The mountains of Appalachia have always been a source of mystery and enchantment for those who have taken the time to get to know them. They are the alleged haunt of many a distinguished ghost as well as the breeding grounds for some of the best American urban legends whose validity you will ever question. Appalachia harbors centuries of history, many modern-day hillbillies, and billions of tons of coal. So far removed is this ethereal part of the Lower Forty-Eight that it is widely assumed by the outside world that it is acceptable to marry your cousin in places like Kentucky and West Virginia. Indeed, so much myth shrouds these magnificent mountains that it can be a little tough to tell what is truth and what is rotten, media-based generalization. One particularly intriguing Appalachian custom you have probably doubted, however, is no fabrication. Somewhere on the far side of those haloed, blue mountains are a handful of people who have been both admired and ridiculed since as far back as 1901. They are “normal folks” like you and me; hardworking men who settle down with good girls who turn in to good wives who bear and raise any number of rambunctious children. Members of this unique group are notoriously approachable, passionate, and gregarious – especially when discussing religion. The only thing that might distinguish them from your favorite next door neighbors – yes, the only thing that might rouse in you even the slightest shade of dislike – are their snakes.

Some shake their heads dismissively at these “nut-jobs” who so rigidly tread the perilous path they believe God has set aside for them. Some people are genuinely repulsed, shaking their fingers and crying out “blasphemy!” to the highest courts in the land. Others still are merely curios. What does it feel like? How is it done? It is not unheard of, however, for even the most innocent of observers to be caught up in and swept away by the spiritual fervor of those who take up serpents in the name of Jesus Christ. Renowned Southern journalist Dennis Covington was one such nonbeliever. He showed up at a tiny church in Birmingham, AL, to gather information for a piece he was writing on Glenn Summerford. (Summerford was a snake handling preacher who, in 1991, attempted to kill his wife by forcing her hand in to a box of rattlesnakes. Darlene survived but Glenn was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison for attempted murder, though some say he only tried to kill her out of self-defense when she attacked him because “she was going back on God”.) After just a couple services with the handlers, Covington found he could not deny the pull that the church had on him. Once the members of the congregation established that he was not there to ridicule them for their beliefs, they gradually accepted him in to their confidences. So began a journey that consumed five years of Covington’s life (documented in his nonfiction novel “Salvation On Sand Mountain”) as he tried to decipher whether he did or did not believe in “signs following”.

You might be wondering at this point just what it is that possesses an otherwise orthodox Christian to add rattlesnakes to a Sunday morning church service. This uniquely Southern phenomenon was believed to have been born in the early 20th century when a Church of God preacher named George Went Hensley was driven from his own parish for taking part in religious snake handling. He later started his own ministry, keeping the name “Church of God” but tacking “with Signs Following” on to the end. Hensley soon had a brand new group of followers, all because they chose to take this scripture literally: “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.” (Mark 16:17-18) Were those verses meant to be taken so deeply to heart? Should Signs Followers “test God” by handling deadly snakes that could, and sometimes do, take their lives? Though any and every member of a snake handling church knows the risk involved with what they are doing, many people believe the practice should be banned completely. Legislation to outlaw the possession of snakes for religious purposes (in such cases they are indeed classified as “deadly weapons”) has been passed in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. The only state still free of any restrictions on handlers is West Virginia. Handlers in other states, however, are rarely bothered.

It is difficult to prosecute a group of people who purposefully put themselves in harm’s way. It might seem irrational and grotesque to you, but for Signs Followers, handling is an acceptable, even necessary, manifestation of their relationship with God. It is a path they choose to travel, even when they can clearly see the man at the front of their church is holding his Bible in a hand that has three missing fingers due to snake bites. The injuries and the deaths and the bad press do not phase them. They are in search of the truth; their eyes are fixed heavenward, and they believe with every bit of themselves that Mark 16:17-18 was meant to be taken literally.

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