Reality show snake-handling preacher dies -- of snakebite
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/16/us/snake-salvation-pastor-bite/index.html?sr=sharebar_facebook
February 18, 2014 -- Updated 1329 GMT (2129 HKT)
'Serpent handler' killed by snakebite
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Star of "Snake Salvation" has died of venomous snakebite
- Pentecostal Pastor Jamie Coots believes that God protects against venomous snakebites
- Coots refused treatment for the bite, authorities said
Jamie Coots died Saturday evening after refusing to be treated, Middlesboro police said.
On "Snake Salvation," the
ardent Pentecostal believer said that he believed that a passage in the
Bible suggests poisonous snakebites will not harm believers as long as
they are anointed by God. The practice is illegal in most states, but
still goes on, primarily in the rural South.
Coots was a
third-generation "serpent handler" and aspired to one day pass the
practice and his church, Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name, on to his
adult son, Little Cody.
Snake-handling pastor dies after bite
'Serpent handler' killed by snakebite
Watch this pastor handle deadly snakes
Pastor dances with venomous snakes
The National Geographic
show featured Coots and cast handling all kinds of poisonous snakes --
copperheads, rattlers, cottonmouths. The channel's website
shows a picture of Coots, goateed, wearing a fedora. "Even after losing
half of his finger to a snake bite and seeing others die from bites
during services," Coots "still believes he must take up serpents and
follow the Holiness faith," the website says.
On Sunday, National
Geographic Channels spokeswoman Stephanie Montgomery sent CNN this
statement: "In following Pastor Coots for our series Snake Salvation, we
were constantly struck by his devout religious convictions despite the
health and legal peril he often faced.
"Those risks were always
worth it to him and his congregants as a means to demonstrate their
unwavering faith. We were honored to be allowed such unique access to
Pastor Jamie and his congregation during the course of our show, and
give context to his method of worship. Our thoughts are with his family
at this difficult time."
In February 2013, Coots
was given one year of probation for crossing into Tennessee with
venomous snakes. He was previously arrested in 2008 for keeping 74
snakes in his home, according to National Geographic.
Tennessee banned snake handling in 1947 after five people were bitten
in churches over two years' time, the channel says on the show site.
On one episode,
Coots, who collected snakes, is shown trying to wrest a Western
diamondback out of its nook under a rock deep in East Texas. He's
wearing a cowboy hat and a T-shirt that says "The answer to Y2K -
JESUS."
The pastor is helped by his son and a couple of church members.
"He'll give up, just sooner or later," one of the members says. "Just be careful. Ease him out."
The group bags two snakes, which a disappointed Coots says hardly justifies the trip to Texas.
"Catching two snakes the
first day, 'course we'd hoped for more," Coots says in the video. "We
knew that the next day we was gonna have to try to hunt harder and hope
for more snakes."
People we lost in 2014
