Snake-handling Kentucky pastor killed by reptilian non-believer

RIP Jamie Coots, former pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church in Middlesboro KY. Reverend Coots went to meet his Maker on Saturday, after handling -- and being bitten by -- a large rattlesnake.

Handling snakes is part of the deceased's version of the Christian religion. Followers of the evangelical Protestant sect take literally a passage from the Gospel of St. Mark (16:17-18):
And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them...

Errr, maybe not. Cody Winn, another preacher, told the local TV station that on Saturday night "Jamie went across the floor. He had one of the rattlers in his hand, he came over and he was standing beside me. It was plain view, it just turned its head and bit him in the back of the hand…within a second."

After he was bitten, Mr. Coots dropped the snakes, but then picked them back up and continued on for a few minutes, then went to the restoom. When an ambulance arrived at the church at 8:30 p.m., they were told the reverend had gone home. When contacted at his house he refused medical treatment. Said his son Cody, "He's going to hurt, he's going to pray for a while and he's going to get better. That's what happened every other time."

But not this time. Emergency workers left about 9:10 p.m. When they returned about an hour later, Mr. Coots was dead from the venomous snake bite.

A year ago, Rev. Coots was interviewed by AP, and told them, "We literally believe they want us to take up snakes. We've been serpent handling for the past 20 or 21 years."

Has anyone ever been bitten and died before? Errr, yes. In 1995, 28-year-old Melinda Brown, of Parrottsville TN, died in the same church after being bitten by a four-foot [that's length, not the number of feed. Ed.] timber rattlesnake.

At the time, the county attorney wanted to prosecute someone... anyone but Ms Brown presumably... under a 1942 Kentucky law that makes it illegal to handle or display snakes during religious services. But the county judge refused to sign the criminal complaint. "If the court thought that a trial would act to deter future snake handling in church, my decision would be different," Judge James Bowling Jr. wrote to the county attorney. "But you and I both know that this practice is not going to stop until either rattlesnakes or snake handlers become extinct."

If asked to bet on which is more likely to survive, Walt's money would be on the snakes.