Just saw on a cable channel a bunch of people who belong to some church who regularly handle snakes without being bitten, put fire on their feet, and drink diluted poison.
They feel they are protected cause of God.
Weird.
I imagine God is going, “Are you guys nuts?”
Are these legit?
Are these folks nuts?
Could this be what they were talking about?
I have also recently seen a programme on this, made by Ruby Wax. The handlers had hideously disfigured hands, missing digits and all. The woman at the centre of Wax’s story (she is a brilliant interviewer) lost her husband by snake bite. She had his death on video, and Wax showed it.
There is a column on this from early this year: Does the Bible tell people to handle snakes?
picmr
In short, yes, and yes.
What, precisely, is the General Question here?
These guys are “legit” in that there are really people who really do what the show you saw was really about.
They are Christian fundamentalists who believe that every word of the bible is literally factual. There’s a passage in the bible that says that if you believe in Jesus and you drink poison or handle poisonous snakes, you will not be hurt, so these people drink poison and handle poisonous snakes so that the bible can be literally true.
I stated that confusingly I think. They believe that if there were nobody drinking poison and handling snakes, that passage in the bible would not be literally true, so they have stepped up to the plate to do their bit to keep god honest.
I saw that! ON Sightings, right?
I also saw it on a really ancient Springer episode…it was actually a lot more like something Montel Williams would do.
IT was VERY sad, very scary, and these people are nuts.
Ah, the subtle distinctions known only to aficionados of fine television.
Yes people do this, and it’s common enough that a lot of the Southern states have had to outlaw it. Strange, though, that the Bible passage in question states that believers that do these things won’t be hurt, while many, many of these church members have been hurt or killed in their practices. They also drink diluted strychnine IIRC.
One theory is that they build up an immunity to it…
Who knows?
I remember on the Springer episode one woman kept telling her sister to get out of that church and to leave her husband…it was VERY sad.
There may be something wonderfully weird and ancient buried deep within the subtext of the Snake-Handler Church.
Consider the long history of serpent-worshiping cults throughout the world. The ancient belief in the Serpent as the Bringer of Occult Wisdom. Some such survive until the present day, as in local village Hindu folk religion that worships the sacred Cobra. The Naga deities. In ancient South India as well as Indonesia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the Naga King is a giant Serpent with a unique precious jewel embedded in his forehead, and he guards a splendiferous subterranean treasure trove (the dragon guarding a treasure trove is known in Norse myth too, and J. R. R. Tolkien incorporated this motif into The Hobbit). There is esoteric symbolism in this.
In ancient Middle Eastern myths, the Goddess dwelt in a garden and the Serpent was her lover. Some see this theme adapted in a distorted form into the Biblical account of Eve in the Garden of Eden, both her and the Serpent fallen into disrepute. (When a new religion takes over, the gods of the old religion are usually reassigned as devils.) Also in the Bible, Moses elevates the Brass Serpent on a pole to cure disease. Do we see the trace of a lost Serpent cult in this?
The Orphic Mysteries of ancient Greece invoked Serpent Power and Wisdom, possibly borrowed from Egypt where the Pharaoh wore the sacred Serpent on his crown. The Caduceus of Hermes, a symbol of the power of Consciousness and Thought, is two Serpents intertwined on a pole, the exact replica of the Hindu Kundalini Shakti, the Serpent Power, which arises up the central spinal column and through the two intertwining nadis (channels) of masculine and feminine energy. In Greek myth, the origin of the caduceus was attributed to Teiresias, who poked his staff between two mating serpents and was transformed into a woman–to experience female sexuality firsthand. Yes, the SEXUAL MYSTERIES are of prime importance in ancient Serpent lore.
The Serpent as a sacred Phallic symbol. Which when repressed by Christianity will come back to haunt one’s darkest nightmares. Once I read a book that psychoanalyzed old Blues songs. It reproduced the cover of a record, “Black Snake Blues,” from circa 1930. The picture showed a man literally climbing up the wall, terrified by a big black snake in his bed.
So who’s to say the Snake-Handling Church isn’t unintentionally bringing out a long-buried theme of prehistoric religion from the murky depths of the collective human memory, triggered by a verse in the Bible?
Um, me, I will.
Well, there are only certain snakes I will handle.
They aren’t worshipping the snake, just getting bit by it.
“Murky depths of the collective human memory”? Yea right. And I’m the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln because I’ve watched The Civil War on PBS 5 times.
They blame themselves when this happens; it’s a reflection on their faith.
And they’ll refuse medical treatment, in proof of their faith.
It reminds me of a sad joke. There’s a preacher living in a flood plain, and there’s been constant rain for the last few days. The levee’s broken, and a voluntary evacuation has been called. But the preacher stays, saying that God will save him.
Flood waters have hit his doorstep, and a row boat comes by. “Jump in, preacher! We’ll take you to safety!” say his would-be rescuers.
“I’m safe right here, thank you.” he replies. “God will protect me from the rising waters.” And the boat leaves.
The waters have risen nearly to his windows, and water is steadily seeping into his house. A motorboat comes by. “Preacher! Grab hold of this line! We’ll take you to higher ground!”
“There is no higher ground than the beneficence of God. He is the only Savior I need.” And, again, the boat leaves.
But the waters keep rising. The preacher has to go up on his roof to stay dry. Now, a helicopter comes by. “Climb up this ladder!” the men cry. “There’s no time to lose!”
“I have all the time in the world!” he cries back. “The Lord will provide!”
A short while later, the preacher walks up to the Pearly Gates. The man there says, “Preacher! This is not your time! What are you doing here?”
“I don’t know, Peter.” says the preacher. “The flood waters were rising, but I held my faith that God would save me, no matter what. Yet here I am.”
“What?!” snorts Peter. “We sent two boats and a helicopter. What more did you want?”
That Black Snake Moan
by Blind Lemon Jefferson
recording of circa June 1926, Chicago, Illinois
from Blind Lemon Jefferson (Milestone 47022)
I - I ain’t got no mama now
I - I ain’t got no mama now
She told me late last night, “You don’t need no mama no how”
Mmm, mmm, black snake crawlin’ in my room
Mmm, mmm, black snake crawlin’ in my room
Some pretty mama better come and get this black snake soon
Ohh-oh, that must have been a bed bug, baby a chinch can’t bite that hard
Ohh-oh, that must have been a bed bug, honey a chinch can’t bite that hard
Ask my sugar for fifty cents, she said “Lemon, ain’t a child in the yard”
Mama, that’s all right, mama that’s all right for you
Mama, that’s all right, mama that’s all right for you
Mama, that’s all right, most seen all you do
Mmm, mmm, what’s the matter now?
Mmm, mmm, honey what’s the matter now?
Sugar, what’s the matter, don’t like no black snake no how
Mmm, mmm, wonder where my black snake gone?
Mmm, mmm, wonder where this black snake gone?
Black snake mama done run my darlin’ home
Note: Jefferson’s first single for Paramount was also his most successful recording. An excellent example of how Blind Lemon used overtly suggestive sexual imagery without becoming salacious.
In fact, there is such a Pentecostal church just minutes from my house!
A former English professor of mine mad a documentary about churches like these a few years ago.
evilbeth-
Thank you for pointing out that these religious groups are in fact Pentecostal, not “Christian Fundamentalists” as so many on this board are so quick to sling that moniker. If one were to lump all homosexuals as “queers” on this board, the uproar would be deafening. Excuse me for drawing this parralel, but these two names are often seen in the same thread.
BTW- I mean no disrespect for either group. Just thought I’ld say that so no one tracks me down and burns a cross in my front yard!
Actually, they don’t get bit as much as you might expect.
It is fairly common to use the same snakes over and over, and the snakes get used to being handled. Often the poison is so diluted that you don’t get much effect from it.
Still a seriously bad idea, IMO.
The snake handlers lock onto the Bible verse that says believers can handle snakes (Mark 16:17-19), but not the one where Jesus tells us not to put God to the test.