Tennessee Pastor and Snake Handler Dies from Snake Bite

A Tennessee pastor died last night from a snake bite he incurred from holding a snake during church services. Pastor Jamie Coots frequently utilized snake-handling in his sermons, but this weekend the snake he was holding bit him, and was found dead at his house late Saturday night.

Local police chief Jeff Sharpe said that Coots was adamantly refusing medical treatment after getting the snake bite. He went home before emergency workers got to the church, and when other local officials told him he needed to get medical treatment for the snake bite, “he refused” and was found dead about an hour later.

Coots was one of the stars of the National Geographic show Snake Salvation, which featured Coots and fellow pastor Andrew Hamblin keeping the religious ritual of snake-handling alive. The show site noted that both men “believe in a bible passage that suggests a poisonous snakebite will not harm them as long as they are anointed by God’s power.”

You can watch a clip from the show below, via NatGeo:

[h/t WBIR]

[photo via Shelley Mays]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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