Some photos, videos, and observations from a visit to a West Virginian snake handling church. “Chris Wolford, their pastor, handles snakes, drinks strychnine, brushes fire across his face and hands…”
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Comments 4
Opiate for sure!
That’s some beautiful footage, but I found the discussion lower down in the thread a bit credulous:
I just finished reading Kayla E.’s new graphic memoir Precious Rubbish last night—a scary reckoning of a book—and there are several parts where the mother character uses her newfound charismatic Pentecostal churchgoing—rolling around, speaking in tongues—as a permission structure to “discipline” her child and terrorize her in new ways. That’s obviously not what everyone who practices this faith does, but also there is a rising movement of “Christian discipline” (see Talia Lavin’s work on this), and there is often a lot of harm happening behind the scenes in these seemingly benign, kooky strip mall churches.
All to say, I think two evenings of being wowed by people handling snakes and drinking “strychnine” may make you believe it’s “one of most welcoming, loving, deep and rich communities I've ever been invited into,” but, brother, you just can’t know.
Thanks for mentioning Precious Rubbish, Jasper. I just spent the last 45 minutes reading everything I could about it, and am heading to my local bookshop shortly to grab their last copy.
I’m so glad to make the recommendation—it’s such a great and formally inventive and also truly harrowing, necessary book. I hope it does you right.
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