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'Serpent-Handling' West Virginia Pastor Dies From Snake Bite
ABC News ^ | 5/31/2012 | ARLETTE SAENZ

Posted on 05/31/2012 6:57:49 PM PDT by Beave Meister

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."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: abc; moralabsolutes; pastor; rattlesnake; religion; snakebit; snakes; speakingintongues; westvirginia
"But you knew I was a snake when you let me in."
1 posted on 05/31/2012 6:57:58 PM PDT by Beave Meister
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To: All

Darwin Award Alert !!!


2 posted on 05/31/2012 7:03:24 PM PDT by OldNavyVet
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To: OldNavyVet

“Jesus said unto him, It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”. Matthew 4:7 (Luke 4:12)...

God does not reward foolishness pretending to be faith!


3 posted on 05/31/2012 7:10:47 PM PDT by FiddlePig
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To: Beave Meister; a fool in paradise

One hopes the unfortunate fellow’s tongue speaking had been recorded, or else another human language is lost to history, like, oh, Volapük.


4 posted on 05/31/2012 7:15:15 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: Beave Meister

5 posted on 05/31/2012 7:16:41 PM PDT by stormer
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To: Beave Meister

The Lord works in mysterious ways.


6 posted on 05/31/2012 7:24:34 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: Beave Meister

Sad to say, but it serves him right ... hang around with progressives and they will turn and bite you in a heartbeat!


7 posted on 05/31/2012 7:38:58 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (There's a pill for just about everything ... except stupid!)
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To: Beave Meister
Photobucket
I was born a snake handler and I'll die a snake handler.

8 posted on 05/31/2012 7:44:55 PM PDT by WhatNot
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To: Beave Meister

I used to be a snake handler, but she divorced me.


9 posted on 05/31/2012 7:46:18 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: Beave Meister

Snake must have been a Hatfield.


10 posted on 05/31/2012 7:51:33 PM PDT by BigCinBigD (...Was that okay?)
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To: Beave Meister

It’s so tempting to utter “It’s God’s will”...


11 posted on 05/31/2012 8:13:23 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Our economy won't heal until one particular black man is unemployed.)
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To: Beave Meister

RIP.


12 posted on 05/31/2012 9:13:52 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (If you like lying Socialist dirtbags, you'll love Slick Willard)
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To: FiddlePig
He was blessed with faith.

Shorted on common sense.

13 posted on 05/31/2012 10:16:41 PM PDT by rawcatslyentist ("Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one," Jeremiah 50:31)
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To: Beave Meister

I’m sure there is an ancient Chinese proverb about snake handling somewhere!


14 posted on 05/31/2012 10:46:17 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

If you go into the hills enough times, you will find the tiger.


15 posted on 05/31/2012 10:49:42 PM PDT by freepersup (Patrolling the waters off Free Republic one dhow at a time.)
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To: Titan Magroyne

If he’d have just passed the damned thing to my Ex.


16 posted on 05/31/2012 11:22:06 PM PDT by Drumbo ("Democracy can withstand anything but democrats." - Jubal Harshaw [Robert A. Heinlein])
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To: Drumbo

ROFL! I almost pinged you to an earlier thread about this - just because...


17 posted on 05/31/2012 11:56:16 PM PDT by Titan Magroyne (What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.)
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To: Beave Meister
I wonder what other verses he misinterpreted?

Then again...never mind.

18 posted on 06/01/2012 3:13:44 AM PDT by Tolkien (Grace is the Essence of the Gospel; Gratitude is the Essence of Ethics.)
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To: Beave Meister

You really have to wonder how he and others get away with handling poisonous snakes the hundreds of times they do. Why can they go on so long without getting bitten and dying?


19 posted on 06/01/2012 7:37:18 PM PDT by Bellflower (The LORD is Holy, separated from all sin, perfect, righteous, high and lifted up.)
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