Several times here at Moonhowlings I have referenced snake handlers as a religion.  Now, I have never known any up close and personal but I do know there was a community of them in Scottsville when I was growing up.  They were famous to the locals, who were the people from Charlottesville.  However, to me, actually it is sort of just an expression, meaning extremism in religion.  I don’t think I actually even thought there were any real snake handlers left.

Photo journalist Lauren  Pond recently watched a snake handler die for his faith.  According to the Washington Post:

This is what I saw through my camera lens: Pastor Randy “Mack” Wolford, tossing and turning on the couch in his mother-in-law’s West Virginia trailer, suffering from the pain of a rattlesnake bite he had received earlier in the day. Parishioners surrounding him in prayer in the stifling heat. His mother stroking his feet, her expression a mixture of concern, sorrow and, eventually, acceptance: This is how her eldest son — a legend in the local Pentecostal serpent-handling community — would die.

Camera in hand, I watched as the man I’d photographed and gotten to know over the past year writhed, turned pale and slipped away, a victim of his unwavering faith, but also a testament to it. A family member called paramedics when Mack finally allowed it, but it was too late. Mack Wolford drew his final, labored breaths late Sunday night. He was 44.

The scene has been playing over and over in my head since then, and the questions are weighing on me: As a photojournalist, what role did I have in this tragedy, and what is it now, in the aftermath? Was it right for me to remain in the background taking pictures, as I did, and not seek medical attention for the dying pastor, whose beliefs forbade it? Or should I have intervened and called paramedics earlier, which would have undermined Mack’s wishes? Finally, what was I supposed to do with the images I shot?

My thoughts have been especially muddied because of the context in which I knew Mack. He wasn’t just a source and a subject in my year-long documentary project about Pentecostal serpent-handling; he was also a friend: We shared a meal at the cafe where members of his family work; he screened videos about himself for me at his house; I once stayed the night on his couch.

The practices of the Signs Following faith remain an enigma to many. How can people be foolish enough to interpret Mark 16: 17-18 so literally: to ingest poison, such as strychnine, which Mack also allegedly did at Sunday’s ceremony; to handle venomous snakes; and, most incomprehensible of all, not to seek medical treatment if bitten? Because of this reaction, many members of this religious community are hesitant to speak to the media, let alone be photographed.

But Mack was different. He allowed me to see what life was like for a serpent-handler outside church, which helped me better understand the controversial religious practice, and, I think, helped me add nuance to my photographs. His passing, my first vivid encounter with death, was both a personal and professional loss for me.

Is there even a correct response here?  Do you report them?  I believe snake handling might be illegal.  (gasp!! 1A rights)  Do you call the rescue squad?  How is this different than running in front of a train and trusting God to protect you?

What IS the proper response?  I don’t know.  Do first amendment rights extend to these extremes? 

Further reading:  Washington Post

18 Thoughts to “Snake Handler dies as a matter of faith–new 1A challenges”

  1. George S. Harris

    I see nothing in the First Amendment that would preclude calling the rescue squad. The family can always refuse the treatment. You asked if this is, “different than running in front of a train and trusting God to protect you?”. I don’t believe it is, but am not a lawyer. I hope Moe Davis will wade in on this. Is it any different than playing Russian Roulette, trusting that God will make sure the empty chamber always falls in the right place? Or a myriad of other circumstances where someone does some thing contrary to common sense in the hopes that God will save them. While I cannot cite the cases, there have been some where the authorities have intervened to stop parents from allowing a child to die because of their faith, but there have also been cases where the authorities have done nothing. A mixed bag to be certain.

    PS WaPo link doesn’t work.

  2. Thanks, George. I have been having link problems since I upgraded. I will work on it.

  3. George, it should be ok now. I don’t know what is causing the problem post update of software. Let me know any time a link doesn’t work.

  4. marinm

    It’s not my thing but I don’t think it’s my business to intrude. I don’t think anyone would object to a bystander calling medical services but ultimately if a person refuses treatment – that’s their choice.

  5. Morris Davis

    There was a case decided by the North Carolina Supreme Court back in the 1950s where a pastor challenged a ban on snake-handling. The Court upheld the ban saying the law struck a reasonable balance between public safety and religious freedom. The decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and the the Court declined review. Of course that was back in the 1950s when people were fond of progress and looking to the future rather than trying to turn back the hands of time. The NC legislature, in the past year or so, has been preoccupied with prohibiting same-sex marriage, allowing guns on public school property, and restricting how state agencies can measure the rising sealevel so climate change will not harm developers planning to build along the coast. I’m sure once they learn the nanny state bans patriots from passing around snakes they’ll get right on it: how can you properly stand up in church and scream about how the loving Lord is going to make the gays roast in hell if you’re not allowed to wave around a couple of hissing rattlers (besides, the congregants are armed and can shoot any snake that gets loose)?

    1. Ok…now you have done it!!!! Gotta clean the coffee off the screen!

      Too funny, Moe. It sounds like things are coming along just fine in our fair state to the south.

  6. marinm

    Wait.

    You can’t carry a gun in a church in North Carolina? NANNY STATE!!!!

    They need to be as enlightened as we are here in Virginia and allow it. STAT!

  7. Clinton S. Long

    @Morris Davis
    I am confused. I thought this occurred in West Virginia?

  8. Elena

    Not sure what the difference is with Jim Jones and cult suicide. This “Pastors” dad died the same way when he was 15. Not seeking treatment to a deadly snakebit doesn’t seem much different than slitting your wrists and hoping G-d will intervene and stop the blood flow.

    Having said that, if people want to believe what they believe, who am I to judge them. I don’t get it, but then I am not a fundamental religious believer.

  9. Elena

    @Clinton

    I believe Moe was answering a legal question, ergo the reference to the Supreme Court regarding the NC case. I hope this helps answer your question.

  10. Chris

    I believe WVa. is the only place snake-handling is legal. Personally, I think it’s pretty nuts, but to each his own. I think I would have called for emergency services, and seen if treatment was ulitimately declined.

    1. I think I would have also. Of course, I am thinking of Sideshow bob up at Annaburg Manor….

  11. Clinton S. Long

    @Elena
    Thanks, I kept going back and forth (but only a little). 🙂

  12. Chris

    Moon-howler :I think I would have also. Of course, I am thinking of Sideshow bob up at Annaburg Manor….

    Good one. Poor Hugh Finn, may he rest in peace. Heaven knows Sideshow Bob, didn’t want the man to die with dignity.

  13. Scout

    The whole snake-handling thing is incredibly dangerous and it rests on an isolated shard of scripture from an element of the Book of Mark that some scholars think is an apocryphal emendation of that document. When I see or read about snake handling, I wonder about how much knowledge of the rest of the New Testament these sect members have. The verse that pops into my head most readily is Jesus’s admonition that one should not put God to the test. Luke 4:12. It strikes me that the Reverend Mr. Wolford would have done well to have heeded that commandment.

  14. kelly_3406

    If this isn’t evidence for natural selection (aka human darwinism), I don’t know what is.

    1. @Kelly

      snicker. I won’t argue that point.

  15. Scout

    It may come under consideration for the Darwin Awards. However, I think one of the requirements to win a Darwin is that you have to stupidly kill yourself before you have offspring. If you have reproduced, you did no one any favours by leaving your gametes in the gene pool. I think this guy had kids.

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