Sssssnake Oil!

Ah, faith healing. And dumb-as-doornail Pentecostals. They make good examples of how evolution works: if you are too stupid to stay alive, it’s curtains.

What happened? Pastor Jamie Coots was known for his ‘Snake Salvation’ church services. In it, he used snakes to demonstrate his faith, and to promote faith healing. Like so many other idiots, he believed that faith could suspend the laws of nature.

He believed a passage in the Bible suggests that church members cannot be harmed by venomous snakebites as long as they were anointed by God,

The foundation of his belief: the Gospel of Mark 16:17-18

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 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.

Guess what? It doesn’t work. The sick don’t recover, and snakes are dangerous. Coots was bitten by one of his snakes, refused treatment from paramedics, and died from the venom. His death is tragic, agreed. On the other hand, people like the late Pastor persuade others to refuse medical treatment in favor of ‘faith healing’. There is some poetry here, just not the inspiring kind.

At least Coots didn’t die in vain: he gave tangible proof that his belief was dangerous bullshit.