Fall 2012

About the Magazine

Northwestern is the quarterly alumni magazine for Northwestern University.
Contact or contribute to the magazine.

Features
+ View Photo Gallery
Randy “Mack” Wolford handles a rattlesnake during a worship service at the Church of the Lord Jesus. Photo by Lauren Pond.

Test of Faith

Story Tools

Share this story

Facebook  Facebook
Twitter  Twitter
Email  Email

Print this story

Photojournalist Lauren Pond (J09, WCAS09) specializes in coverage of faith and religious issues. A former Northwestern magazine intern, Pond recently began a graduate program in photojournalism at Ohio University. Pond’s initial images of Mack Wolford and the Signs Following community appeared in the Washington Post Magazine in November 2011. A version of this essay appeared in the Washington Post on June 1.

Editor’s note: The Church of God with Signs Following believes in a literal interpretation 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.”

Tell us what you think. E-mail comments or questions to the editors at letters@northwestern.edu.

Ever wonder about those strange designations we use throughout Northwestern to identify alumni of the various schools of the University? See the complete list.

Find Us on Social Media

Facebook  Twitter  Twitter

Photojournalist Lauren Pond was covering a worship service led by a snake-handling Pentecostal pastor when he was fatally bitten by a yellow timber rattlesnake. She continues to struggle with the ethical dilemmas she faced.

by Lauren Pond

This is what I saw through my camera lens: Pastor Randy “Mack” Wolford tossing and turning on the couch in his mother-in-law’s West Virginia trailer, suffering from the pain of a rattlesnake bite he had received earlier in the day. Parishioners surrounding him in prayer in the stifling heat. His mother stroking his feet, her expression a mixture of concern, sorrow and acceptance: This is how her eldest son — a legend in the local Pentecostal serpent-handling community — would die.

Camera in hand, I watched as the man I’d photographed and gotten to know over the past year writhed, turned pale and slipped away, a victim of his unwavering faith, but also a testament to it. A family member called paramedics when Mack finally allowed it, but it was too late. Mack Wolford drew his final labored breaths late at night on Sunday, May 27. He was 44.

The scene has been playing over and over in my head since then, and the questions are weighing on me: As a photojournalist, what role did I have in this tragedy, and what is my role now, in the aftermath? Was it right for me to remain in the background taking pictures, as I did, and not seek medical attention for the dying pastor, whose beliefs forbade it? Or should I have intervened and called paramedics earlier, which would have undermined Mack’s wishes? Finally, what was I supposed to do with the images I shot?

My thoughts have been especially muddied because of the context in which I knew Mack. He wasn’t just a source and subject in my yearlong documentary project about Pentecostal serpent handling; he was also a friend. We shared a meal at the café where members of his family work; he screened videos about himself for me at his house; I once stayed the night on his couch.

The practices of the Signs Following faith remain an enigma to many. How can people be foolish enough to interpret Mark 16: 17–18 so literally: to ingest poison, such as strychnine, which Mack also allegedly did at the May worship service; to handle venomous snakes; and, least comprehensible of all, to not seek medical treatment if bitten? Because of public skepticism, many members of this religious community are hesitant to speak to the media, let alone be photographed.

But Mack was different. He allowed me to see what life was like for a serpent handler outside church, which helped me better understand the controversial religious practice, and, I think, helped me add nuance to my photographs. His passing, my first vivid encounter with death, was both a personal and professional loss for me.

I attended the worship service Mack was holding on May 27 at Panther Wildlife Management Area, in southwestern West Virginia, on a whim, thinking that it would be good to see him again and that I’d make the seven-hour drive back to Washington, D.C., the following morning. However, after his death, it was a while before I returned. I stayed at a friend’s house nearby, spoke with Mack’s family members and gradually allowed myself to feel some of the raw emotion that had been percolating for days.

Mack’s family has accepted his death as something that he knew was coming and something that was ultimately God’s will. The pastor believed every word of the Bible and laid down his life for his conviction, they said in an interview. For them, his death is an affirmation of the Signs Following tradition: “His faith is what took him home,” said his sister, Robin Vanover, 38.

Mack’s mother, Vicie Haywood, nicknamed “Snooks,” talked about losing her pastor husband to a rattlesnake bite when her son was 15 in 1983. “I couldn’t give up when his dad died, and now that [Mack] has given his life, I just can’t give up,” she said. “It’s still the Word, and I want to go on doing what the Word says.”

After her son was pronounced dead at Bluefield Regional Medical Center, she added, “I kissed him and I promised him that I would see him again.” Her voice broke.

Mack’s family wanted me to know that he was more concerned with helping people attain salvation than getting them to handle snakes. “The Lord used him in so many ways, with so many people, and all ages,” his sister Robin said.

I know many photojournalists have been in situations similar to mine. Pulitzer Prize–winner Kevin Carter photographed an emaciated Sudanese child struggling to reach a food center during a famine — as a vulture waited nearby. He was roundly criticized for not helping the child, which, along with the disturbing memories of the events he had covered and other factors, may have contributed to his suicide. As photojournalists, we have a responsibility to record history in as unbiased and unobtrusive a way as possible. But when someone is suffering, we have to balance our instincts as professionals with basic human decency.

In my mind, Mack’s situation was different. He was a competent adult who decided to stand by what he understood to be the word of God, no matter the consequences. And so I’ve started to come to peace with the fact that everyone in the crowded trailer, myself included, let Mack die as a man true to his faith.

The more challenging issue for me has been what to do with my images of Mack’s death. Once the media learned that I had witnessed this tragedy, I was inundated with phone calls and emails asking for details of that day, and some seeking permission to use my images. I faced an internal tug-of-war. What was most important: revealing what had happened or protecting the privacy of the family and the integrity of my photographic project?

Ultimately, in the face of the criticism and degrading commentary that has followed Mack’s death, I’ve decided that I owe it to his loved ones to communicate what they knew about him and his faith — as well as what I’ve learned and observed.

I was asked to use discretion in Mack’s final hours, which were some of the most ethically challenging of my photojournalism career. But not once did anyone force me away or prevent me from photographing the events that unfolded before me on May 27. Perhaps Mack wanted me to be at that oppressively hot and humid park site to document the bite and its lethal aftermath. Perhaps he wanted me to witness his incredible display of conviction so that I could share with the world a side of his faith that few have gotten to see.