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Why These Christians Worship with Deadly Snakes · Abide Meditation App

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus makes a striking promise.
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  Speaker 1: He tells his followers that those who believe in him
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  Speaker 1: will perform miracles by using my name. They will cast
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  Speaker 1: out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will
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  Speaker 1: pick up snakes, and if they drink any deadly thing,
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  Speaker 1: it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands
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  Speaker 1: on the sick, and they will recover a few of
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  Speaker 1: these miraculous signs have become central ritual practices for Pentecostal
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  Speaker 1: and Charismatic Christians. Speaking in tongues and healing and exorcistic
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  Speaker 1: rituals are still practiced in Pentecostal and Charismatic worship services
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  Speaker 1: all over the world. But what about picking up snakes. Well,
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  Speaker 1: that one never really caught on except for a handful
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  Speaker 1: of Pentecostal churches in the Appalachian Mountains of the US.
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  Speaker 1: They handle live venomous snakes during worship as a demonstration
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  Speaker 1: of faith, believing that if the Bible says true believers
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  Speaker 1: will pick up snakes, then doing so is a test
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  Speaker 1: and testimony, physical proof that the Holy Spirit truly dwells
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  Speaker 1: within them. Today in the US, there are only about
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  Speaker 1: one hundred small independent Christian churches where handling venomous snakes
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  Speaker 1: is a common practice. These independent churches typically identify with
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  Speaker 1: two denominations, the Church of God and the Church of
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  Speaker 1: God Prophecy, which are denominations within the broader umbrella of
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  Speaker 1: Pentecostal Christianity and Charismatic Christianity. Now, these are very large
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  Speaker 1: branches of Christianity. Pentecostal Christianity includes big global denominations such
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  Speaker 1: as the Assemblies of God and the Church of God
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  Speaker 1: in Christ, both of which have millions of members, but
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  Speaker 1: neither of them recognize these snake handling churches. Pentecostal leaders
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  Speaker 1: have disavowed snake handling for decades, and they do not
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  Speaker 1: consider it an acceptable form of worship. It's also illegal
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  Speaker 1: in every single state except for West Virginia. Snake handling
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  Speaker 1: churches are spread throughout Appalachia, often located in the mountain
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  Speaker 1: towns of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. There's also a
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  Speaker 1: few in the southeast, as far south as central Florida, Georgia,
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  Speaker 1: and Alabama, but in general, snake candling churches are very
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  Speaker 1: regional in the Appalachian mountains. Now, these services are not
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  Speaker 1: all about snakes. They look a lot like any other
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  Speaker 1: fundamentalist church you'd find in the US. A typical service
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  Speaker 1: involves worship music and a preacher standing up and speaking
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  Speaker 1: a sermon based on a scriptural passage, but like many
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  Speaker 1: other Pentecostal and charismatic services, they also involve these charismatic
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  Speaker 1: gifts of the spirit. According to research conducted by scholars
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  Speaker 1: Ralph Hood and W. Paul Williamson, who spent fifteen years
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  Speaker 1: conducting ethnographic research in snake handling churches, sometimes a full
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  Speaker 1: sermon may last only a minute or two before members
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  Speaker 1: start demonstrating these charismatic practices, possibly speaking in tongues or
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  Speaker 1: shaking with a feeling of being filled with the spirit.
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  Speaker 1: The preacher might jump back in at any moment, still
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  Speaker 1: preaching while people are shouting, dancing, and speaking in tongues.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes snakes don't make an appearance at all, but often
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  Speaker 1: during the worship service, suddenly a group of men will
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  Speaker 1: retrieve a special wooden box that contains venomous snakes and
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  Speaker 1: bring it to the front of the church. A worshiper
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  Speaker 1: then might pick one up and hold it, testifying to
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  Speaker 1: the experience that they're having in the moment of God
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  Speaker 1: moving on them and protecting them from the danger. In
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  Speaker 1: these churches, snake handling is evidence that a congregant has
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  Speaker 1: complete faith in God and the Bible as the Word
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  Speaker 1: of God. It's also proof they've been blessed by the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit with the Spirit's presence in their body. This presence,
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  Speaker 1: which is felt physically by the believer, is a sign
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  Speaker 1: or a manifestation that the Holy Spirit has inhabited their
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  Speaker 1: body and is keeping them safe from a potential snake bite. Now.
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  Speaker 1: For decades, scholars have debated whether someone practicing charismatic worship
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  Speaker 1: like speaking in tongues or handling snakes requires a disassociative
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  Speaker 1: trance state. In the nineteen seventies, the anthropologist Felicitus Goodman
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  Speaker 1: argued that it does require a trance Later, the linguist
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  Speaker 1: William Sammarin pushed back hard, arguing that speaking in tongues
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  Speaker 1: is a learned social behavior that does not require trance states.
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  Speaker 1: Later studies try to settle the question with experimental data
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  Speaker 1: measuring heart rates, breathing, and brain waves, but they found
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  Speaker 1: no consistent physiological differences between speaking and tongues and ordinary speech.
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  Speaker 1: In my video on speaking in tongues. I cite the
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  Speaker 1: scholar Nicholas Harkness, who argues that trance like loss alealia
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  Speaker 1: is actually the rarer form of the practice. Hood and
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  Speaker 1: Williamson argue for a middle ground position. They argue, we're
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  Speaker 1: seeing some sort of culturally learned, physiologically real state of
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  Speaker 1: focused disassociation guided by social cues, ritual and belief, and
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  Speaker 1: worshippers know how to end winter, deepen and exit these states.
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  Speaker 1: Hood and Williamson report that snake handling churches actually draw
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  Speaker 1: a line between handling by faith, as in simply out
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  Speaker 1: of obedience to scripture, and handling by anointing, which is
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  Speaker 1: described as a feeling of the Holy Spirit physically moving
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  Speaker 1: upon them, and a few studies have tried to measure
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  Speaker 1: what's going on physiologically during this anointing state. In the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, the snake handling pastor Listen Pack volunteered for
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  Speaker 1: an EEG study while attempting to feel the anointing, and
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  Speaker 1: his brain activity changed, moving from calm, meditative patterns to
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  Speaker 1: highly focused and aroused patterns similar to what we see
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  Speaker 1: in hypnosis. Another study in the nineties actually analyzed blood
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  Speaker 1: samples drawn from snake handling worshippers after the service, and
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  Speaker 1: it found huge spikes and adrenaline and dorphins and cortisol,
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  Speaker 1: suggesting that what worshippers called the anointing is accompanied by
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  Speaker 1: a full body chemical rush that blunts fear and pain.
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  Speaker 1: But this doesn't mean that handlers lose awareness. Even in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of the anointing. Many stay focused and engaged
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  Speaker 1: with the people around them, preaching, testifying, and responding to
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  Speaker 1: the congregation. Hood and Williamson transcribed extemporaneous sermons during snake
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  Speaker 1: handling services. One worshipper said, the Bible says they shall
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  Speaker 1: take up serpents. Honey, it means what it says, and
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  Speaker 1: says what it means. It won't change for me. It
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  Speaker 1: won't change for you. Amen. Thank God, the word of
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  Speaker 1: God is right. Another handler tells those around him that
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  Speaker 1: handling the snakes is a test which determines their salvation.
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  Speaker 1: These signs shall follow them that believe. And if you
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  Speaker 1: believe it, boys, you're gonna do it. And if you
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  Speaker 1: don't do it, I believe it with all my heart
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  Speaker 1: that you'll die and go to hell. Here the handlers
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  Speaker 1: referencing that passage from Mark chapter sixteen. For him, obedience
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  Speaker 1: to scripture is non negotiable, and handling snakes is evidence
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  Speaker 1: of true belief, proof that one is living out the
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  Speaker 1: literal word of God. And many speak with a combination
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  Speaker 1: of grandiosity and stark reality about the mortal danger that
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  Speaker 1: they're facing when they pick up a snake, saying things
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  Speaker 1: like there's death in that box, or it's like you
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  Speaker 1: to take up death in your arms and just hold
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  Speaker 1: it there and not worry about it. And sometimes people
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  Speaker 1: are bitten, and one recording while a handler was being attacked,
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  Speaker 1: he said, through these serpent bites, He'll take care of us.
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  Speaker 1: Don't worry about me, don't cry over me. When I
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  Speaker 1: leave this world, rejoice, I'm gonna be with Jesus. In
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  Speaker 1: cases when someone is bitten, the service quickly shifts from
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  Speaker 1: ecstatic worship to divine healing. All of the prayers are
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  Speaker 1: focused on the bitten member, asking God to take care
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  Speaker 1: of the individual and bring them through the pain and venom.
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  Speaker 1: They lay their hands on the attacked person and often
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  Speaker 1: use folk healing remedies to clean and bandage the wound.
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  Speaker 1: Hood and Williamson Wright, in over fifteen years of continuing
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  Speaker 1: field research and attendance at hundreds of services, we have
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  Speaker 1: witnessed no more than twenty five snake bites in each
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  Speaker 1: of these cases. Those who are bitten always receive special
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  Speaker 1: concern from other believers in terms of immediate prayers and support,
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  Speaker 1: as well as continued personal contact in the days that followed. Now,
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  Speaker 1: contrary to what you might assume, those who are bitten
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  Speaker 1: are not treated as failures of faith, as if they
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  Speaker 1: didn't have enough belief. It's quite the opposite. Surviving a
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  Speaker 1: bite often grants them quiet respect within the community as
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  Speaker 1: someone who has proven their willingness to suffer and even
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  Speaker 1: die for their faith. The researchers report that news of
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  Speaker 1: a serious bite spreads quickly through the close knit network
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  Speaker 1: of serpent handling churches, where it becomes both a subject
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  Speaker 1: of collective concern and a reaffirmation of the risks. They write,
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  Speaker 1: serpent handlers are not naive about the dangers inherent in
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  Speaker 1: their practice. They understand full well and will be the
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  Speaker 1: first to point out that the passage of Mark sixteen
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  Speaker 1: provides no guarantees that the serpents will not bite, only
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  Speaker 1: that believers of Jesus will take them up. So where
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  Speaker 1: did this practice come from the snake handling tradition grew
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  Speaker 1: out of a wave of Revivalism that swept through American
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  Speaker 1: Christian communities in the early nineteenth century. It was part
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  Speaker 1: of a broader shift toward a more evangelical and emotionally
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  Speaker 1: charged style of worship across the Eastern US, especially in
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  Speaker 1: Appalachia and the South. Methodists and Baptists gathered for huge
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  Speaker 1: outdoor revivals, and at these meetings, worship could get ecstatic
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  Speaker 1: and physical. This was the second Great Awakening in American
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  Speaker 1: religious history, and it gave birth to what became known
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  Speaker 1: as the Holiness movement, Emerging mostly out of Methodism during
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  Speaker 1: this revival era, the Holiness movement taught that believers could
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  Speaker 1: live free from sin through a profound personal experience of sanctification,
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  Speaker 1: a spiritual transformation they called a second blessing of the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. Once you had this second blessing, you were
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  Speaker 1: no longer sinful by nature. Some Holiness believers taught that
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  Speaker 1: this was followed by a third work of grace, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: called spirit baptism. Many Holiness Pentecostals believe that baptism the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit produced visible, miraculous signs that proved the Spirit's presence.
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  Speaker 1: In the early nineteen hundreds, a preacher named Charles Fox
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  Speaker 1: Parum began teaching that the indisputable proof of spirit baptism
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  Speaker 1: was the ability to speak in tongues, and his teaching
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  Speaker 1: soon spread through revival networks across the country, preaching this
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  Speaker 1: new doctrine of spirit baptism through tongues. At these revivals,
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  Speaker 1: people spoke in tongues, fell to the ground, slain in
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  Speaker 1: the spirit, danced, shook, and cried out as they felt
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  Speaker 1: the power of the Holy Spirit moving through their bodies.
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  Speaker 1: Faith healings, and spontaneous conversion became hallmarks of the movement.
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  Speaker 1: Early Pentecostals also turned to Mark sixteen as a kind
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  Speaker 1: of checklist for authentic signs of baptism in the Holy Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: and this is where snake handling enters the picture. Catching
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  Speaker 1: and handling snakes was already a common folk practice in
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  Speaker 1: the Appalachian region at the time, but it likely didn't
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  Speaker 1: have any religious significance. But news reports started popping up
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  Speaker 1: in the early nineteen hundreds of church congregations handling snakes
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  Speaker 1: as part of their worship, like an article from the
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  Speaker 1: Fort Worth Star Telegram in nineteen thirteen that mentions a
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  Speaker 1: certain reverend dying from a snake bite during a revival.
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  Speaker 1: These sporadic cases suggest that by the nineteen tens, snake
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  Speaker 1: handling was emerging organically among radical holiness Pentecostal circles. In
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  Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen fourteen, a fiery, illiterate preacher named
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  Speaker 1: George Hensley held a revival in Cleveland, Tennessee, the heart
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  Speaker 1: of the Church of God movement. Hensley was not a theologian.
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  Speaker 1: He was a former moonshiner turned Holiness preacher, fueled by
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  Speaker 1: the conviction that the promises of Mark sixteen were intended
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  Speaker 1: to be taken literally, and on September twelfth, nineteen fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: an anonymous note appeared in the Church of God magazine,
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  Speaker 1: Brother George Hensley's conducting a revival at the tabernacle in Cleveland, Tennessee.
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  Speaker 1: The power has been falling and souls crying out to
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  Speaker 1: God twice during the meeting. Serpents have been handled by
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  Speaker 1: the Saints. Newspapers soon picked up the story, and Hencelely
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  Speaker 1: became a regional sensation for many. His revivals offered living
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  Speaker 1: proof that the full list of signs promised to believers
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  Speaker 1: in Mark chapter sixteen were being fulfilled in their own time.
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  Speaker 1: Even the overseer of the Church of God denomination, AJ. Tomlinson,
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  Speaker 1: attended one of these meetings and reported what he saw
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  Speaker 1: on Friday night. It was there somebody had brought in
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  Speaker 1: a fierce rattlesnake pilot. The power of God was demonstrated successfully, however,
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  Speaker 1: and several handled it and no one was injured by it.
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  Speaker 1: Some were bitten, but with no damage to them. The
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  Speaker 1: sensation was so great that outsiders got enthused and wanted
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  Speaker 1: to test the matter further. In these early days, many
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  Speaker 1: accepted snake handling as a miraculous sign, and some churches
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  Speaker 1: even started practicing that other sign promised in Mark sixteen.
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  Speaker 1: If one were to drink poison and be a true believer,
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  Speaker 1: they would not be hurt, and that is still sometimes
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  Speaker 1: the case, as some churches in Appalachia will provide a
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  Speaker 1: small container of strichenin at the altar, a highly toxic,
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  Speaker 1: bitter taste and chemical compound most often used as a pesticide.
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  Speaker 1: But by the nineteen thirties, leaders in Pentecostal denominations started
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  Speaker 1: calling snake handling and poison drinking into question, arguing it
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  Speaker 1: was dangerous and unnecessary. They argued that practicing the other
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  Speaker 1: three signs was what was biblically expected, so why drop
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  Speaker 1: the snakes? See, Pentecostalism was growing, Their churches were getting bigger,
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  Speaker 1: more organized, and a lot more visible, both to other
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  Speaker 1: Christians and to the press. And Pentecostals were already caricatured
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  Speaker 1: and mocked, having a reputation for what was viewed as
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  Speaker 1: a chaotic and out of control style of worship, which
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  Speaker 1: many outsiders saw as undignified and ungodly. And as more
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  Speaker 1: people converted, church leaders became interested in mainstreaming, making their
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  Speaker 1: congregations look a bit more respectable to outsiders. That meant
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  Speaker 1: toning down some of the more controversial practices, whether it
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  Speaker 1: was serpent handling or speaking in tongues. To explain this process,
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  Speaker 1: scholars of religion often pointed to the sociologists of religion,
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  Speaker 1: Max Weaber in his idea of the routinization of charisma.
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  Speaker 1: Weber argued that when a movement first starts out, it's
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  Speaker 1: fueled by intense charismatic excitement and the authority of charismatic leaders.
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  Speaker 1: But as it grows and becomes more organized, that raw
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  Speaker 1: energy gets tamed into routines, rules, and institutions. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: the more radical edges get smoothed out so the movement
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  Speaker 1: can survive and gain legitimacy. But for the denominations who
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  Speaker 1: stuck with the practice, the Church of God and the
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  Speaker 1: Church of God Prophecy, it was critical. It was the
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  Speaker 1: only way to read the Bible correctly, to ensure that
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  Speaker 1: you're committed to the belief that the Bible is one
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  Speaker 1: hundred percent the inerrant word of God and is literally true.
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  Speaker 1: According to Church of God overseer aj Tomlinson, the Church
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  Speaker 1: stands for the whole Bible rightly divided, and it is
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  Speaker 1: wrongly dividing to cut out the tongues and serpents. Now,
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  Speaker 1: snake handling has always been controversial, but it's also been
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  Speaker 1: outlawed in most of the US. In nineteen forty, the
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  Speaker 1: state of Kentucky became the first to outlaw snake handling
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  Speaker 1: for religious purposes. And you might be wondering, well, shouldn't
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  Speaker 1: it be protected under the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom
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  Speaker 1: of religion in the US, But the courts have answered
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  Speaker 1: with a resounding no. Well, except in West Virginia, where
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  Speaker 1: it is still legal. Hood and Williamson Wright. The courts
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  Speaker 1: have ruled that states may regulate religious behaviors as opposed
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: to beliefs if they have an overriding interest protecting believers
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  Speaker 1: from being bitten, maimed, or killed. It seems a sufficient
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  Speaker 1: overriding interest for many states. However, laws against serpent handling
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  Speaker 1: have seldom been effective. So how dangerous is snake handling? Really?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's dangerous, It's really really dangerous. Do I
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  Speaker 1: need to say this? Let's quote the ethnographers. They mention
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  Speaker 1: a few churches where you can't help, but notice a
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  Speaker 1: missing finger or paralyzed limb among the believers who have
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  Speaker 1: been maimed in the practice of their faith. Bites do happen?
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  Speaker 1: Remember that these scholar saw about twenty five bites over
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  Speaker 1: the course of fifteen years of study. The data shows
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  Speaker 1: that the handlers almost always survive, but people have died.
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  Speaker 1: Scholars have compiled at least eighty nine people who have
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  Speaker 1: died handling snakes at these churches, and this is almost
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  Speaker 1: certainly an underestimate, considering most of this practice went unrecorded
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  Speaker 1: in the early decades of its existence. So why aren't
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: there as many snake handling deaths as you might expect.
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  Speaker 1: One reason is how much venomous snake can release. Most
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  Speaker 1: snakes use in these services belong to the Pitfiper family,
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  Speaker 1: species native to the region, like timber rattlesnakes, cane breaks, copperheads,
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  Speaker 1: and cotton mounts. An adult copperhead is about two to
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  Speaker 1: three feet long and carries around forty to seventy milligrams
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  Speaker 1: of venom. In a single bite, it injects about a
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  Speaker 1: quarter to three quarters of that, and for a human adult,
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  Speaker 1: the lethal dose is closer to one hundred milligrams, so
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  Speaker 1: a single snake bite is generally not strong enough to
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  Speaker 1: actually kill most adults. Also, according to herpetologists at the
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Kentucky Reptile Zoo, another reason is that the snakes used
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  Speaker 1: in these services are often kept in poor conditions. Stressed
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  Speaker 1: and undernourished snakes are less likely to bite, and even
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  Speaker 1: when they do, they often can't inject much venom. Though
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: today calling nine to one one is more accepted than
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: it used to be, some scholars have reported that younger
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: pastors increasingly view that avoiding medical attention is outdated. The
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  Speaker 1: deaths of several prominent handlers have spurred reflection, and many
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  Speaker 1: now argue that the Bible technically commands serpent handling and
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: not necessarily rejecting emergency aid. Snake handling churches in the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: US operate quietly according to their own rules and often
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: against the law, and even though only a dozen congregations
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  Speaker 1: still practice it, the tradition has become disproportionately visible in
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the public imagination, usually after tragedy. When a pastor a
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: worshiper dies from a bite, news cameras arrive and a
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  Speaker 1: story circulates once again. In twenty thirteen, National Geographic aired
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  Speaker 1: Snake Salvation, a sixteen part series following Kentucky pastor Jamie
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  Speaker 1: Coots and his congregation. A year later, Coots died from
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: a snake bite, for which he refused medical attention. These
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  Speaker 1: portrayals framed snake handling as spectacle, but for scholars of
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: religion is an example of what's called an embodied religious practice.
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  Speaker 1: By embodiment, scholars like Nancy Ammerman and Mareton maguire mean
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  Speaker 1: that religion is not only something that people believe in
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  Speaker 1: their heads, it's something they live out through their bodies,
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  Speaker 1: through bodily habits, sensations, gestures, and movements that make faith
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  Speaker 1: feel tangible and meaningful in everyday life. In snake handling churches,
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  Speaker 1: this embodiment is most vividly experienced in what I mentioned earlier,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: the anointing, a moment when the Holy Spirit is said
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  Speaker 1: to move on a person. Snake handling believers describe it
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  Speaker 1: in very physical terms about feeling the Holy Spirit's presence
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  Speaker 1: take hold of the body. Handlers describe warmth spreading through
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  Speaker 1: their limbs, trembling hands, or an electric rush from the
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  Speaker 1: head to the toe. Fear fades replaced by an overwhelming
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  Speaker 1: sense of protection and purpose. Snake handling churches are a
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  Speaker 1: perfect example of how very complicated stories get flattened into
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: content designed to drive clicks and outrage, and depending on
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: who's reporting the same event, can look like two completely
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  Speaker 1: different worlds. That's why I use today Sponsored ground News,
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  Speaker 1: a website and app that gathers sources from all over
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the world into one place and gives you the tools
• 16:25
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• 16:27
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  Speaker 1: From the right, bright Part ran with this one, hurries
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  Speaker 1: Religion for breakfast. Thanks everyone,