SNAKE
KILLS EVANGELIST

Topics: Belief; Discernment; Doctrine; Faith; False Beliefs; Hermeneutics; Interpretation; Presumption; Testing God; Theology; Traditions; Trust

References: Mark 16:17–18; Luke 10:19; Acts 28:1–6

John Wayne Brown Jr., a snake-handling evangelist, was bitten by one of his own timber rattlesnakes in the middle of his sermon. Though Brown continued to speak to the people of Rock House Holiness Church that October night in 1998, he soon collapsed. The congregation gathered around him, praying and trying to cool him with an electric fan, but Brown was dead within minutes.

Brown, thirty-four, had handled snakes since he was seventeen and had survived twenty-two previous bites. He left behind five orphaned children. His wife, Melinda, died from a snakebite during a revival service in 1995.

One pastor who was onstage with Brown the night of his death said he didn’t think the tragedy would make the church change its practices: “I think they will be more careful about handling serpents,” he said. “I think they will wait until the Lord moves on them.”

“A lot of people don’t understand us,” he offered. “We are just normal people, but we believe God’s Word.”

—Kent Faulk, “Snake Kills Evangelist, but Pastor Says Congregation Will Hold Firm to Its Traditions,” Birmingham News (October 6, 1998)