Key thing here: he thought they were venomous water moccasins (even though they were not) and picked them up with his bare hands, which is how people get bitten. This kind of “I am immune to snakebite because of my religion” thing has a history of getting people killed.
Access options:
- gift link — registration required
- archive.today
He 100% knew what snakes they were, that they would bite him, but that the bite wouldn’t do anything.
The author just doesn’t know how common of a joke saying a snake that you know is harmless is really deadly. Which is pretty hard to believe someone watched the video and didn’t know it was a joke.
I’ve seen the same thing done with rat snakes by multiple people, and they were big enough to plausibly be moccasins.