What happened to Pastor Jamie Coots?
Gregory James Coots (November 17, 1971 – February 15, 2014) was a Pentecostal pastor in Kentucky who was featured in the National Geographic Channel reality television show Snake Salvation, which documented the lives of people who practice snake handling. Coots died from a rattlesnake bite during a service.
Is Cody Coots still pastor?
Cody Coots is a fourth generation snake-handling pastor, and before he died, his father was featured on “Snake Salvation,” a TV show on the National Geographic Channel, per the Herald-Leader. The son preaches at the same church in Kentucky where his dad did.
What happened to Katrina Coots?
A fatal car crash Wednesday night resulted in the loss of two Bell County women. Melissa Saylor, 49, and Katrina Coots, 26, died at the scene of the car crash, while they were on their way home from Crockett-Saylor Pentecostal Church. Both women attended sister churches, Crockett and Jensen Pentecostal churches.
What is a rattlesnake preacher?
Pastor Coot’s father, Jamie Coots, 42, was handling a rattlesnake at very same church during one of his sermons in 2014 when he was bitten on the hand and died. Appalachia’s serpent-handling pastors use the snakes to show non-Christians that God protects them from harm, holding them aloft as they pray, sing and dance.
Are there still snake handling churches?
Most religious snake handlers are still found in the Appalachian Mountains and other parts of the southeastern United States, especially in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina.
Are there still religious snake handlers?
What denomination is snake handlers?
Practiced by a small fraction of rural charismatic Protestants, snake handling is often identified with the Church of God with Signs Following or other holiness churches.
Are snake handlers Pentecostal?
In 2001, about 40 small churches practiced snake handling, most of them considered to be Holiness, Pentecostals, or Charismatics. In 2004, there were four snake-handling congregations in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.
How do snake handlers not get bit?
Pennington said snake handlers do not operate under the assumption snakes will never bite them. “They do it simply as an act of obedience,” he said. Handlers, he said, have an understanding that unless they feel the anointing of the Holy Spirit, they are not to pick up the serpent.
Do Pentecostals still handle snakes?
In 2001, about 40 small churches practiced snake handling, most of them considered to be Holiness, Pentecostals, or Charismatics.
Why do cobras not bite snake charmers?
Most snake charmers sit beyond the biting range of the snake. Moreover, snakes are timid beings and are reluctant to attack. Venomous snakes such as cobras avoid biting in retaliation as reproducing venom is an energy intensive process.
How many snake handling churches are there?
Those who study the practice, including Hood, estimate there are between 100 and 200 U.S. churches that still handle serpents as a part of worship and their message.