This post has been called out for factual inaccuracy. This person did not die, but did suffer permanent neurological damage. His father, who was apparently the same kind of fruitcake, did die under similar circumstances.
We are leaving the post up because there's a real story here, and the discussion is good.
Readers are cautioned that the video depicts animal cruelty.
Unfortunately not. I remember reading about these guys before, and whilst I don't recall the exact mental gymnastics, the end result is: Not being bitten = evidence of god; being bitten without negative effects = evidence of god; bitten with negative effects (upto and including death) = evidence of god. It's foolproof in its simplicity.
The crazy thing is that the phrase in the bible discussing the playing with snakes thing, we know it was added later. The last 12 verses of Mark were not original.
That's where it talks about speaking in tongues and not being affected by poisonous snakes. The other gospels copied a lot off of Mark, who wrote the earliest gospel contained in the bible.
Almost no one dies from snake bites each year (in the US at least.) To have nearly two from the same family is statistically improbable. But when you meet this family I suppose it makes sense
So I notice this is written in the future tense. I don't know the intent in the original language, but if that pastor read right, he could have inferred that this was not meant for him but for someone in the future.
Well clearly this man didn't believe hard enough! s/
I've had people actually say that to my face in regards to different hardships, and I had a teacher who told me I could step off the school roof and fly if I believed hard enough too. And she was being serious.
Just try to put yourself in the snake's shoes (lol yeah I know) for a second, you're minding your own damn business trying to slither towards some food and or a mate only to get swooped up by some fool yelling and screaming in some fucking microphone in front of a crowd.
This would be like being abducted by aliens, they take you to a big room, pick you up and scream like crazy while you are on stage in front of everyone.
But it was not the first time that Coots was attacked by a snake while holding one during a service at Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, Ky., as reported by the Associated Press.
Poor snake, an innocent and adorable animal doesn’t deserve such treatment.
It’s best practice to leave snakes in their natural environment or relocate them using the proper equipment but if they must be handled via hand (regardless of species):
Always know where the head is (ALWAYS)
Handling should be done in a quiet as possible and calm as possible manner
NEVER move the snake around in a jerky or sudden motion; moving a snake should be done in a calm and as fluid a motion as possible
ALWAYS KNOW WHERE THE HEAD IS AND POINTING AT
When dealing with a wild snake please call a professional, if you can. I’ve successfully dealt with wild snakes on my own while saving my overly ambitious dog from them but I can’t in good conscience give people advice on how to handle them here.
If a venomous species, have anti venom available if possible
I don’t think I need to tell any snake pet lover that this is a horrible way to handle a snake. A loud environment with a lot of strange people and very poor handling is just asking to get bit.
I worked with a guy who went to a church like this. I asked him if the snakes were venomous and if he'd ever been bitten. He said "well of course I have!" Like it was a dumb question...
Aren't there several bible verses about not testing the lord? If so, handling snakes for no other reason than to "test" whether you'll survive seems to be going exactly against that idea.
Thank goodness there were people there to touch him and say “blahblahbloobitybloolooloommmmmnnnndahhhhdabadoobadoobloobity”. Otherwise, he might have died!
Seriously though, I thought this was a video of karaoke night where the artist of the evening was Insane Clown Possee.
I believe Satan inspired man to write the Bible to deceive mankind. It's a position that is more defensible given the state of the world; unanswered prayers, natural disasters, failed prophecies, Biblical contradictions and divine hiddenence.
Found him online, apparently he survived this bite, someone else said he had neurological damage but I couldn’t find any source for that. The cherry on top is that his Dad died from, would you believe it, a rattlesnake bite. A bite he received while wildly gesticulating with the snake, and a bite that refused any medical treatment for. If this was a headline in the Onion it wouldn’t seem out of place. Unbelievable
Moron. And now all the children that were there have to deal with that traumatic fucking memory for the rest of their lives. Fucking religious nut cases...
The section of Mark about snakes is from the last verses believed by most scholars to have been added by some scribe and not original. Bottom line, these people aren't even following what the gospel writer wrote, increasing the fruitcakeness by an order of magnitude.
And to think, the verse in the Bible about handling snakes was interpolation (it was added later by some unscrupulous scribe). This idiot died for someone's fan fiction.
fun fact about venomous snakes in the US; The majority of snake bites happen to young men who are inebriated, often times in the face. This is one of the few that isn't drunk, just plain stupid!
His funeral was directly next to the apartment I used to live at! That one church that was protesting EVERYTHING there for a while (I can't think of the name of it, help?) claimed they were going to protest the funeral outside, but it didn't happen. Probably because the dirtiest cop in 3 states (Bear- Barry Cowan- complete bastard and literal whoremonger) lived directly across the street from my apartment and the funeral home. Edit: sorry, his DADS funeral a few years before. Also was that protesting church called Westboro Baptist?
I don’t suppose now would be a good time to tell him that that phrase about handling snakes is not in the earliest manuscripts that we have of Mark. So it was probably never in the Bible originally.
Tempt fate like that and sometimes fate bites back. I feel really bad for the kids that had to watch that and now that the guy eventually passed away from his foolishness.
Not sure where this is in Kentucky, but I grew up in Harlan County, and this type of insanity was and probably still is happening. Im not religious by any means, although I believe in a higher something out there after we finish this life. I went to a vocational Bible camp thing as a kid where this type of shit happened amd my sister, a couple of our friends and I couldn't have ran faster if the devil himself was on our heels. That was probably my last dealings with organized church..lol
People die when scriptures are taken literally and tested. And out of the scriptures this is 0ne out of 30,000+ verses. Statistically he is one of the biggest idiots to have ever lived.
I remember there's a biblical passage that talks about this, something like: "you will be poisoned and not die" or "you will pick up snakes," obviously when this is taken seriously it goes very wrong. For me it's just more evidence that Christianity is false.
As someone who loves snakes seeing this man be so cruel to one is upsetting.
(More religious note here) Also not to mention- God can heal but he (in my experience) demands respect for the nature he created. Don’t fuck around and find out, you will find out.
I hope that if I’m ever man handled by a group of strangers and forced to perform in a chaotic environment like that, I have a chance to land one killing blow on my captors. Good job snake.
Moderator note:
This post has been called out for factual inaccuracy. This person did not die, but did suffer permanent neurological damage. His father, who was apparently the same kind of fruitcake, did die under similar circumstances.
We are leaving the post up because there's a real story here, and the discussion is good.
Readers are cautioned that the video depicts animal cruelty.
Obviously, his faith was not strong enough.
I hope a lot of people abandoned that church right after. I mean, proof positive that their prayer doesn't work.
Unlikely, though, has no amount of proof will ever convince them that they're living in a fantasy land.
Unfortunately not. I remember reading about these guys before, and whilst I don't recall the exact mental gymnastics, the end result is: Not being bitten = evidence of god; being bitten without negative effects = evidence of god; bitten with negative effects (upto and including death) = evidence of god. It's foolproof in its simplicity.
Right, when God doesn't "act" it just means he decided to not answer your prayer, or some such bullshit.
They're just gonna be like, god was calling him home. It was his time. Stupid is as stupid does.
The crazy thing is that the phrase in the bible discussing the playing with snakes thing, we know it was added later. The last 12 verses of Mark were not original.
That's where it talks about speaking in tongues and not being affected by poisonous snakes. The other gospels copied a lot off of Mark, who wrote the earliest gospel contained in the bible.
There might have been one person in that church whose prayers worked, though
Like Moe Syzlack, I was born a snake handler and I’ll die a snake handler
These idiots have been around forever and yet here we are, still watching their deadly stupidity 🙄
Next thing you know, the priest will start handing the snake to the parishioners to test their faith.
This is like the fast food version of FAFO
He didn't die though. He survived but with neurological damage. OP's title is BS
Y'all are downvoting me for coming with sources? Mmkay
Oh good, then we’ll get another show before he gets his final curtain call.
You're correct and I appreciate the link but you really buried the lede there.
He didn't die but his father sure did, just 4 years before this video, under the exact same circumstances. Death by rattlesnake bite while preaching.
Wonder if he was trying to show up his dad by not dying of the bite?
Anyways, this guy is super lucky. The head/neck is the worst place to be bitten with the lowest chance of survival.
Almost no one dies from snake bites each year (in the US at least.) To have nearly two from the same family is statistically improbable. But when you meet this family I suppose it makes sense
It's true but, in this religious community, it's a fairly common cause of death.
A husband and wife were both killed by a rattlesnake bite in the 90s, three years apart.
https://www.newportplaintalk.com/archives/article_67477388-cbb8-543c-b30b-70e780c668b7.html
Dude must be real weak considering the likely harvest venom before the show in a container anyway.
Do they strike you as smart people that would think of that?
How would they tell if he had neurological damage? He started off walking about with a deadly animal and letting himself get bitten.
Your source specifically says that Jamie Coots died of a snakebite. His son, Cody Coots, survived. Do we know which one is in this video?
The video is the son.
Here's a video of the father who died in his 40s but looks much older than the man in OP's video
Jamie Coots has his own wiki page too
The snake didn't even require any faith. It just required evolution, and the ignorance of others for it to do what was pure instinct.
https://preview.redd.it/ctmfjk940z8g1.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=1da506bed9ce4ffe58b4adbfedb7e3899675c69f
Why the bible is harmfull, evidence number 2025:
https://preview.redd.it/dxwjtd4b0z8g1.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=3757a8b17fbd69587631d4962b84c5984d540efc
So I notice this is written in the future tense. I don't know the intent in the original language, but if that pastor read right, he could have inferred that this was not meant for him but for someone in the future.
The context:
https://preview.redd.it/zjg36ysv6z8g1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5aaafdd1cd5bf9edde8fe364d1a21526c0933250
From Jesus himself, any believer should be able to do that
slow blink Christians are wild.
Technically, this was after Jesus died and supposedly resurrected, so I call bullshit on that one...not that it isn't all bullshit, that is 🤣
What if it was just some random ghost pretending to be Jesus? Dude just winged it, and someone wrote it down
Or just an imposter, like what happened to Nero
No way he was definitely God's kid and came back from the dead and he was definitely a real person. The Bible is basically a history book. /s
The new testament even says that when people saw Jesus after he arose, they didn't recognize him. So...........
Maybe by getting better he meant dying, because anything is better than earth at any given time.
Yeah, these are signs and wonders. Many Christians believe that they were only for the first wave of believers.
More context:
https://preview.redd.it/3000pz1fgz8g1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f767739ba415c328df43ea70741aa050ec02dbd
He missed out the part where you can do this with no problem, but you can do it only once.
Well clearly this man didn't believe hard enough! s/
I've had people actually say that to my face in regards to different hardships, and I had a teacher who told me I could step off the school roof and fly if I believed hard enough too. And she was being serious.
(COVID vaccine not covered because it is injected and not drank)
Ooo, now do the one about the horse cock, I've always heard that's dangerous too
https://preview.redd.it/2708ka3jnz8g1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=96c7371c88e80884142955d512db5f621f0f2956
Yeah, that's my Bible alright!
So fun fact you can actually drink venom and be ok. Poison is different from venom
Unless you have a small cut in your mouth or something
Or stomach ulcers, damage to your intestine linings, etc
what better way to show unconditional love than to make your loved ones walk over murder reptiles and insects
Danger noodle is safe - Jesus
Pls bro just trust me bro pls you gotta trust - Jesus, modernized
Stop hurting innocent snakes.
Well erm actually scorpions aren't insects, they're arachnidd
When he gets to the pearly gates, they'll say to him that they even put a rattle on the snake as a warning.
That poor Snake
it was probably rlly scared :(
Thesnakewins
If I was being manhandled by a screaming man in a loud room full of strangers I’d be scared and bitey too. Poor lil noodle.
I hope the idiot didn't get it killed.
Unfortunately it was killed
Okay, now THAT upsets me.
Fucking snake molesters.
No love like xtian hate.
Yes! And then the camera turns and shows little kids watching this. wtf.
Hope they learned something.
It’s gonna be need a lot of Tic-Tacs to get the taste out.
Its defnitrly not a Christian!
He did not die. Though his father did from doing exactly that.
https://www.thestate.com/living/religion/article216995475.html
Here is a documentary about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OcoUyXiuU0
Came here to say the same thing. He did suffer long-term neurological damage, as your video shows.
So no difference then.
Extra raisins in the old fruitcake
Who paid for the treatment or did god cured him ?
How could they tell?
Religious psychosis on full display.
Natural selection.
He survived though. OP's title is wrong.
Did a god save him or was it modern medicine?
This guy didn't die by rattlesnake bite, but his dad did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Coots
You see, Christians, being willing to die for their faith doesn't mean that what they believe is true.
Thoughtsssssssss and prayerssssssssss
Just try to put yourself in the snake's shoes (lol yeah I know) for a second, you're minding your own damn business trying to slither towards some food and or a mate only to get swooped up by some fool yelling and screaming in some fucking microphone in front of a crowd.
These events with snakes have been going on for a long time now.
Dudes dumbass dad died the same way
They should be reported and charged for both animal cruelty and public endangerment, especially if there are children present.
They usually take a lot of the venom out first so the performance can continue without issue.
This would be like being abducted by aliens, they take you to a big room, pick you up and scream like crazy while you are on stage in front of everyone.
People treat animals so horribly
That snake tolerated quite a bit of rough handling to deliver a relatively small number of bites.
He must have been a crystal methodist
This guy could be a black metal vocalist.
Crosspost to r/whatcouldgowrong.
https://preview.redd.it/djjokhw93z8g1.png?width=400&format=png&auto=webp&s=264cce60d1699ed5ec673e1ed3e41a2a810a2e5c
These are the types of people who voted for Trump
But it was not the first time that Coots was attacked by a snake while holding one during a service at Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, Ky., as reported by the Associated Press.
What the fuck even is that church name??
Yep, that sounds like Kentucky.
It was god’s plan. Or something.
https://preview.redd.it/lohc5mekaz8g1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b14b3f53fd443c064a43af053a0a41cf4d9db50c
Reminds me of this.
The gospel of St. Darwin
I think Jesus was on his lunch break
That guy just needed a bit more prayer. Sucks his congregation let him down.
Sucks they didn't suck out the venom.
"Sir, do not fight the paramedic, sir, sir!"
"SHALABALABALABALASHABA YOU WILL NOT TEMP ME SATANNNNUH!"
"Sir you need medical treatment!"
"GAWD PROVIDESSSSUH! HE WILL HEALLLLUH SHABALABLAALALALALALLALLAALA!"
Poor snake, an innocent and adorable animal doesn’t deserve such treatment.
It’s best practice to leave snakes in their natural environment or relocate them using the proper equipment but if they must be handled via hand (regardless of species):
Always know where the head is (ALWAYS)
Handling should be done in a quiet as possible and calm as possible manner
NEVER move the snake around in a jerky or sudden motion; moving a snake should be done in a calm and as fluid a motion as possible
ALWAYS KNOW WHERE THE HEAD IS AND POINTING AT
When dealing with a wild snake please call a professional, if you can. I’ve successfully dealt with wild snakes on my own while saving my overly ambitious dog from them but I can’t in good conscience give people advice on how to handle them here.
If a venomous species, have anti venom available if possible
I don’t think I need to tell any snake pet lover that this is a horrible way to handle a snake. A loud environment with a lot of strange people and very poor handling is just asking to get bit.
Darwin Award nominee. Praying he didn’t spawn any kids
They all need some form of animal abuse charge (i hunt and fish, but this ain't it)
That poor snek
Bit him right in the neck. You can see the wound squirting blood onto his shoulder. Not a good place to have an injection of venom.
r/Darwinawards
I wholeheartedly support and endorse evangelicals engaging in these displays of their faith.
I worked with a guy who went to a church like this. I asked him if the snakes were venomous and if he'd ever been bitten. He said "well of course I have!" Like it was a dumb question...
He should've prayed harder. Maybe tithed more too.
Hope the snake was okay after biting something poisonous
Thank you natural selection
Guess he didn't pray hard enough/the right way. It's like God didn't even care
Aren't there several bible verses about not testing the lord? If so, handling snakes for no other reason than to "test" whether you'll survive seems to be going exactly against that idea.
When Republicans say, “this is a Christian nation,” this is what they mean.
JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL!
Candidate for the Darwin Award.
Thoughts and prayers
Good, one less religious douchebag on the planet.
The thing is, that snake was pretty chill for what all he was doing with it. He bit defensively and didn’t keep striking.
What a buffoon.
God couldn’t even get the blood out of that shirt, much less the venom out of your blood.
I drive past the last snake handling church in WV pretty regularly and I know all the people who go there.
I really wish I had been down there when Andrew Callaghan was there. I would have loved to talk with him for a bit.
Forty-two. That's a ripe old age for a rattlesnake-handling Kentucky pastor.
Evolution in real time.
Every single time a religious power is put to a legitimate test, it fails…
All that ranting and pacing would have sped up the poisons effects, then refusing treatment and it being delayed..
I wouldn't be surprised if they blamed the paramedics for interfering with his miraculous comeback. "Y'all shoulda stopped em!"
Aww, I love that for him!
Thank goodness there were people there to touch him and say “blahblahbloobitybloolooloommmmmnnnndahhhhdabadoobadoobloobity”. Otherwise, he might have died!
Seriously though, I thought this was a video of karaoke night where the artist of the evening was Insane Clown Possee.
Poor snake being manhandled!
God has spoken.
Or idiocy. Honestly, I can't tell the difference.
Dude I feel so bad for that snake
I'm glad he passed since they killed the poor snake. An eye for an eye.
Religion. It’s a helluva drug.
Who'd of thought!
Lmfao
Good.
Good.
lol
Well, I guess God did the right thing for once.
Love it
I believe Satan inspired man to write the Bible to deceive mankind. It's a position that is more defensible given the state of the world; unanswered prayers, natural disasters, failed prophecies, Biblical contradictions and divine hiddenence.
Man I love when Darwin actually does his job.
Found him online, apparently he survived this bite, someone else said he had neurological damage but I couldn’t find any source for that. The cherry on top is that his Dad died from, would you believe it, a rattlesnake bite. A bite he received while wildly gesticulating with the snake, and a bite that refused any medical treatment for. If this was a headline in the Onion it wouldn’t seem out of place. Unbelievable
Moron. And now all the children that were there have to deal with that traumatic fucking memory for the rest of their lives. Fucking religious nut cases...
And another Darwin Award winner! Thank you for eliminating yourself from the shallow end of the gene pool, we thank you for your service 👏👏👏
Sounds like whoever called the paramedics didn't have faith.
The Lord called him home as a reward for his faithfulness 😂😂😂
I feel bad for the poor rattlesnake.
The section of Mark about snakes is from the last verses believed by most scholars to have been added by some scribe and not original. Bottom line, these people aren't even following what the gospel writer wrote, increasing the fruitcakeness by an order of magnitude.
This is one case where mental illness proved to be fatal. Was the snake okay?
they killed the snake and the dude actually survived unfortunately
And to think, the verse in the Bible about handling snakes was interpolation (it was added later by some unscrupulous scribe). This idiot died for someone's fan fiction.
fun fact about venomous snakes in the US; The majority of snake bites happen to young men who are inebriated, often times in the face. This is one of the few that isn't drunk, just plain stupid!
I love to see natural selection at work. Nature is beautiful.
Pastor used “Faith”
It’s not very effective
Is this mademesmile?
This video never gets old. IIRC, his father died the exact same way. It’s multigenerational stupidity.
But GAWD and shit, I guess🤷🏻♂️🐍
These people vote Trump. Just saying…
His funeral was directly next to the apartment I used to live at! That one church that was protesting EVERYTHING there for a while (I can't think of the name of it, help?) claimed they were going to protest the funeral outside, but it didn't happen. Probably because the dirtiest cop in 3 states (Bear- Barry Cowan- complete bastard and literal whoremonger) lived directly across the street from my apartment and the funeral home. Edit: sorry, his DADS funeral a few years before. Also was that protesting church called Westboro Baptist?
I don’t suppose now would be a good time to tell him that that phrase about handling snakes is not in the earliest manuscripts that we have of Mark. So it was probably never in the Bible originally.
Tempt fate like that and sometimes fate bites back. I feel really bad for the kids that had to watch that and now that the guy eventually passed away from his foolishness.
Oh no, what a loss for humanity 🙄
Play stupid games
Natural Selection
The speaking in tongues at the end fucking kills me 🤣🤣🤣
Prop-comics aren’t the worst. Prop-preachers are.
Bonus: When you pray for all your problems to be fixed without considering that you are the problem.
Stupid is as stupid does
And no one learned a damn thing lol
Madman in charge of church does madman thing more at 6
LMAO
Can’t fix stupid.
I lived in ky for many years, and spent time in Harlan. This stuff still goes on, and it’s unfortunate.
It's a Christmas miracle! /s
Thats faith in action right there.
This was his sole good deed. By removing himself from this earth, he's made the planet a slightly better place.
Have you ever seen what rattlesnake venom does to blood? Yeah, fuck that.
The man in overalls is just too on the nose
Not sure where this is in Kentucky, but I grew up in Harlan County, and this type of insanity was and probably still is happening. Im not religious by any means, although I believe in a higher something out there after we finish this life. I went to a vocational Bible camp thing as a kid where this type of shit happened amd my sister, a couple of our friends and I couldn't have ran faster if the devil himself was on our heels. That was probably my last dealings with organized church..lol
When did this happen?
"Ha, idiot" - God
This is actually p sad. He's clearly grifting, but the thing with faith-based theatrics is that you are also susceptible.
Stupid
Adios dipshit
People die when scriptures are taken literally and tested. And out of the scriptures this is 0ne out of 30,000+ verses. Statistically he is one of the biggest idiots to have ever lived.
So sad...too bad
He obviously did the spells (prayers) wrong.
I remember there's a biblical passage that talks about this, something like: "you will be poisoned and not die" or "you will pick up snakes," obviously when this is taken seriously it goes very wrong. For me it's just more evidence that Christianity is false.
Is this the guy that All gas no brakes interviewed? The channel 5 guy on YouTube doing real actual journalism?
So many batshit crazy stupid people.
So few vipers.
The jokes just write themselves.
As someone who loves snakes seeing this man be so cruel to one is upsetting.
(More religious note here) Also not to mention- God can heal but he (in my experience) demands respect for the nature he created. Don’t fuck around and find out, you will find out.
natural selection at work
Cause of death : FAFO
"Let's abuse an animal to send a message"
I hope that if I’m ever man handled by a group of strangers and forced to perform in a chaotic environment like that, I have a chance to land one killing blow on my captors. Good job snake.
Natural selection