The Pentacostal Church - Serpent Handling as Sacrament

God, Man, and the Serpent

It was with fascination and horror, and a bit of revulsion, that I watched the video in class concerning the snake handling in a pentecostal church in West Virginia. I could not ascertain wherefore these pile would risk life and limb in the handling of these poisonous snakes during a church service. It was the first clip I had observed such a thing in a religious gathering, I valued to populate why these simple Americans showed such, what seemed to me, forbiddenrageous behavior. What did this risk -taking have to do with the run they were attending? The first thing I wanted to know was the background of these hoi polloi and what thinking led them to do the things I saw on the tape. With the classroom discussion following the video, irrefutable the reading we had on this subject, Serpent- Handling as Sacrament, by bloody shame Lee Daugherty, I was to find the reasons for this behavior.

The ara of the country these people come from is coal mined; rugged mountains, most of them atomic number 18 poor and uneducated. They live in a rural subject field were there is not much contact with the surrounding communities, in other words these people are culturally isolated. They are also an offshoot of the Pentecostal church and they take what the countersign says literally. The verse in the Bible they enjoyment to incorporate the use of snakes in their faith is in the passage of Mark 16: 15-18 were a portion of it states, In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink anything virulent; it shall not hurt them... So it is a test of faith that led them to this behavior. If they get bitten...

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References

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Decent personal reactions to the topic, but could benefit from several(prenominal) anthropological literature on ritual which would help you mention this to other examples of religious tests of faith.


Also, be careful with comments like, most of them are poor and uneducated. They live in a rural commonwealth were there is not much contact with the surrounding communities, in other words these people are culturally isolated. in an acedemic paper. The fact that you obviously feel culturally superior to these people hampers your analysis (such as it is) and makes it clear that your paper is not an accusive look at the subject.

This essay was written for an Anthropology

class and our Professer wanted our response to a film that we view during class. This was not a formal academic paper, rather it was intended to be an daily paper. The people in the film were uneducated, I tell the uprightness in what I witnessed and wrote. I received an A on this effort by the way.

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