Skip to main content  Snakes and church vs. state  By Danny
Cevallos, CNN Legal Analyst   • Death of a Kentucky pastor who
handled rattlesnakes renews church vs. state issue   • Danny
Cevallos: Supreme Court delineated key difference between
religious thought, action   • Thought is always protected by
Constitution, but states can regulate action in interest of
safety   • Cevallos: Kentucky law provides for only minimal
punishment for snake-handling  Editor's note: Danny Cevallos, a
CNN legal analyst, is a criminal defense attorney practicing in
Philadelphia, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  (CNN) --
The recent death of the "snake-handling" pastor of a small
Pentecostal church in Kentucky has raised an age-old conflict
between church and state.  Jamie Coots, the pastor of the Full
Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, Kentucky, died
after being bitten on his right hand by a rattlesnake during a
weekend church service where he was handling rattlesnakes
willingly, it seems.  It has been reported