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Snake handling at the Church of God with Signs Following at Lejunior in Harlan County, Kentucky, 15 September 1946 ().Photo by Russell Lee.. 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.
George Went Hensley (May 2, 1881 – July 25, 1955) was an American Pentecostal minister best known for popularizing the practice of snake handling.A native of rural Appalachia, Hensley experienced a religious conversion around 1910: on the basis of his interpretation of scripture, he came to believe that the New Testament commanded all Christians to handle venomous snakes.
To this day there are numerous traces in European popular belief, especially in Germany, of respect for the snake, possibly a survival of ancestor worship: The "house snake" cares for the cows and the children, and its appearance is an omen of death; and the lives of a pair of house snakes are often held to be bound with that of the master and ...
A snake-handling church was the target of a bizarre police raid 76 years ago in North Carolina, historians said. On Nov. 1, 1947, a venomous copperhead snake was seized from Zion Tabernacle Church ...
Florida — A young man became seriously ill and died as a result of a snake bite while handling a snake during one of George Went Hensley's religious services in Bartow, Florida. Shortly after, the town of Bartow passed a law that banned snake handling. [120] September 25, 1906: Frank Benham, 2, male: Prairie rattlesnake
America’s abundant waterways are teeming with wildlife – and snakes are frequent residents of riverbanks where there is plenty of prey in and out of the water. Some rivers are home to so many ...
Various people throughout the church handle several snakes, and a man who dances violently quickly collapses to the ground and lies there. No one rushes to help him. The music stops so that people can provide testimonies and the church can take an offering. The pastor handles a snake as he tries to get people to give money to the church.
Conservationists are working to save the snakes from extinction.