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In the House of the Serpent Handler: A Story of Faith and Fleeting Fame in the Age of Social Media
Duin examines several families in Appalachia who attend churches that practice the handling of venomous snakes as part of their old-time religion. In the face of the deaths of members, they soldier on with the goal of proselytizing up and coming generations. Pastors and church members speak for themselves in her book about their work of bringing their traditions to the public—like their earlier attempt--the TV series Snake Salvation. They enlist social networking in their attempt to capture converts. Upon the death of yet another member, the life of the last Pastor standing took on a definite downward trajectory that included prison time. No matter, he remains determined to take their death-defying tradition to others. Annotation ©2018 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
227 pages, Paperback
Published December 29, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 27, 2018
Obviously I wrote this book! It is the latest in a very exclusive club of books by authors who have hung out with serpent-handling Pentecostals; in my case it was 20-somethings who were not only handling snakes but getting others on social media to watch and join them.
My books offers an intimate and engrossing look at the latest generation of Pentecostal believers who “take up” venomous snakes as a test of their religious faith. Focusing on several preachers and their families in six Appalachian states, I explore the impact that such twenty-first-century phenomena as social media and “reality television” have had on rituals long practiced in obscurity.
The book starts off with how the mortal snakebite suffered by pastor Mack Wofford in 2012 marked the passing of the torch to younger preachers Jamie Coots and Andrew Hamblin, who were featured in the 2013 series Snake Salvation on the National Geographic Channel. Seeing their participation in the show as a way of publicizing their faith and thus winning converts, Coots and Hamblin attempted to reinvent the snake-handling tradition for a modern audience. The use of the internet, particularly Facebook, became another key part of their strategy to spread their particular brand of Christianity. However, Coots’s own death in 2014 was widely reported after the TV series was canceled, while Hamblin, who emerges as the central figure in the book, was arrested and tried after a shooting incident involving his estranged wife. His hopes of becoming a serpent-handling superstar seemingly dashed, Hamblin spent several months in prison, emerging more determined than ever to keep to the faith. By the end of the narrative, he has begun a new church where he can pass on the tradition to yet another generation.
My reporting bring the ecstatic church services she witnessed vividly to life, and through interviews and quotations from the principals’ Facebook postings, I allow them to express their beliefs and reveal their everyday lives in their own words. I also give the reader an up-close view of how a reporter pursues a story and the various difficulties encountered along the way. These engrossing elements add up to a unique story of the ways in which the practitioners of a century-old custom—one that strikes most outsiders as bizarre—are adjusting to the challenges of the new millennium.
My books offers an intimate and engrossing look at the latest generation of Pentecostal believers who “take up” venomous snakes as a test of their religious faith. Focusing on several preachers and their families in six Appalachian states, I explore the impact that such twenty-first-century phenomena as social media and “reality television” have had on rituals long practiced in obscurity.
The book starts off with how the mortal snakebite suffered by pastor Mack Wofford in 2012 marked the passing of the torch to younger preachers Jamie Coots and Andrew Hamblin, who were featured in the 2013 series Snake Salvation on the National Geographic Channel. Seeing their participation in the show as a way of publicizing their faith and thus winning converts, Coots and Hamblin attempted to reinvent the snake-handling tradition for a modern audience. The use of the internet, particularly Facebook, became another key part of their strategy to spread their particular brand of Christianity. However, Coots’s own death in 2014 was widely reported after the TV series was canceled, while Hamblin, who emerges as the central figure in the book, was arrested and tried after a shooting incident involving his estranged wife. His hopes of becoming a serpent-handling superstar seemingly dashed, Hamblin spent several months in prison, emerging more determined than ever to keep to the faith. By the end of the narrative, he has begun a new church where he can pass on the tradition to yet another generation.
My reporting bring the ecstatic church services she witnessed vividly to life, and through interviews and quotations from the principals’ Facebook postings, I allow them to express their beliefs and reveal their everyday lives in their own words. I also give the reader an up-close view of how a reporter pursues a story and the various difficulties encountered along the way. These engrossing elements add up to a unique story of the ways in which the practitioners of a century-old custom—one that strikes most outsiders as bizarre—are adjusting to the challenges of the new millennium.
March 25, 2020
At least a quarter of the book was copied and pasted from people’s Facebook accounts.
July 1, 2023
bullshit church gossip about whos bangin who and who wont pay child support, interspersed with snarky comments from the author.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews