Cody Coots was bitten by a snake while giving a sermon and required emergency medical intervention to save his life. But in their Kentucky church, this is not the first time a snake handler has been bitten during a religious service. Coots’ father, Jamie Coots, was bitten by a snake and died after he asked that his fate be left up to God’s will.
Metro says that Cody Coots asked the same of his congregation. Coots told them if he is bitten, they should take him to the mountaintop for the Lord to decide whether he lives or dies.
Watch The Snake Handling Video Here
But luckily, a few parishioners, including a man named Big Cody, defied Coots and sought medical attention.
“Most people bit in the face are dead in five, ten minutes. I mean, his own daddy got bit in the hand and within seven minutes was dead.”
Big Cody says he still remembers when Jamie Coots, the pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus’ Name church in Middlesboro, Kentucky, died at age 42 after being bitten.
The church is compelled by the Bible verse, Mark 16:18: “They will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them.”
The snake was not religious. “Son of pastor killed by snake during sermon is bitten by snake during sermon” Cody Coots asked his congregation to take him to the mountaintop where God would judge whether he lives or dies. He had to go to hospital. https://t.co/XSt7EkXb1C
— Justin Waite (@SharePickers) August 17, 2018
In the video, Coots is seen covered in blood in the aftermath of the snakebite which nearly severed his temporal artery, leading blood to spray everywhere. Cody Coots is a fourth generation snake handler (snake handling has been practiced in Appalachia for over one hundred years), and he recalls the day his father died.
“When the Bible says serpents, it means a poisonous snake. When the old man got bit he died within probably 10 minutes, it’s a nasty bite.”
“Every time he’d ever got bitten, I’d never seen him drop a snake. And I’ve seen the snake hit the floor I thought, we’ll just take him home’.”
Jamie Coots ran to the bathroom after his bite, screaming that his face was on fire, and then he dropped dead.
Snake handling frequently ends badly, as there have been several fatal snake bites in the region over the last ten years.
“Cody’s father Jamie Coots’ was killed in 2014, 60-year-old David Brock died after being bitten at a Pentecostal Church in Kentucky in 2015, and 44-year-old pastor Mack Randall Wolford died after being bitten by a timber rattlesnake during an outdoor religious service in West Virginia in 2012.”
At the time of Cody Coots’ bite, 14 people were worshipping at the church in a service that usually lasts approximately 90 minutes. Coots’ wife Tammy, 25, says she’s not into the snake handling.
“It is not for me. I wasn’t raised in this religion. I met Cody through my dad and we just clicked. I was just, like, crazy over him.”
Cody Coots says after this experience, he’s going to rethink the practice of snake handling in his religious services.
