The last snake-handling church in the US features a preacher wielding a poisonous reptile while a makeshift band of old women blast out rock music.
Hidden away in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, the House of the Lord Jesus is home to a group of Pentecostal Christians who still practice snake-handling. Outlawed in every other state – because “people keep dying” – the strange custom is still at large in McDowell County, West Virginia, the county with the highest rate of drug induced deaths in the US. It’s perhaps no surprise this area is home to the last bastion of hardcore snake-handlers, who meet up regularly at the local church.
Head honcho and preacher Chris Woolford kicks things off, delivering a sermon while reeling around a giant snake. Behind him, a band plays heavy rock music – which almost drowns out the alarming sounds of the rattlesnakes.
The House of the Lord Jesus is the last snake-handling church in the US
(Image: Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan /Youtube)
Below the church is a mini-zoo housing the killer reptiles. For lunch, these serpents snack on a lunch of rats, producing a pungent aroma of rotting animal flesh.
But, for the members of the House of the Lord Jesus, this foul stench is a small price to pay for freedom to practice their worship “the way they want to”.
Because of the obvious dangers of deadly-snake-handling, many people have died from the practice over the years. As a result, the practice has been steadily outlawed across the US.
Inside the church there’s reportedly a distinct aroma of rat-flesh
(Image: Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan /Youtube)
In some cases, snake-handling preachers have even been convicted of manslaughter when a member of the clergy has been killed by the animals.
Now, the House of the Lord Jesus is the last remaining church where it’s still legal. Speaking to Channel 5’s Andrew Callaghan, one of the visitors of the church said: “Nobody has rights to take away my rights. I’ll take the laws of the Bible before I take the law of the government.”
It can of course go very wrong. “Out of all the ways to die, it’s one of the worst,” preacher Chris Woolford told Callaghan. “[If you get snake venom inside of you], you lose control of your bodily functions and you straight up bleed to death internally.”
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