Death by rattlesnake

To die for what we believe in — no matter how strange, fantastic or even outrageous it might seem to another — is what life is about, I guess.

Dogs and cats are domesticated animals that for years have lived among humans.  So, we know them and they know us and we share our lives.

But, snakes? That is another story.

I recently read a news article about a West Virginia Pentecostal pastor who died at the age of 44.  What caught my attention was how the “serpent-handling” pastor died.

What kind of serpent did he handle?

A rattlesnake.

Here is an excerpt of the story on Yahoo news. 

 “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 on 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.

“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 said that he watched his own father die at the age of 39 after a rattlesnake bit him during a similar service.

“‘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, his heart stopped. 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 involved, it’d be the same as denying the power and saying it was not real.’”

* * *

God and his power. Pastor and a rattlesnake. Is this the 21st century? 

Perhaps if we left animals where they should be they wouldn’t kill us. It is when we, the supposed thinking humans, take animals out of their natural habitats, cage them in zoos, lock them in aquariums or chain them to posts, that their behavior becomes even more lethal.

Imagine what stress the rattlesnake that bit the pastor may have been going through. After all, the snake was among humans at a Sunday worship event; and worse it was passed around to the people there. 

The snake, at least in the Bible, has been depicted as “evil.” So, naturally, the snake has taken on a sinister personality as it breeds fear among anyone who gets in contact with it.

Now, a pastor, who died a useless death, in the name of true faith in God? Where is this world going? 

Why can’t people leave animals where they should be — as animals leave us to live our lives as we should?

I wonder what God must be thinking?