Woman Dies After Snakebite In Church

(AP)  A woman died after being bitten by a snake during a serpent-handling service at church, police said.

Linda Long, 48, of London, Ky., died Sunday at University of Kentucky Medical Center, Brad Mitchell, a detective with the Laurel County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.

Long died about four hours after the bite was reported, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Officials said Long attended East London Holiness Church. Neighbors of the church told the newspaper the church practices serpent handling.

Snake handling is based on a passage in the Bible from the Gospel of Mark that says a sign of a true believer is the power to "take up serpents" without being harmed.

Handling reptiles as part of religious services is illegal in Kentucky. Snake handling is a misdemeanor and punishable by a $50 to $100 fine. Police said they had not received reports about snake handling at the church.

Lt. Ed Sizemore of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office said friends went with Long to a local hospital Sunday afternoon, before she was transferred to the university hospital.

Church officials could not be reached for comment.

[universitysda]

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[alexismartin]

I don't get it. Isn't the Bible just trying to tell us to be nice to each other, not to kill or steal, basic rules for living in a society. Why do people insist on taking it so literally? These extremists are going to ruin the world, all in the name of religion.

[jamesgroleau]

The Bible is not difficult to understand when taken in the correct light. It is not a single book, but a collection of over 60 individual documents grouped together by type. It is not a book of mysterious secret that have to be discerned, through divine revelation, of the chosen prophets, living on the astral plane, of cerebral freedom, or anything else of similar ilk. Nor is it a conglomeration of individual thought cookies (except for Proverbs.) Most of it is simply narrative history recounted by eye witnesses. Start with a translation that is modern. I'd recommend God's Word(GW), New International Version(NIV), or English Standard Version(ESV). You can probably find all of these on-line somewhere for free. Then start reading something easy like Luke and then Acts. There are some poetic books like Danial, Ezekiel, and Revelation, among others, that take some extra work because you need to study ancient Hebrew symbolism and artistic writing styles to dig into them. The problem churches like the one in this article have, is that they take one sentence out of the context of where it is written and formulate an entire church doctrine based on it. That's just wrong. I could take a few sentences out of any Steve King novel and prove he's a hyper-conservative religious fanatic, and I'd be wrong. It just makes sense to read paragraphs or pages, not phrases or sentences, to understand what is being said in any document.

[jamesgroleau]

The Bible is not difficult to understand when taken in the correct light. It is not a single book, but a collection of over 60 individual documents grouped together by type. It is not a book of mysterious secret that have to be discerned, through divine revelation, of the chosen prophets, living on the astral plane, of cerebral freedom, or anything else of similar ilk. Nor is it a conglomeration of individual thought cookies (except for Proverbs.) Most of it is simply narrative history recounted by eye witnesses. Start with a translation that is modern. I'd recommend God's Word(GW), New International Version(NIV), or English Standard Version(ESV). You can probably find all of these on-line somewhere for free. Then start reading something easy like Luke and then Acts. There are some poetic books like Danial, Ezekiel, and Revelation, among others, that take some extra work because you need to study ancient Hebrew symbolism and artistic writing styles to dig into them. The problem churches like the one in this article have, is that they take one sentence out of the context of where it is written and formulate an entire church doctrine based on it. That's just wrong. I could take a few sentences out of any Steve King novel and prove he's a hyper-conservative religious fanatic, and I'd be wrong. It just makes sense to read paragraphs or pages, not phrases or sentences, to understand what is being said in any document.

[peaceforusa]

I don't understand the Bible as I am sure many people don't but I do believe there is a higher power working for me.
But if the Gospel of Mark says that a sign of a true believer is the power to "take up serpents" without being harmed, I don't think he meant "real" snakes. I would tend to believe he meant for us to take on the demons that make us sin. I could be totally off the wall about that, but I am allowed my opinion.
I do know, however, that if someone handed me a snake, especially a poisonous snake, I would be running like h-ell in the other direction. I am a believer, but I am not stupid.

[olebd]

This has been going on for years. You would think the pastor would have some anti venom in the back for just in case purposes. And SINCE it's against the law, how 'bout using rubber snakes in a symbolic gesture?

Holy Napoleon Dynamite!!!

[linfinster]

AHAHAHAHAHA

[pnella33]

looks like she wasn't a true believer...