Snaking-handling pastor and his congregation Evicted from their church after Legendary preacher died from snake bite

Mailonline is reporting that a pastor who is specialized in handling venomous snakes while praying and dancing has been evicted with his worshipers from their church.

The church was rented to Andrew Hamblin by the builder Clyde Daugherty for $267 monthly but Clyde eventually became fed up with all the serpents slithering about and occasionally injuring or killing congregants.

Mr. Daugherty told 10News that too many people were getting hurt and dying, and that’s a proven fact. ‘He was focused too much on the wrong things, like attentions from the media and the TV show, instead of the word of God.’

Daugherty had offered to see the church, trailers and surrounding property to Mr. Hamblin for $66, 000, but the pastor declined the offer and is now looking for a new building.

Mr. Hamblin’s Pentecostal church practices a rare, century-old Christian tradition of worshiping God with venomous snakes such as timber rattlers, cottonmouths and copperheads.

The 22-year old plays mandolin, loves zombie movies, receives food stamps, has five children and was the star of a 16-episode National Geographic reality series called Snake Salvation which featured Appalachia’s serpent-handling churches. There exist around 125 of such churches in the U.S.

It is said that the pastors uses the snakes to show non-Christians that God protects them from harm, holding them aloft as they pray, sing and dance. This belief stems from a literal reading of Jesus’ word in the Gospel of Mark: ‘And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.’

Mr. Hamblin himself has been beaten by poisonous snakes many times, made headlines last fall after authorities seized more than 50 venomous serpents in his possession. A grand jury ultimately didn’t indict him after his court appearance drew large crowds of supporters.

Mr. Hamblin’s mentor, fellow reality TV star and snake-wielding pastor Jamie Coots died in February after being bitten at his church in Middlesboro, Kentucky. His son Cody, 21, took over for him and was bitten by a snake last month.

‘I was with Jamie in Middlesboro, Kentucky, when he was bitten,’ Mr. Daugherty said. ‘Enough is enough. There will be no snakes at my services.’

MY TAKE:

This is a perfect case of taking the Bible out of context and when we do this, it becomes a Con. People being injured and dying as a result of snake bites has nothing to do with Biblical injunctions but purely a fabrication of man for show and fame – reality TV.

The same Bible also said, ‘If your right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of the members should perish, and not thy whole body should be cast into hell.’ It goes on to say the same for the right hand.

I am not surprised people still have two eyes and two hands even though everyday these parts of the body causes us to sin constantly against God. Why aren’t they obeying that injunction too?

Simple, because the Bible never mean it Literally.

As for the ‘If they pick up serpents’, the Bible did not ask us to force it but if it happens and we must pick up serpent, then it would not hurt us. But a situation where we go out of our way to pick up deadly snakes, can only result in thing, we get bitten.

The verse is actually a promise of protection and not a command to those God has called to go pick up serpent. A good example is the case of Apostle Paul in the Island of Malta where he was bitten by a poisonous snake while gathering firewood (Acts 28:1-6). It is important to note that Apostle Paul did not purposely handled the snake but it was an unexpected accident, and God miraculously protected His servant as He had promised!