The newest pastor in the "Snake Salvation" church says he will also refuse treatment if he's bitten in the same way that killed his father a week ago.
Cody Coots says he will also handle the same snake that killed his father during an afternoon service in Kentucky. The pastor says if paramedics come to help him, he'll send them away, just like his father did.
He said:
"I will lay right there and say to everyone that it's God's will. If it's good enough to live by, then it's good enough to die by."
Cody's father, the pastor on National Geographic's 'Snake Salvation' died from refusing treatment for a deadly snakebite a week ago. He suffered the attack while preaching to his Kentucky congregation. Paramedics raced to the church, but he had already gone home.
The church believes that a poisonous snakebite will not harm them if it is God's will and they are anointed by his power.
Their worship of the snakes comes from a chapter in Mark's gospel, which reads:
"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover."
Coots' devout religious beliefs often overcame any fear he had of handling the deadly snakes. The pastor had previously been bitten eight times, but his body had never had a reaction.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
