Snakebite during service proves fatal to minister

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                  Wednesday, April 14, 2004 

                  Snakebite during service proves fatal to minister
                  The congregation prayed for the minister, but no one sought 
                  medical treatment.

            By Shawna Morrison 


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               shawna.morrison@roanoke.com 
               981-3349 
                
                The minister of a Lee County church died early Monday, hours 
            after he was bitten by a rattlesnake during a Sunday church service 
            and refused to seek medical treatment. 
                The Rev. Dwayne Long, 45, of Rose Hill was a minister at the 
            small town's Arthurs Chapel, a Pentecostal church where members 
            practice serpent-handling. Long was holding a rattlesnake during an 
            Easter afternoon service when the snake bit him on the back of a 
            finger, Lee County Sheriff Gary Parsons said. 
                Parsons said the congregation prayed for Long, but no one - 
            including Long - sought medical treatment. Long died early Monday at 
            his home. 
                "We don't anticipate any charges at this time," Parsons said. 
                "That's their belief," he said. 
                The practice of serpent-handling began in the early 1900s. It is 
            done as a matter of obedience to God. Serpent-handlers take 
            literally the words of Mark 16:17-18: "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." 
                Serpent-handlers believe that when people die of a snakebite 
            they receive during a service, it was simply their time to go. 
                Long is survived by a wife, five children and two grandchildren. 

                Parsons said another Lee County man died about two years ago 
            after being bitten by a rattlesnake during service at a Pentecostal 
            church in Tennessee.