European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 26, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse The Way to Bof ovo. Iho Way to do in. I know thai god has something to do with it Causa i be been bit too Many limes i know Ocoy says us not in your hands the Anak Obilo is a Church Cuenl medical allo lion is spurned to Slat praying with Thorn right away downy says ii we know Hoy the Hurlin bad they re serious or in danger to try to encourage Thorn logo Homo with my mom and my Niece. When it comes right Down to in we All stick Barbara Elkins complains thai Dewey s shanty smells too much like snakes. It does he admits but what can he do if i say i believe in something i be got to do it he says. Them that handles snakes handles Barbara s daughter Columbia died of snakebite in Church in october 1961. At 23, she Tell behind a Young child Lydia. In the resulting juror the West Virginia legislature threatened to bar the religious risk takers from their Faith. I m letting god fight my Battle Barbara Elkins was quoted then. You think i m going to let some of these Little judges and lawyers make me Back up on my salvation no West Virginia s sole attempt to outlaw ritual handling of deadly snakes failed when one of the principal opponents after investigating wound up writing a Book supporting the Snake handlers. The tide did not turn in other slates however and Virginia Tennessee and Kentucky passed Laws against Serpent handling in Church. Tennessee is where this Brand of religious Snake handling started in the summer of 1909 at George Hensley s the Dolley Pond Church of god with signs following. The stale has fought hardest against the Faith winning support for its anti Serpent Laws from the . Supreme court. But Tennessee lost the War when Church members decided it was an Honor to be arrested in the name of the lord. It seems that when persecution appears the Church becomes stronger says Ambrose. Pastor Elkins says the critics for the most part simply leave him alone. Society does t have much to do with people like us that try to live right he says. The Gawker now mostly reporters still make the treacherous drive along winding twisting West Virginia 83 into the heart of the Coal Fields to watch the Jolo services. The Snake handlers tolerate them the Way the snakes tolerate the handlers doing their quiet Best to go about their business amid commotion. We re tired Elkins simply says of the television cameras and steamy grocery store tabloid accounts. The Snake handlers have been shaking these secluded appalachian Hills for seven decades. They be moved out of the primitive Brush harbours of summer revivals and into whitewashed lumber houses of god unnamed save for the inevitable Jesus painted on a Plank above the door. Some like Jolo do not have even that. There is not even a Cross in the front of the Jolo Church. Academicians argue Over theories explaining the death defying religious acts As manifestations of everything from inhibited sexuality to a supposed fatalism inherent in Appalachia. Nathan Gerrad a sociologist at what is now the University of Charleston once went so far As to say that such fatalism resulted in squalid living conditions illegitimate births incest quitting of jobs in order to go Hunting or fishing. And other kinds of behaviour incomprehensible from a Middle class Point of the Snake handlers demanding religious views offered the flip Side to that fatalistic extremism in the feeling that one s destiny is in god s hands Gerrard wrote. The Snake handlers Are aware of these less than flattering theories but they shrug them off. A single paragraph in the 16th chapter of the Book of Mark tells them All they need to know. In it Jesus tells his disciples 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 " if it s in the Bible Snake handlers say it must be so. Beyond complying with scripture each Snake handling Church is free to write its own rules for the Road to heaven. Certain aspects of modern society Short hair and make up for women Long hair Lor men liquor and tobacco for anyone Are banned by most holiness churches. But other vices of the technological photo Saul Sampson gets Healing touch from pastor Robert Elkins right in Jolo w. Vs., Snake handling service. Age have been accepted. Electric guitars and amplifiers for instance Send the Snake handlers rocking music heavenward. And the religious services Are now replayed on Dewey Chafin s Home video recorder. A sign at the front of the Jolo Church warns no backbiting so members get it All up front. This is just Church talk Barbara Elkins cautions reporters during her Sermon. Tonight she is admonishing two Church members. They Don t seem to mind hearing their personal lives berated in Public. Church members Are serious about what they believe and no feelings or secrets Are spared on the severe Road to salvation. Saving the individual is More important Ambrose says. I be seen it where the assistant pastor hopped All Over the minister Lor spending too much time building his own House and neglecting the Church. And the pastor said Tell it like it is brother. I deserve it " it is All in the name of Faith Dewey Chafin says. We re justified by Faith we re saved by Faith. We got to take this Bible like it is. And we live by Faith. Ill probably die with snakes but that won t Stop me from doing the Snake handlers certainly Don t believe their Faith will vanish. They re perplexed when one of their own gives up the snakes. A whole congregation in Southern West Virginia did just that recently Mccallister says. They said they had graduated above that Serpent handling he says one evening As he mounts the Steps into his own Church where the music already has started. How can you graduate from the lord True believers interpret literally the Bible passage saying they shall take up sunday april 26,1987 the stars and stripes a photo Page 17
