‘Snake Salvation’ Star Pastor Jamie Coots Dead From Snake Bite; NatGeo To Air Tribute Episode

UPDATE, 11:15 AM: With the first season fully filmed National Geographic had no plans for a second season of Snake Salvation, says a network rep. Now in the wake of Jamie Coots‘ death NatGeo is working up a special tribute episode “so people can understand Pastor Jamie and his method of worship and see that he died doing what he believed was his calling.” 
Here’s NatGeo on Coots’ passing:

National Geographic joins his family, friends and community in mourning the loss of Pastor Jamie Coots. In following Pastor Coots for our series Snake Salvation, we were constantly struck by his devout religious convictions despite the health and legal peril he often faced. Those risks were always worth it to him and his congregants as a means to demonstrate their unwavering faith. We were honored to be allowed such unique access to Pastor Jamie and his congregation during the course of our show, and give context to his method of worship. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.

PREVIOUSLY, 9:54 AM: Jamie Coots, one of the stars of National Geographic‘s reality show Snake Salvation, died Saturday of a venomous snake bite. 
According to reports he refused medical attention after being bitten in his Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, Kentucky and died shortly thereafter in his home. The show debuted last Fall centered on two Pentecostal preachers who handle deadly snakes as part of a century-old Appalachian practice originating from a Bible passage that suggests those anointed by God will not be harmed by a poisonous snake bite. 
Coots had previously been bitten nine times and lost a finger to a rattlesnake bite. He starred on Snake Salvation alongside Tennessee Pastor Andrew Hamblin, both of whom claim serpent handling is their First Amendment religious right. 
The pair have come under fire from authorities for hunting and collecting deadly snakes for their church services. Last year Coots pled guilty to illegally possessing and transporting three rattlesnakes and two copperheads in Tennessee after the state seized them in a traffic stop as he was driving them from Alabama to Kentucky.

In the hills of Appalachia, Pentecostal pastors Jamie Coots and Andrew Hamblin struggle to keep an over-100-year-old tradition alive: the practice of handling deadly snakes in church.

"And these signs 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." Mark 16: 17,18'

Filmmaker/photographer Al Clayton wrote Folkstream's founder Tom Davenport "The interest in snake handlers began with a newspaper report of an arrest at a church outside Newport, TN. This really upset me and friend, Will Campbell and Will drove over to Newport to talk with the sheriff and see if some sensible settlement could be reached. They succeeded and the little church was allowed to continue its services.

Campbell's history of helping folks in trouble goes way back. He walked with the school children in the Little Rock insanity. He was fired from the University of Mississippi for playing ping pong with a black person who was doing one of the marches through Mississippi. .

These church services were so unusual to me, that I couldn't delete them from my database, so I started visiting and photographic different 'Jesus Name' churches in Alabama and Georgia.

At these church services, snakes were taken up,tongue talking or speaking in tongues, strychnine drunk , flaming torches passed under hands and feet, loud, loud music, dancing, rolling on the floor, really exciting stuff. Services started in a mild, restrained way but the tempo went way up, really quick.

I can remember thinking that I could keep count of all the snakes and who had which snake but at one service, I felt something brushing against my elbow. I looked around a some guy had a four foot rattlesnake by the tail and its head was brushing my elbow. I left the service quickly and went outside to lean against my truck, gather my wits, or whatever, thinking like Fred Sanford...this might be the big one.  It wasn't and I went back in and kept shooting.

I began thinking that a movie of these services could provide a better illustration of events than still photos. I bought a Canon Hi-8 video camera and started shooting with that. The sound and motion of the video was really exciting to me so I kept at it , got an editing house in Atlanta to help and advise and we put this together."