Snake-handling preacher killed by snake, just like his dad
Mark Wolford (Photo for The Washington Post by Lauren Pond)
If you lie down with dogs, you get fleas. Lie down with timber rattlers, and you’ve got a good chance of not getting up again.
That’s what happened to West Virginia pastor Mark Wolford, reports The Washington Post.
Wolford died while hosting an outdoor service Sunday at Panther Wildlife Management Area in West Virginia. During the ceremony, the lively preacher sat a rattler on the ground and sat next to it. The snake did what snakes do — it bit him on the thigh.
Instead of going to a hospital, he went home and tried to recover. His kidneys shut down within three hours. Someone called paramedics when it was too late.
Wolford, who combed the woods for vipers, should have known better. In 1983, when he was 15, he saw his dad die while “taking up serpents.”
But faith, which has never actually moved a mountain, has a way of moving people away from reality.
“Praise the Lord and pass the rattlesnakes, brother,” wrote Wolford on his Facebook page as a way of advertising the Sunday service.
His funeral will be held Saturday, exactly one week after his 44th birthday.
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154 comments Add your comment
Bible Student
May 31st, 2012
11:15 am
Apparently even the Christians here haven’t read their Bible. This guy was just being faithful to the Word.
Luke 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Mark 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 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.
Ed
May 31st, 2012
11:20 am
If you’re gonna be dumb you gotta be tough.
SayWhat
May 31st, 2012
11:21 am
Very sad misinterpretation of scripture. Folks read the passage about Paul not being harmed when he was bitten by a viper when he picked up some firewood and the snake came out and bit him. From there, they decide it’s an act of faith to “take up a serpent.”
Renee
May 31st, 2012
11:22 am
I’m tried to understand the connection of snakes and church
Sir Thomas Henry Huxley
May 31st, 2012
11:22 am
Hey bible student. Mind if I call you B.S.? If he was being faithful to the Word, i guess that word was a lie.
SSSSSSSSS
May 31st, 2012
11:24 am
And he tasted bad!
@Bible student…does this mean the Bible was wrong?
My vote is God sees this a suicide…so where is he now?
Wite&Rite
May 31st, 2012
11:25 am
You got to understand that in W. Virginny its like that. They once had a feud that ran for decades that killed off over 68 white people over a pig that got ate by the wrong family. that’s mountain folks for yer.
Now exiting with Deliverance music playing in the background.
Dick Cheney for President 2012! Yehaw!!!!
Ask Darwin
May 31st, 2012
11:41 am
If nature has a way of weeding out the dumb and unfit then why are there still Democrats.
SAL
May 31st, 2012
11:46 am
What an idiot!
gunga din
May 31st, 2012
12:02 pm
in the words of comedian Ron White — “you can’t fix stupid”