
The Turbulent Life of One of America’s Last Snake-Handling Preachers - pmcpinto
https://www.theringer.com/features/2017/8/25/16201182/south-week-snake-handling-preacher-cody-coots
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azinman2
My favorite quote:

At one point, a young church member, a mountain of a man who just a few weeks
ago preached against the theory of evolution — “I ain’t come from no monkey,”
he said — reaches for the jar of strychnine. He takes a sip.

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th3iedkid
>So when someone goes down and the police want to know who brought the
offending snakes or jar of poison, just shrug and say, “pastor’s privilege.”
That, Jamie said, should be enough to get the police to leave you alone.

Very interesting to read further ..
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest%E2%80%93penitent_privil...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest%E2%80%93penitent_privilege)

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gort
The part of the Gospel of Mark that says one can handle snakes is widely
regarded as a later addition. Modern Bibles tend to indicate its dubious
status by enclosing it in [[brackets]].

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mercer
Not to mention that if I understand correctly, even within Christian circles
Mark is considered the 'lesser' gospel as far as accuracy goes. I might be
wrong about that though.

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mant
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner, is a great book on how this effects the
lives of kids growing up in that
cult.[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22752127-the-serpent-
kin...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22752127-the-serpent-king)

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pjdorrell
[http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/120601](http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/120601)

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InTheArena
A pastor I know put it best:

Yes, there are churches that believe in snake-handling. Statistically, those
churches are not growing.

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ktRolster
These churches pop up in the news every now and then, but somehow after a
while, they all die out.

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HillaryBriss
gotta hand it to 'em for their literal interpretation

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robertlagrant
Film idea: a young Indiana Jones and Samuel L Jackson's character from Snakes
on a Plane attend a church like this as teenagers.

Anyone else got goosebumps?

