miraculous way without a non-God-requiring scientific explanation. Anything else would blow His plausible deniability.
Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at... but yeah, your understanding here is spot on.

What's up with you lot today? :?
 
Sammy G said:
The guy clearly believes this, and literally:



Obviously this does not represent literal truth, but rather spiritual truth, and as such cannot be understood by the profane.


That's what you're going to say, isn't it?
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Its crossed my mind actually but no i'm not going to say that Mr McKenna... i believe the sick can be healed. Anything is possible for God.. He's the creator. If we've got 'faith as small as a mustard seed' mountains can be moved. Jesus said: 'he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do'

Ed: Christianity is about believing a person (God) not a set of rules. We get discernment and a knowing when to walk/not to walk in the grace package. Though it possibly needs fine tuning in most of us. (me i mean)
 
I, um, never suggested you were God.

I just suggested that believing in 'a person' and not a strictly-defined set of rules sounds a lot like a wishy-washy copout, at best. :)

At worst, it's dangerous.
 
Believing in a person who is also God, who by definition made the rules is at best best wouldn't you say?

People, even Christians, put a lot of things first that are dangerous thats for sure though: spouses,sex, authority, doctors, rules, science and logic..drugs and its idolatry..also lethal spiritually.. potentially.

We have grace and faith but idolatry really can't be taken lightly.
 
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