- [Interviewer] Thank you. All right, Pastor Chris Wolford. - Yes, sir. - [Interviewer] You're the pastor at - At the House of the Lord
Jesus in Squire, West Virginia. - [Interviewer] And
you, you grew up where? - I grew up until I was 11
in a Pack County, Kentucky. And after when I was 11, my father passed and then we moved from there to McDowell County, West Virginia and finished pretty much growing up until I was old enough
to leave home there. - [Interviewer] And what kind
of childhood did you have? - Normal, just like any other kid. - [Interviewer] Your dad
was a pastor as well? - No, he wasn't a pastor. He was just a member of
the Lord Jesus Temple in Iaeger West Virginia. My uncle was the pastor, Brady Dawson. - [Interviewer] So it's
kind of in the family. Your brother was also? - My brother now he was a pastor. - [Interviewer] And the
Pentecostal religion is different from Baptist or typical
Christian religions in what ways? - We believe in worshiping the Lord. We believe in shouting,
speaking in tongues, laying hands on the
sick, casting out devils, taking up serpents. If you drink any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt you. We just believe, the Bible says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. We play our instruments. We try to what we call
press, and we call it press, get in into the spirit. The Bible said, them that worship me must worship me in spirit in truth. And you got to press into the spirit in order to feel the spirit
of God, the power of God. There's a power of God
that can heal the sick and there's power of
God can raise the dead. I mean, that's kind of God we serve. We serve a mighty God. And we believe in, like I
said, praying for the sick, believe in taking up the serpents. If God moves in that way,
I'm a little different than some places. I tell all my people that come here, if they do take up the
serpents to make sure that they feel it's God that's
leading them in doing it. I don't want them to do
it if it's not of God and like I said, I don't
tell them they got to. Matter of fact, I tell
them if it ain't God, leave them alone because there's death
in this, there's death. - [Interviewer] You lost a couple. - My father died in '83. - [Interviewer] From a snake bite. - Yes, sir. And my brother died. He died Memorial weekend on that Sunday, Memorial weekend, late 2012 - [Interviewer] Those were
both during a service? - Yeah, well, yeah, he
got bit during the service and I think he lived
around nine or 10 hours. We always ask when one gets bit if they want to go to the hospital. And if they decide to,
you know, that's okay. I mean, you don't know,
we try to trust in God but you don't know, you
don't know what you'll do. And you know, it's easy to say I will but until you try it, but we don't never make, if one wants to go, we will take ya. It's their choice. If they wanna try to suffer it out or let whatever happen happen, we'll pray with them and try to nurse them the best that we can and
make them comfortable. - [Interviewer] You take
them to the hospital? - If they desire to. Now, if they don't, we just pray with them and try to make them comfortable. If they're in pain, we'll
try to pray for them. And if they're sick we'll If there's something they
think they might can drank to help their sickness, as
far as settle their stomach. If they want to go, we'll take them. If they don't, we'll do what we can to
make them comfortable until the poison runs its
course or until they pass. - [Interviewer] When your father
was bitten during a service did he choose to go to the hospital or? - No, he refused medical treat. - [Interviewer] And
what about your brother? - He refused medical treatment. - [Interviewer] And you've
been bitten before too. - Been bitten five times. - [Interviewer] Five times. - I've been bit three
times with a rattler. - [Interviewer] During services? - Yes. And twice with copperheads. I got bit last May with Eastern. - [Interviewer] And the reason that the Pentecostal snake handling goes on is because in the Bible? - Mark 16:18, Jesus was getting ready to descend into heaven
after being crucified, had the 11 apostles there, Judas was dead so there
was 11 at that time. And he gave them a commandment. He said, go forth into the world and preach the gospel to all that believe. Them that believe and is
baptized shall be saved. Them that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall
follow them that believe. It may not be in order, but it's thou shall take up serpents, thou shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, thou shall speak with new tongues, thou shall cast out devils, and if they drink any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt them. - [Interviewer] I saw a bottle
of strychnine on your pulpit. - Yes. - [Interviewer] So you'll pass out Dixie cups with strychnine? - Oh yeah, like I said, that's another thing that's not forced. Some people seem to think this is a cult. Nobody's forced to do anything. And there's times that, well,
if we don't know a person, if we don't feel like that
they should be doing it, we believe in living a
good clean Holy life, we believe in being Holy
and living a clean life. And if we feel like there's someone here that's not living, we won't let them do things like that because I've got to watch over one's soul. And if I feel like
somebody's doing something that the Bible says that
they shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven for, and they get bit or drank
that poison and die, then I've got to live with
that on my conscience. So I try to, for the ones
that handle the serpents I tell them to please do their best to live what the Bible tells them. - [Interviewer] You're not
doing it for shock value. You're doing it because the - It's the word, that's it. I didn't write it. I mean, if I'd have wrote
it, I'd have left it out. I'm just being obedient. And now I know this is one of
the questions we always get. If it's the word and
you're supposed to do it, why do you get bit? And the only answer I
can give people on that, well there's a few. First of all the Bible says
God's ways is not our ways. His thoughts is higher than ours. But we're to be obedient
to the word of God, even we're supposed to
love the Lord enough to lay our life down. He said, there's no greater love except a man lay down
his life for a friend. He's the best friend I ever know. But he told the apostles, he said, you go preach the word. He told them, go preach it to all nations. They went and did what he told them to do. But if you search out in history
and according to tradition, Peter was crucified upside
down, Paul was beheaded, the Bible tells us that
Stephen was stoned to death preaching the word of God, doing what he was told to do, being obedient, but yet
he was killed for it. Why did that happen? They was just doing what
they was told to do. And that's the way we
look at it with this. We don't know. People think we do this
and think we can't get bit. And that's not true at all. We know there's a chance. Every time we go in a box, we know there's a chance
that we can get bit. And we also know there's a
chance that we could die, but we want to be willing
to be obedient to the word. If we feel that God is
leading us to do that, we want to be obedient to that. And we want to be willing
to give our life if asked. And like I said, we
will get weak in faith. If one does go to the hospital, we don't put it it down. We don't put it down,
don't look down on nobody but that's the best
answer I can give them. I don't know why he would
tell us to take them up and then turn around. A lot of times we get people get bit because they get ahead of God. They just move out and get ahead of God. But I still believe there's times even in the will of God, you can get bit. It was prophesied that my dad would die. He didn't say who would die. It was just prophesied
that a son would die. And that was prophesied, I don't know how many times, about for a solid two months
or about every weekend, somebody would get in the spirit and prophesy that a son was going to die. And I remember I was just a kid but I can remember the church a talking, wonder who's going to die. And then my father got bit that Sunday. And like I said, he
lived right at 10 hours, but you know, I know a lot
of people think it's foolish, but my dad was a bad alcoholic, bad, lived a bad life. And I seen him as a young man, young child, give his heart to God. And I seen a man that was an alcoholic, mean, that beat on his
kids and whooped us. And like I said, I never got a whooping, I don't believe, that I didn't deserve, but I just believed due
to his alcohol abuse that he went a little
overboard many a time. And I seen that man change
when he gave his heart to God, to totally he never drunk
another drop after that. He never smoked another cigarette, cuss. And I mean, he was just, I seen a man that was filled with love. And not only did it change his life for the better on that part, but he found something
that he loved so much that he was willing to give his life for. And my brother passed eight years ago, used to say, "If it ain't worth dying for, "it ain't worth living for. And I guess that's about
the truth of things. If it ain't worth dying for
it, ain't worth living for. And I know a lot of
people think we're foolish but like I said, I don't
force it on nobody. And what gets me, I guess, about our faith is I don't put, there's different churches all
up and down this road here, baptists, church of God, and I don't put none of them down. I don't go in their church, or I don't go on their Facebook page and begin to make comments. If you don't believe like I do, if you don't take up serpents
you're going to go to hell, or you're stupid. But yet those people don't care to come on my Facebook page or in person and tell me I'm foolish,
I'm stupid, I'm ignorant. And that's the part I
guess I don't understand. We all supposed to be serving the Lord. We're all trying to get to heaven. We're all working on the same goal here. And maybe you're doing
it a little different than I am, but we're still supposed. Jesus said, how will they know, talking about the world,
that you are my disciples? He said, if you love one another. We're to love each other. We're not the speak evil of one another, put each other down, talk bad about them. We're not to do that. And you know, I've been hurt many a time but that's all right too. But I try to never, regardless, of even when my brother died, regardless how people felt, regardless to the ones that
thought he was ignorant, he had family that was alive and hurting. But they didn't care. They went on there and put
us down like dogs anyway. And I said, you know, I would
never do that to nobody. And what gets me, you
take somebody that maybe get out here and OD on drugs, you'll see people saying, rest in peace. You don't see nobody going on there telling that family how
ignorant them people was. But yet somebody give their
life for what they believe. and yet we're foolish, we're
ignorant, we're stupid. Our faith is probably persecuted the worst of any Christian faith that they are. But that's all right too. I mean, the Bible tells
us that we'd be hated by all nations for his name's sake - [Interviewer] Has the
strychnine poisoned anyone? Have people had reactions to that? - Oh yeah. There's been a few die,
not very many, but some. I've had affects from it. It sets up, what do you call that, is it called rigamortar? - [Interviewer] Rigor mortis? - Yeah, that's what I happens. It begins to, your joints and stuff, it locks up and draws you up. Like the few times that I've drunk it, there's times that I've got
so stiff I couldn't walk. It was like I couldn't even be in my legs. And it just, like I said, it locks you up. And I believe, honestly I tell people, I believe
if I'd lost my faith, if I'd have thought,
oh, you're going to die, you're going to die, you've had it, I may very well had died. But when I've got like that, I just tell myself, it's the word of God. He said, if we drink any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt us. We've got to believe that, regardless. He said this is a faith
thing, not a feel thing. He said, we walked by
faith and not by sight. So when them times come, you've just got to believe what the word of God says. You've got to believe
it with all your heart. But up to this point, I've had effects, I'd say about the longest
it's ever bothered me about 15 or 20 minutes. Like I said, I got to
where I couldn't walk, and I just kept speaking to myself faith, that it was the word and I believe it. And about 20 minutes and I was fine. But now there have been
some that's died from it. But I tell people now that is, it does say with the strychnine or not just strychnine, poison, if you drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt you. But now he didn't tell us that
the snake wouldn't bite us. He said take them up. - [Interviewer] So the
Pentecostal religion, is the man is considered
the head of the household and the women are? Tell me about the relationship between a man and his wife. - Well, at this church,
I can just tell you what the Bible says. And it's up to one to believe
whether the Bible is correct, or whether they don't. The Bible said for the man
to be the head of his house to love his wife as Christ did the church. I don't believe in mistreating your wife. I believe in loving your wife. But he is the head of the house. And as far as church, it tells us, Paul told us, he said, I
subject a woman not to teach or usurp authority over a man. If she needed to learn anything, ask it of her husband at home. Now, when it says, I
subject a woman not to teach and not to speak, that's
talking about a speaker. We don't believe in letting
a woman preach here, but I don't have a problem
with a woman singing, testifying, those things. She just, according to the scripture, now if she wants to
teach the younger women, that's fine too, because the Bible says
for the elderly women to teach the younger women how to be wise. That's the word. That's what the word tells us. How to be wise under their husbands. So I don't have a problem with, if there's an elderly woman would like to have a day
to teach the younger women. But I'm just saying,
according to the word, a woman cannot have authority to preach or teach to the men. It was not so from the beginning. It ain't that I wrote it. I mean, I've got a mother
that's been in this for about my whole life, far as back as I can remember. Love to be able to say preach but I can't because the
word says she can't. It ain't that I choose not to. I just gotta do what the word tells us. I've got to follow the word, the very best of my ability. Like I said, I'm sure we all got, we come up short somewhere. All of us has come up short. That's where the mercy and the grace and the blood of Jesus applies then. - [Interviewer] And women are allowed or not allowed to cut their hair. - Well, they're allowed
to do what they want to. It's down, there ain't
nobody can say, but it is, I preach that it's wrong. Like I said, Peter said we
can't rule over God's heritage. All I can do is preach
you what the word says, and the Bible says, for a
woman's hair is her glory. For her if she be shorn,
let her also be shaven. Then it goes on to say, we believe here, our women
wears veils, the veils. 'Cause then it goes on to say, if she'd be neither shorn nor shaven, then let her also be covered, talking about a veil, when
she pray or prophesies. We believe when a woman's praying or if she's basically in church, praying, or prophesying, she's to cover her head with a veil. It shows humility and it also shows that according to the scriptures that she's honoring her her husband by showing she's the weaker vessel. - [Interviewer] And she also
wears a dress at all times? - All times. Supposed to. Like I said, I can't force
nobody to do nothing. And I'm different than a
lot of people in my faith. A lot of people in my faith trust, but I want first of all, without love, I don't care how you live. Without love, we ain't a going. We got to have the love of God. And the Bible I read, Jesus set right down amongst the sinners, eat with him, drunk with him. And I tell people here,
all I can do is preach you what the word says. But I can't make nobody live it and I'm not going to run
nobody off if they don't. Because the house of
God's where we need to be. We're all sick. That's why we come. We're sick and we're looking for help. That's why you come to church. And I preach what the Bible says and I tell them that they need not do it. But if one does it, I don't run them off. I'm not mean to them. And I don't treat them bad. I treat them just like everybody else. I shake their hand. I'm good to them because I want to show them
the love of God, regardless. I want them to know that
I love them as a person. And if they're doing something
that the Bible is wrong, hey, it takes God to
help give anything up. If we could do anything in ourself, then Jesus wouldn't have
had to come and die. But he seen that we couldn't live the law. He seen it was impossible. So God sent his only begotten son to die, so we can send us a
comforter to help us live what the Bible tells us to live. But it also says, if we sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So I tell people you need
to live what the word says. You need to live it the
best of your ability. But if you slip and make
a mistake, you can repent, get forgiveness for that mistake. I just tell them you can't, like I said, I don't believe you can go to the bar tonight and get drunk, get up tomorrow and ask for forgiveness, and then turn around and do the same thing over and over and over, 'cause that's not being
sorry for what you've done. Sorry for what you've
done is when you repent and you don't do it no more. - [Interviewer] Have you seen healings? - Oh yeah, I've seen my dad. He was possessed. I know people would say, I know what I know and that's
all that matters to me. That's like my taking up serpents. I don't force it on nobody
and I don't argue with nobody, 'cause I know what I know. And that's all that matters to me. When my dad come to the altar, and he was possessed. That man, his eyes rolled back in his head and all you could see was
the whites of his eyes. And he backed up in the corner and he began to beat on
the door of the church. First, he was in the corner and he'd rub his legs
like this right here. And he was laughing and he was speaking in a voice and he was saying,
"I told you not to come. "I told you not to come." And he was rubbing his
legs like that, a laughing. And then he turned around and he started beating on that door. And his hands, oh man, the
meat, it was just awful. He just, he beat a solid
oak door, plumb down. And the church kept praying
and just kept praying. And then I don't know how, it probably went a couple
of hours like that. And then all of a sudden
he began to throw up. And now I don't know if this is true, but in the middle of it, when he threw up, it was like a foam. And in the middle of that foam
there was seven big chunks about that big around that was like white. They just big old chunks like that. And they said that each one
of them represented a devil, and if so, he had seven devils. But now, like I said, I
don't know about all that. It's possible. And I'm being healed several times. I was in a car wreck, broke
these ribs down this side and that was not long after
that brother of mine had passed. And my mom knowed I'd been in a car wreck but I didn't want to worry her. And she asked me, was I all right? And I said, "Well, I've
got a cut above my head." And I said, "I've hurt my foot." but I never mentioned
a thing about my ribs. I just didn't want her to worry. And a few days later
I got ready for church and it was about all I could do. I mean, I hurt so bad. I don't know if anybody's
ever had broke ribs, but they hurt. And I couldn't hardly, it hurt to breathe, much less try to get dressed. And I get dressed and my wife now, she don't go to church with me. I go to church. I mean, I couldn't even
hardly raise my hands up to praise the Lord. And church got started. And just in a few minutes when church, there was a woman came, got me, and laid her hand right there
and began to speak in tongues. And immediately my pain
left and I was fine. I went home that night. I was doing all this right here. I told my wife, I said, "God healed me." And I mean, that was it,
I never hurt another day. I had hepatitis C from a
drug addiction years ago before I gave my heart to God. Had that. I had got so bad, I
didn't go get treatment because at the time the
only treatment they had they told me that after I did
treatment about four days, I'd be deathly sick. And I said, "Well, I got to work. "I can't." So I put off treatment. And I had got so bad, it got to where I'd
get up and I'd be sick. And I felt like I was
three, 400 degrees hot. I'd crawl outside and lay
on the sidewalk to cool off. And I finally told the church and stuff. I told them, I said "I'm going to go get treatment." I said, "'Cause I guess I
just can't take this no more." Because I was trusting in God to heal me, but I also said, "Well, you know, "this is something I brought on myself, "so if he don't heal me,
it ain't like he has to. "'Cause I did it to myself anyways." But go to the doctor and
they started some tests and this test showed, it comes back, yeah, you got it. Which I, like I said, I already knew. He said, "We're going
to do some more tests." He said, "There's more
tests we got to do." I come to church, the spirit fell, the same thing, a woman come
up, began to speak in tongues put her hands right about where
the liver's at on the body. I stood after she'd done. I knew in myself, I said, God's healed me. I told the church. I said, "I'm claiming my healing." I said, "I believe God's moved. "And I want God to heal me." Go to that specialist, he does more tests. Still says I've got it. I tell the church, I said, "Well, the doctor saying I got it." I said, "But I still say I'm healed." I went back for the last test and we was going to start treatment. I go in there and I sit down and he's got all the test results back, that last test. He said, "I got good news
for you and I got bad news." I said, "Well, let's hear it." He said, "The bad news is
you did have hepatitis C." He said, "But the good news
is you don't have it no more." He said, "The paperwork I've got here "shows me here you had it. "What I've got here says
it's nowhere to be found." I jumped up off that table
and I said, "Praise the Lord." And he said, "Well, I wouldn't
get religious about it." I said, "You don't have
to brother, I will." I said, "God's healed me." And I had a brother come here. He got the church to pray for him. He got to where every time he'd eat he couldn't hold it down. He'd start throwing it up. And seemed like he said
he lost like 30 pounds in just like a month. And he said he wanted us to pray. Well, we prayed for him and
spirit moved pretty good. And I felt right then that he got healed but I wanted him to
realize he had got healed. And he come back in the next Sunday and testified that God had healed him, that he hadn't throwed up
another time since we prayed. A lot of people think we're crazy or look and think it's something when they see us handling serpents. Now I want to tell the
world, that ain't no miracle, handling a serpent. The miracle to me is
you take a drug addict, for me I was on drugs for years. Mama couldn't love it out of me. The rehab centers
couldn't get it out of me. But when I gave my heart
to God, he set me free. I come up from that altar set free from an addiction of cocaine, smoking it, you name it,
any way it could be done, I did it, and I was hooked. I was hooked bad. And within three years I lost a business, my own business, went through over $100,000, and God set me free. I come up from that altar, to me that was the best miracle. That's far more greater to me
than handling a rattlesnake. When I can see, when you know, you get somebody come to the altar that's bound from addiction or bound from a
depression, bound by things and God set them free. That is a miracle. That is far greater a miracle to me than anybody ever taking up a rattlesnake. But we serve a God that
has all power, all power. I was telling you earlier. And it was like I said, in the beginning when it comes to taking up serpents, in the beginning God told Adam, he said, I give you dominion over all things. There was no such thing as fear. Adam named all animals, even in the millennial reign, the Bible says that lion
will lay with the lamb, the child to be able to
play on a, what is it? Basically saying the den of
serpents is what it's saying. There won't be no fear
in the millennial reign 'cause they ain't going to be no sin in the millennial reign. But when man sinned, that's when fear come in. And the Bible said fear is torment. And I tell people when we
take up these serpents, I'm afraid of them. We was downstairs earlier. I had the hook. I'm afraid of them. But when the spirit of God moves upon a person to do that,
that fear leaves you. Now you still know that
that's able to bite you and you still know that it can kill you. That part, you know. But the fear is no longer there. You don't care and you don't fear it. And I believe now, like I said, I've got no Bible for this,
this is just what I believe. I believe that God, when he
moves upon us to do that, he's giving us a taste of what he meant from the beginning how
it should have been, when he said I give you
dominion over all things. And Adam wasn't afraid of nothing. He named all the animals. He wasn't afraid of the lion. He wasn't afraid of the bear. When that spirit moves on us to do that, he's a letting us have a taste
of how it was meant to be and how it's going to be one day again during the millennial reign, when we'll live without any fear, that we'll have dominion over all things. And I tell people, I don't do it for show. I don't do it for nothing
but for the glory of God. And if God ain't in it, I
try to leave them alone. But my desire is to win souls. He said, come follow me. I'll make you fishermen of man. And I want to preach the gospel and tell people that God, Jesus Christ died for their sins. I see people that's addicted to drugs maybe sitting on the side of
the street and they're stoned. You can look at them and see that they just blowed out of their mind. I'm the type of person, I don't
walk away from that person. I don't step on the
other side of the street from that person. I go to that person and I say, I want you to know that
there is a God out here. There's a God, and his name
is Jesus, that loves you, that can set you free from your addiction, that set you free. All you gotta do is give him your heart. That's what I'm in it. I don't care if a person
ever handles a rattlesnake. I don't. I could care in the least. I believe you've got to believe it because it's the word of God. I believe you gotta
believe that it's the word. But I tell people far as doing that, if you don't never do
it, I could care less. But I just want to let people know, these people that's struggling
with suicidal thoughts, that God can give them peace. He can give them peace. People struggling with addiction, God can set you free. There's nothing that he can't do. Just give your heart to him and let him come in and work on you and let him come in and
make you a better person. I know what I'm talking about 'cause I was a bad drug addict. I mean, I was one of
the worst of the worst. And if he can set me free,
he can set anybody free. And that's what I want to be. I want to be somebody that
can witness to the lost. And there's some people in our faith that don't fellowship me, simply because I don't
put on a rattlesnake show. I mean, I believe it and
there's times I do it, but my main goal is if I've got people in the house of God that don't know Jesus, I want to preach Jesus and him crucified. I believe when I get to the other side, if I make it to the other side, he ain't going to say how many serpents did you handle? He ain't going to ask
me how high I shouted, but he's going to ask me
how many fish did you catch? And I won't be able to
say I've caught some. - [Interviewer] Excellent. All right, Chris. Thank you very much for talking with me. - You're welcome, sir, you're welcome. I'm about done really
with reporters and stuff because they just, a lot of
them tell you a lie anyways, a lot of them tell you
whatever you want to be told in order to get you on video. And then they go and do their thing and put us down, make us look bad. And like I said, they
don't want to the attribute nothing to the church. And I'm saying everybody's making money and they never offered
nothing to the church. And I had told the church not long ago that I was thinking about
just being quit of it because there's really
nothing I can add to it that ain't already out there. But like I said, I ain't gonna say I won't let camera's back in the church. I don't know. But I hadn't let no cameras. You're the first in a spell, that I've sat down with. So you might've got the
last interview, bud. - [Interviewer] I appreciate
it, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. - You're welcome. - [Interviewer] It was a great talk.
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This series just interviews people that you might not regularly meet within society. There's a wide variety of people. It really help you to see humanity in all forms. I like the videos a lot.
This dude is a Pentecostal preacher. His brother and dad both died from snake bites. He has drank strychnine during services (bible says it wont hurt you if you have faith). He is an interesting character, because if you listen to some of his explanations of his faith, I swear you can hear this shadow of doubt. He even mentions a time or two that "if he wrote the bible he wouldn't have put this in". But he adheres to the bible even though he doesn't like stuff because "that's the word". He says something similarly about women's roles in the church.
Honestly, I like this guy. Even though I abhor his beliefs.
Holy crap yes, what a deluded chap.
He quotes a verse that is not in the Bible, Mark 16:18.
Yes, the verse is literally in a bunch of bibles, but very few honest scholars agree it was in there originally. For example, Codex Sinaiticus has Mark ending at Mark 16:8.
That's it, no further appearances, no confused disciples, no continuing mission.
The verses this guy hangs his whole life on is:
Right there you have the raw material for significant Christian cultic whackiness. The concepts are mentioned elsewhere but having them here in such a dense list form is nice.
The general concept of exorcism of demons from people and all it's abusive variations shows up across many different sects. Here it is listed as something Christians are able to do given the correct belief.
Speaking in new languages is really xenoglossy and we do not see much of that, but many Pentecostalists participate in glossolalia and deliberately confuse the two. This might be relatively harmless compared to other activities on this list, but it is in no way sensible.
This guy and other appalachian snake handlers define their entire theological identity on this phrase. These guys are not that influential or numerous but they do make the news now and then, can you imagine how that happens?
There are ritualistic bleach drinking Christian sects, for some reason especially in Africa, though one has to imagine there is an obvious reason poison drinking cults don't last long or spread very widely. This guy mentions drinking strychnine.
The placing on of hands to heal is not at all unique to Christianity, but numerous large sects in the US stage highly theatrical enactments of alleged healing through laying on of hands. I say alleged of course because it is all bullshit, an dangerous if it leads to the victims not seeking actual medical help where needed.
What a mess. And we wonder why COVID is out of control in the US?
Recently discovered this channel myself and it is eye opening for sure.
That whole channel is really good. The one with the executioner was both fascinating and depressing.
What’s the name of the channel?
I really love this series
Is he actually saying 'taking up the serpents' as in holding snakes? That's insane.
This hurt my brain.💀