Veteran snake-handling pastor dies after bite
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A West Virginia preacher who followed his father into the rare practice of handling snakes to prove faith in God died after being bitten during an outdoor service involving the reptiles.
Mark Randall “Mack” Wolford, 44 — whose own father died in 1983 after suffering a fatal bite — had been bitten before and survived. But he died earlier this week after witnesses say a timber rattler bit him on the thigh. Wolford’s sister and a freelance photographer told media outlets it happened during a Sunday service at Panther State Forest.
Lauren Pond, a freelance photojournalist from Washington, D.C., didn’t immediately return messages Thursday but told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph she was among 25 people at the service. She saw Wolford bitten but said congregants were unfazed.
“I don’t think anyone necessarily expected it,” she told the newspaper, “but they’ve dealt with it before so it’s not such a huge shock, maybe.”
Bluefield Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Becky Ritter said Thursday that Wolford was a patient and died Monday, but that federal privacy laws prevented her from releasing additional information.
Ralph Hood, a religion professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, saw Wolford bitten by a copperhead about six years ago.
Wolford and others prefer to be called “serpent handlers” as a reflection of Scripture, and Hood said his friend would want people to remember him as “a Christian who was living his beliefs and being obedient.”
“Serpent- handling was only a small part of that,” he said. “He was trying to revitalize a strong tradition that doesn’t make a distinction between beliefs and practices.”
“A common misunderstanding is that handlers believe they can’t get bit or it won’t kill them,” Hood added. “What they’ll tell you is, ‘ No one will get out of this alive.’ They’ll also tell you it’s not a question of how you live; it’s a question of how you die. ... This is how he would have wanted to die.”