So Much for Taking up Serpents...

Lauren Pond/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST — Pastor Mack Wolford handles a rattlesnake during a service at the Church of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka, W.Va., in 2011

Serpent-handling pastor profiled earlier in Washington Post dies from rattlesnake bite

By Julia Duin, WashPost, Published: May 29

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.

Pastor Mack Wolford worked to preserve the tradition of serpent-handling in West Virginia, where it is legal, and in states where it is not.

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.”

(More here.)