Snake-handling preacher and Snake Salvation star Andrew Hamblin has been evicted from his church because the landlord says, “too many people were getting hurt and dying, and that’s a proven fact.”
Clyde Daugherty, who owns the building that housed Hamblin’s Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tennessee, tells WBIR‘s Ashley Izbicki that he felt Hamblin was getting distracted by the attention he was receiving from being on Snake Salvation. “He was focused too much on the wrong things, like attention from the media and the TV show, instead of the word of God,” Daugherty said.
Daugherty, who built the church in August, 1994 and was renting it to Hamblin for $267 a month, decided not to allow snake handling in his building after he witnessed Hamblin’s co-star, Pastor Jamie Coots, bitten at a service in February — a bite that would end up killing Coots. “I was with Jamie in Middlesboro Kentucky when he was bit,” Daugherty said. “Enough is enough. There will be no snakes at my services.”
Video clip of Andrew Hamblin handling serpents from Snake Salvation:
Daugherty then revealed that recent fortunes in his life made him realize that risking your life by handling venomous snakes may not be sending the right message. “I suffered a heart attack, stroke, and pneumonia last month, and God is good to me and I want my church to be about his good word, instead of focusing on getting attention from the media,” Daugherty said. “I won’t make a mockery of God.”
The writing may have been on the wall for Hamblin for a while because back on May 10 he announced a GoFundMe.com campaign to raise money to build a new church. Here is the announcement:
The decision has been made tonight. The Tabernacle family has voted we are gonna move and build a new church. After some pressing issues and much prayer we decided tonight. If anyone is wanting to help in anyway whether it be donations or be wanting to donate supplies or anything at all you can private message me on here and I’ll give all the information you need. Most of all pray for us as we take a new journey in our ministry.
Hamblin set a goal of $50,000 and at the time of this post had raised $560 towards that goal.
Meanwhile, it appears as though Andrew Hamblin is not only having troubles with his church, but also at home. On Wednesday a Snake Salvation Facebook fan page shared the following post claiming that it was from Andrew Hamblin’s wife, Elizabeth Marie Hamblin:
For a preacher / pastor to divorce his wife without just cause there is something going on behind closed doors……with that being said Andrew Hamblin and I are getting a divorce.no I do not won’t to but he’s the one taking and doing this to his family who has stood behind him threw everything he’s ever went threw.so to inform u all this way but its no secret. I love him with all my heart and has begged to him not to do this but its in his hands.he knows he has preached against divorce ……..so for me and my kids I’ll take care of us.pray me cause I’m gonna need it..
Elizabeth later seemed to confirm the post by using her personal Facebook page to write, “Please remove the post u used from my page ASAP please.”
Andrew and Elizabeth had five children at the time Snake Salvation was filmed, but that number may be up to six now as Elizabeth recently posted a photo of herself pregnant holding a sign that reads “Baby Hamblin #6” on Facebook that she says was taken in November. Their kids were featured prominently on Snake Salvation, including this clip in which Andrew lets two of his boys play with a milk snake to help prepare them to eventually handle venomous snakes. “I do want my children, when they come of age, to handle serpents,” Andrew says in the clip.
Meanwhile, Pastor Jamie Coots’ son Cody Coots has taken over after his father died and was recently bitten by a 6-foot long canebrake rattlesnake while removing it from a cage. He spoke with WBIR last month (with his right hand and arm still swollen and supported by a pillow) and told them that the bite would not keep him from continuing to handle serpents. “In the good Lord’s will, I’ll still be handling snakes if he moves and if he don’t move, I’ll pack them every night. But it don’t mean I’ll handle them every night,” Coots said.
