Snake-Handling Preachers Open Up About 'Takin' Up Serpents'

NPR ^ | October 04, 2013 | JOHN BURNETT

[Carpe Cerevisi]

If they finished reading the rest of that scripture passage shouldn’t they be drinking poison as well...and living to tell about it? Good old pick and choose scripture readin’.

[Tijeras_Slim]

There are one’s who drink strychnine.

http://www.amazon.com/Serpent-Handlers-Fred-W-Brown/dp/0895873524

An interesting read.

[Oliviaforever]

To really show their faith, they should use alligators, lions, tigers and Sarin gas.

[S.O.S121.500]

Good old pick and choose scripture readin’.

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It’s a Christian thing....

[fini]

Some members of those churches do drink poison. In the 1990s, a friend of mine did a documentary about those churches and he saw them passing around a mason jar that was labeled "strychnine." Almost everyone took a big gulp. No one showed any signs of poisoning. After the service, my friend asked to be given the mason jar and what fluid was left in it. He took it and had it tested. It tested for a high level of strychnine. He asked the lab tech, how poisonous was it, thinking that it was highly diluted. The lab tech, said one sip would put you in the hospital and a big gulp would probably kill you.

From his experiences in doing that documentary, my friend had a whole pile of stories (snakes, laying on hands, poison, etc...) that he could not explain without mentioning a higher power- and this guy was very agnostic.

[cotton]

we Have Timber Rattlers herein Kansas. It is illegal to mess with them as they are “an endangered species” Around them I feel like “an endangered species” and really could use some snake handlers to get them off my driveway/out of my basement. s/s/su.

[nickcarraway]

People can build up a tolerance to strychnine, and eventually take doses that would be fatal to people who weren’t habituated to it. Olympic athletes used to use it as a performance enhancer.

[gundog]

I just don’t think folks that handle snakes any ANY fashion are the sharpest bulbs in the rack. :) Or the brightest knives in the box for at matter.

They ran the Cherokee out of The Appalachians and supplanted them with Irish immgrants. St. Patrick's gotta be shaking his head.