Snake' Pastor dies

[farouk]

Some Pastors like Benny Hinn have told their congregation that if they give $100.00 he would guarantee them that they would get three times that back.

I wonder whether the Securities and Exchange Commission thinks he is creditworthy....?

 

[Lewis]

ndeed, others are emerging, including a growing group of 20-somethings clustered around churches in La Follette, Tennessee, and Middlesboro, Kentucky. Their individual Facebook pages show photos of poisonous snakes and “serpent handling” appears on their “activities and interests” lists.

Pentecostal serpent handlers - they use "serpent" over "snake" out of deference to the Bible - are known for collecting dozens of snakes expressly for church services.

At church, they’re also known to ingest a mixture of strychnine - a highly toxic powder often used as a pesticide - and water, often from a Mason jar. These same believers will bring Coke bottles with oil-soaked wicks to the church so they can hold flames to their skin.

Key to understanding this culture are a pair of verses from the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament: “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.”

Mainstream Christians - Pentecostals included - do not believe Mark 16:17-18 means that Christians should seek out poisonous snakes or ingest poisonous substances.

But experts say that several thousand people – exact numbers are hard to come by – in six Appalachian states read the verse differently. Known as “signs following” Pentecostals, they see a world at war with evil powers and believe it’s a Christian’s duty to take on the devil by engaging in the “signs.”

Crazy

 

[Kathi]

If I saw a snake at my Church there would be one way for me and that is OUT

 

[Deborah13]

If I saw a snake at my Church there would be one way for me and that is OUT

Yep, just cause for 'church hopping'. :yes

 

[Angel]

I hope with all my heart that I never take God's Word out of context and become a nonsensical religious extremist...

 

[farouk]

I hope with all my heart that I never take God's Word out of context and become a nonsensical religious extremist...

Quite right...

Blessings

 

[Kathi]

I hope with all my heart that I never take God's Word out of context and become a nonsensical religious extremist...

Yea....me either.

 

[reba]

I sure hope chasing ones sister around the church grounds with a snake doesn't count....she has still not forgiven me...

 

[Kathi]

I sure hope chasing ones sister around the church grounds with a snake doesn't count....she has still not forgiven me...

I have had boys chase me on the school grounds with a snake.My daughter loves snakes.Once in grade school a guy with all these reptiles came to an assembly.My daughter volunteered to have this huge snake wrapped around her neck.I still have that pic.

 

[Angel]

I remember when I was in elementary I got to pet a yellow boa constrictor

 

[Deborah13]

I sure hope chasing ones sister around the church grounds with a snake doesn't count....she has still not forgiven me...

 

[Gary]

I have had boys chase me on the school grounds with a snake.My daughter loves snakes.Once in grade school a guy with all these reptiles came to an assembly.My daughter volunteered to have this huge snake wrapped around her neck.I still have that pic.

I seen something on the news about a month ago. Some guy did that with a snake. It strangled him......dead......while others just stood there and watched.

I hate snakes.
.

 

[Deborah13]

I have had boys chase me on the school grounds with a snake.My daughter loves snakes.Once in grade school a guy with all these reptiles came to an assembly.My daughter volunteered to have this huge snake wrapped around her neck.I still have that pic.

My husband deliberately let a 6' bull snake loose in the school. They finally found it a couple of months later under the stage.

 

[farouk]

I have had boys chase me on the school grounds with a snake.My daughter loves snakes.Once in grade school a guy with all these reptiles came to an assembly.My daughter volunteered to have this huge snake wrapped around her neck.I still have that pic.

These days, tell a lawyer and there might b law suits for injury to feelings, irrespective of whether anyone was actually hurt...

 

[farouk]

My husband deliberately let a 6' bull snake loose in the school. They finally found it a couple of months later under the stage.

Umm...why?

 

[Kathi]

I seen something on the news about a month ago. Some guy did that with a snake. It strangled him......dead......while others just stood there and watched.

I hate snakes.
.

I hate them too.I have had horrible nightmares about them.When I was pregnant with my kids and my hormones were going wacky I would dream that they were in my bed.

 

[Deborah13]

Umm...why?

He grew up a redneck? Pranks are part of rural life. No movie theaters, no or little TV, etc.
That's really mild. He and two other friends were in on putting a live garter snake in a male teacher's top desk draw. They knew he was terrified of snakes. When he finally opened the drawer the snake hissed at him. He fell backward, tripping on his chair, and literally crawled away from the desk.

The boys didn't get in any serious trouble for either event. Just good natured pranks.

 

[Paul1965]

I remember seeing a show on tv years ago about the snake churches. This was before I was saved. They showed the congregation and probably half of them had fingers or part of a hand missing from the bite. Never have I seen my sister turn purple from laughter before or since and I must admit I too had sore sides...now, I can understand the depth of faith, not the testing of God. does it still strike me as humorous? No,because it is perversion of the truth of His word that leads these idiots to risk theirs and other's lives.