Religion: Snake Oil

A snake-handling pastor who appeared on US TV show Snake Salvation has died after being bitten by a rattlesnake.

Jamie Coots was holding the snake at his church in Middlesboro, Kentucky, when he was bitten on the hand, according to fellow preacher Cody Winn.

The Middlesboro Police Department said Coots refused to have medical treatment for the bite.

Coots said last year that he needed the snakes for religious reasons, citing a Bible passage in Mark's gospel.

The handlers' religious conviction is based on a passage in Mark's gospel which reads: "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."

BBC News.