Is snake handling a religion?

Snake handling, also called serpent handling, is a religious rite observed in a small number of isolated churches, mostly in the United States, usually characterized as rural and part of the Holiness movement. Participants are Holiness, Pentecostals, Charismatics, or other evangelicals.

What religions handle snakes?

Serpent Experts Try To Demystify Pentecostal Snake Handling Earlier this month, NPR reported on a small group of Pentecostal Christians who handle snakes to prove their faith in God. We wondered why the handlers are bitten so rarely, and why so few of those snakebites are lethal.

Why do people use snakes in religion?

They fully believe that adherents need to handle the snakes as a demonstration of their having the Holy Spirit within. And, if they get bitten by the snake, then they lack the true Spirit. Moreover, if they are bitten, then the congregation prays over them. If they die, then God intended for that to happen.

Are there still churches that handle snakes?

The most recent statistics in 2013, show that a figure of roughly 125 snake-handling churches can still be found in the United States from central Florida to West Virginia and as far west as Columbus, Ohio, as well as across the border in Edmonton and British Columbia.

What is the purpose of snake handling?

Snake handling as a religious ritual began in 1909 in Tennessee. Snakes, typically rattlers, are passed among the congregants for handling. Church elders sometimes patrol the church to ensure the snakes do not go beyond certain boundaries. Most participants are not bitten, but some have died from snakebites.

What do you call a person who handles snakes?

A herpetologist is someone who studies reptiles and amphibians. “That’s where I was exposed first to snakes, reptiles, amphibians and other wildlife, so I started to catch them, take them home and keep them in all kinds of basic conditions,” he says. That’s how I got into the snake business.”

What churches do snake handling?

Jimmy Morrow, the pastor of Edwina Church of God in Jesus Christ’s Name, in Newport, Tennessee, makes snake dolls and snake boxes as a hobby. The boxes are used for transporting snakes to and from church. The rest of the time, the animals typically live in terrariums or cages in sheds.

Who did the snake bite in the Bible?

Paul in Acts 28, like the famous hero Philoctetes, is bitten by a poisonous snake on a secluded island. The responses of these two figures to the bite, however, are fundamentally different. Philoctetes suffers extreme agony after his snakebite; Paul does not register any pain at all.