Revealed: Inside the secret deadly church services of Appalachia’s serpent handlers who lift rattlesnakes above their heads and drink poison all in the name of God

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153933/Revealed-The-secretive-deadly-church-services-Appalachias-serpent-handlers-lift-rattlesnakes-heads-drink-poison-God.html By James Nye PUBLISHED: 21:15 EST, 2 June 2012 | UPDATED: 22:45 EST, 2 June 2012 Stirring themselves into a state of religious ecstacy through hours of music and the drinking of poisonous Strychnine, the serpent handlers of the Appalachian Mountains stand on the edge of radical Christianity. Holding aloft deadly rattlesnakes, worshipers at […]

Reviving Faith by ‘Taking Up Serpents’

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577309570173259662.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories For a new generation of Internet-savvy Pentecostals, a century-old practice provides ‘anointing’ April 6, 2012, 8:12 p.m. ET By JULIA DUIN This year’s Easter service at the Tabernacle Church of God in La Follette, Tenn., will include many of the holiday’s traditional rituals, like Holy Communion and footwashing. There will also be some startling […]