Taking Up Serpents: American Cults, Messiahs, and Madmen

by Troy Taylor

TAKING UP SERPENTS AMERICAN CULTS, MESSIAHS, AND MADMEN One man’s cult is another man’s religion. That’s often been said – but is it true? Despite the fact that every mainstream religion in America was considered a cult at one point in history, when does faith go too far? America’s past is filled with stories of cults that strike most of us as strange, bizarre, incomprehensible, and even insane, and yet, many of those of “cults” have turned into mainstream churches that can be found in almost every city and town. But what about the rest? The madmen and would-be messiahs whose weird beliefs descended into a horrific and maniacal mixture of death, depravity, sex, murder, mayhem, and suicide? As twisted as they may be, they are fixtures on the American landscape of religious zealotry. Among these pages, you’ll find accounts of witch trials, faith healing, snake handling, speaking in tongues, human and animal sacrifices, attempted resurrection of the dead, strange rituals, orgies, and attempts to bring on the apocalypse – and those are just the mainstream churches. You’ll also find stories of utopian societies, end of the world predictions, Antichrist prophecies, the rise of Christian Science, Amish life, cults of personality, the dark history of the Mormons, polygamist cults, a religion based on the “Hollow Earth,” UFO cults, the sinister Blackburn Cult, Jim Jones and the People’s Temple, the Orange People, the Ant Hill Kids, the Children of God, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate, Scientology, and much more! This is Troy Taylor’s largest and strangest book so far – a wild mix of American cults, true crime, and the supernatural, delving into a search for the divine that has, far too often, sent seekers in regrettable directions – and to places from which they never returned. Discover the larger-than-life characters within these pages and find out how the elaborate mythologies of America’s homegrown religions have taken us all to a place where horror co-exists with the highest of human aspirations!

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Cults

495 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 15, 2020

Reviews

[J. Todd Kingrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the research and effort that went into this book. It shows on every page with in-depth explanations of cults, doomsday prophets, weirdos, charlatans and fringe religious groups from the early 19th century through to Scientology in the 21st. Some things get quite a lot of ink while others merit only a little bit. It's a nice exploration of the subject, however I found the lack of editing to be a distraction. Missing words, bad punctuation, and misspellings litter the text. A more thorough editorial review would have benefited it immensely.

[Marc Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume provides a good overview of American cults and strange religions. It's uneven in the depth of details presented for each, but you come away with a good working knowledge of the depths of America's religious weirdness. It's hindered only by a noticeable amount of typographic errors, misspellings, and grammatical errors.

[Corbin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shows his previous books as source material

Well researched and written. Worth your time. However, I find it interesting that l Ron Hubbard's dianetics it not listed in the source materials but troy Taylor's previous works are.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a hard time putting this one down- even more so than usual!