Last August, during an evening service at the white frame Holiness Church of God in Jesus' Name at Big Stone Gap, Va., Oscar Pelfrey. 65, stood before the congregation holding a pair of writhing timber rattlesnakes. "I believe, Jesus, O Jesus, I believeĀthank you, Jesus!" cried Pelfrey, a lay minister of the church. Suddenly, one of the rattlers struck him on the left temple. Taken home, he refused medical attention and died six hours later.
Last week a Virginia Circuit Court of Appeals convicted a member of the Big Stone Gap congregation, Roscoe Mullins, 50, of violating a state law...