Reality show snake-handling preacher dies -- of snakebite
(CNN) -- A Kentucky pastor who starred in a reality show about snake-handling in church has died -- of a snakebite.
Jamie Coots died Saturday evening after refusing to be treated, Middleborough police said.
On "Snake Salvation," the
ardent Pentecostal believer said that he believed that a passage in the
Bible suggests poisonous snakebites will not harm believers as long as
they are anointed by God. The practice is illegal in most states, but
still goes on, primarily in the rural South.
Coots was a
third-generation "serpent handler" and aspired to one day pass the
practice and his church, Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name, on to his
adult son, Little Cody.
The National Geographic
show featured Coots and cast handling all kinds of poisonous snakes --
copperheads, rattlers, cottonmouths. The channel's website
shows a picture of Coots, goateed, wearing a fedora. "Even after losing
half of his finger to a snake bite and seeing others die from bites
during services," Coots "still believes he must take up serpents and
follow the Holiness faith," the website says.
Oprah Winfrey
turned 60 on January 29 and said she is feeling healthy and strong. "I
no longer have to be concerned about what anyone thinks of me!" 
