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In reply to the discussion: It's time to indulge our prejudices about Africans again! [View all]brooklynite
(94,522 posts)Pastor Mack Wolford had many ways of getting the faithful all fired up. He would drive from town to town, preaching, singing, speaking in tongues and brandishing on several occasions venomous snakes. Wolford, who lived in McDowell County in West Virginia, belonged to the Full Gospel Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus, one of the few remaining small Appalachian Pentecostal sects known as sign followers.
They adhere to a literal interpretation of a passage from the Gospel of Mark in the King James Bible. And these signs, it says, shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 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.
Lauren Pond began photographing Wolford and his congregation in 2011, overcoming her own fear as she shot rattlesnakes and copperheads being coiled around the arms and necks of worshippers as they reaffirmed their faith in the divine. On 23 May the following year, just before his 44th birthday, Wolford posted this message to his followers on Facebook: Praise the lord and pass the rattlesnakes, brother.
Four days later, Pond followed him deep into the Appalachian hills. She shot several frames at an outdoor service as Wolford held, and then walked on, a timber rattlesnake called Old Yeller he had owned for several years. Gone was the benevolent energy I had felt the previous year, Pond later wrote, and in its place an odd sense of urgency.
As she shot, suddenly an eerie stillness fell over the picnic site. The cause quickly became clear: Wolford had been bitten. Eight hours later, he died, his family and followers having respected his steadfast refusal to send for medical treatment until it was too late so strong was their belief that his fate was solely in Gods hands.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jan/26/praise-the-lord-and-pass-the-rattlesnakes-mack-wolford-lauren-pond-test-of-faith-old-yeller-rattlesnake