Surely, that's the only explanation when a Pentacostal pastor, whose Pentacostal pastor father died from a snake bite received during a service, dies from a snake bite received during a service. Right?
Or maybe he was just another fool like his father, playing with poisonous animals and finally ticking the wrong one off.
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. Wolford, like many before (and probably after) him, 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."
It is interesting here to note that Wolford was known for handling snakes, not for drinking Drano cocktails or for successful faith healing. Why don't snake handlers drink Drano?
they were gathered at this evangelistic hootenanny of Christian praise and worship. About 30 minutes into the service, his sister said, Wolford passed a yellow timber rattlesnake to a church member and his mother.
"He laid it on the ground," she said, "and he sat down next to the snake, and it bit him on the thigh."
. . .
The festivities came to a halt shortly thereafter, and Wolford was taken back to a relative's house in Bluefield to recover, as he always had when suffering from previous snake bites. Previous snake bites? Why yes. He'd been bitten more than once, apparently by copperheads. They may or may not have injected a significant amount of venom. Apparently, those bites (and the death of his father from a snake bite when Wolford was 15) weren't much of a learning experience for Wolford, as he continued to take ridiculous risks.
Wolford, like his father, died over the course of about 10.5 hours, in excruciating agony, without medical treatment until it was too late. But he had lots of help:
By late afternoon, it was clear that this time was different, and desperate messages began flying about on Facebook, asking for prayer. We know how effective prayer can be!
Wolford died at about 11 pm Saturday night. Had he sought medical treatment early on, he would likely have recovered. Instead, he put his faith in religious fantasies, and died a slow, agonizing death.
Will his congregation learn from his error?
They didn't learn from his father's.
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