Faith Matters

The Associated Press has an interesting story about the arrest of a Kentucky pastor who was caught with more than 50 snakes-many of them venomous-that were being used in religious rites.

According to the AP, Gregory James Coots, 36, is the pastor of  Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro,  where a Tennessee woman died after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a service in 1995.

Her husband died three years later when he was bitten by a snake in northeastern Alabama.

Handling snakes is practiced in a handful of fundamentalist churches across Appalachia, based on the interpretation of Bible verses saying true believers can take up serpents without being harmed.

The practice is illegal in most states.

Coots was charged Thursday with buying, selling and possessing illegal reptiles.

For those looking to read more about Coots and his family's practice of snake handling, they were featured in the book "Serpent Handlers: Three families and their faith."