forefront of time, never waning and never dying out. It has evolved overtime to include interesting ways of worship and faith basis. From the standard worship of God, or he who is all powerful, to the ideological notion that our bodies are occupied by alien spirits who were brought to earth long ago and killed off due to overpopulation of their planet, religion has definitely come a long way. One such interesting religious practice that I’d like to discuss, is the snake-handling Pentecostal Christians of the Appalachian Mountains. Furthermore, I will discuss the relevancy to the groups’ stereotype and attempt to showcase how it’s virtually nonexistent in today’s society as it used to be by comparing and contrasting Mary Lee Daugherty’s piece …show more content…
on snake handling to Duin’s article on the same subject. In Mary Lee Daugherty’s Snake Handling as Sacrament (1976), the reader is taken into the world of Appalachian Holiness Pentecostals who’s faith basis is derived from the Gospel of Mark, specifically, the passage Marks 16:15-18 which states “…In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” The ideology to take up serpents to display one’s faith, is largely a supreme act of divine power that is felt by the individual holding the snake, because of the fact that the creature is poisonous and the knowledge that they have not been bitten (god willing) encapsulates the root of their devotion that they’re more closer to God than ever, i.e.
“…The search for holiness is dramatized by their willingness to suffer terrible pain from snake bite, or even death itself, to get the feeling of God in their lives” (Daugherty pg.82 Para 2). Many individuals seem to search for this meaning, largely due to the fact that most are economically disadvantaged, work in extremely dangerous conditions (miners), and usually uneducated because of their rural isolated backgrounds. In addition, all of the aforementioned characteristics gave cause to the proliferation and acceptance of this faith basis because it’s not a private matter and their strife/frustration with life unites them on common grounds in praise. Mainly, as stated in the article, their powerlessness is taken out of the equation when they’re together in church and filled with the Holy Spirit (Daugherty pg.83 para 2), and in a sense the worship itself is based off of its people gathering together to uphold and uplift each other with their faith. Moreover, beside their ritualistic snake handling, is their tendency to drink strychnine and lye. This ritualistic habit is more puzzling in my eyes, because they’re essentially drinking straight poison that should kill a
normal human being within 15-45 minutes or cause irreversible nervous system damage, which has no ill effect on them; if that isn’t a testament to the power of faith, I don’t know what is! In juxtaposition with the 21st century, the phenomena of the snake handling tradition appears to have died out with few/or none of the same practices used. In the article “In W. VA, Snake Handling is Still Considered a Sign of Faith” by Julia Duin (2011) for the Washington Post, she takes a close look at the state of snake handling through speaking with those who still practice the tradition and through attendance of church events/masses. After reading the article, it’s clear that many characteristics of practice that Daugherty outlined have become obsolete or revised over time. Where once churches were filled with believers, preacher Pete Woods, who is a pastor at the nondenominational Jesus Christ Church, disclosed to Duin that, “about 30 people go to his church on a good day, although, years ago, 130 attended.” Now it seems congregations are small and consist of anywhere from 10-50 members and the sense of community is far removed. The reason for church membership being so low, has to do with the aspect that the younger generation has moved out of the areas where serpent handling is/was a tradition passed on from generation to generation; most of the churches members seem to be no younger than 40 (Duin 2011). Moreover, the decline of membership also has to do with the fact that drugs run rampant in the state of W. VA, as opined by Harvey Payne, who notes that “Most of the people are so bad on drugs, it is so unreal, you would not believe it. There aint no jobs or a whole lot of money, but there is drugs.” In addition, the ability to take up the snake if the individual feels God’s spirit in them (Daugherty Pg. 84 para 4), is now dictated by a member of the church’s congregation, who only passes on a snake if he sees that the individual is fit to behold the power of the serpent- “….a pastor passes the snakes only to people he thinks are living virtuous lives” (Duin 2011), and also a stark difference, is a statement letter in the front of a church that basically alludes to the fact that if you do handle a snake and get bit ‘you do so at your own risk’ and all that will be done for the individual is prayer that they will see it through (Duin 2011). To expound on the major differences that time has brought on the tradition of serpent handling, is to discuss the unity aspect of it. Previously, Daugherty said that factors of unemployment, poverty, and harsh conditions of strip mining presented, brought the mountain people together when they were displaying their faith in unison at church (Daugherty Pg. 82 para 1).
As a result of the exposure to various beliefs and practices the religions of African slaves transformed into a hodge-podge of magickal practices
Dennis Covington writes about a unique method of worship—snake handling, in his memoir, Salvation on Sand Mountain. He begins as a journalist, looking in on this foreign way of life; however, as time progresses he increasing starts to feel a part of this lifestyle. As a result loses his journalistic approach, resulting in his memoir, detailing his own spiritual journey. Upon the conclusion of his stay in this world, Covington realizes the significance of this journey, and argues in his memoir that we cannot entirely know ourselves until we step outside of our comfort zone and separate ourselves from our norm.
It is amazing how two religions, such as Voodoo and Christianity, can be filled with so many awesome differences with respect to time eras, status, publicity, and language, and yet still have an almost identical core ideal. This also demonstrates that this core ideal of the use of humans as a mouthpiece of the divine has been a long lived concept which people, such as Mama Lola and her family, still believe in and practice today. Perhaps this proves there is some truth in the idea, and most likely, we will never know for sure, whether this concept, in it’s many different forms continues to live on, or if it dies out.
As children, we are often told stories, some of which may have practical value in the sense of providing young minds with lessons and morals for the future, whereas some stories create a notion of creativity and imagination in the child. In Karen Armstrong’s piece, “Homo Religiosus”, a discussion of something similar to the topic of storytelling could translate to the realm of religion. Armstrong defines religion as a, “matter of doing rather than thinking” (17) which she describes using an example in which adolescent boys in ancient religions, who were not given the time to “find themselves” but rather forced into hunting animals which ultimately prepares these boys to be able to die for their people, were made into men by the process of doing.
Sabina Magliocco, in her book Witching Culture, takes her readers into the culture of the Neo-Pagan cults in America and focus upon what it reveals about identity and belief in 21st century America. Through her careful employment of ethnographic techniques, Magliocco allows both the Neo-Pagan cult to be represented accurately, and likewise, scientifically. I argue that Magliocco's ethnographic approach is the correct way to go about this type of research involving religions.
In “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, Horace Miner (1956) revisits the rituals of a North American group, the Nacirema, as first described by Professor Linton in the early 1900s. Miner depicts these people as quite vain; obsessive over money, appearance and health. While the economic status of a Nacirema individual is extremely important, nothing compares to the significance of the rituals of the body. These rituals tend to involve various steps that allow the Nacirema people to present themselves to the world in their fittest, most beautiful form. The majority of these rituals are performed by the individual in their own home, in extreme privacy. The body is viewed as a disgusting vessel, in need of constant upkeep to be presentable to others. The Nacirema home contains one or more ‘shrines’, devoted to transforming the body into the definition of health and beauty. The main purpose of the shrine is to hold charms and magical potions, bought from
One can witness the more attractive face of Southern religion in several areas. Religion was an important part of the lives of the Chandlers and of Black Oak, Arkansas. The center of the Chandler devotion was the Black Oak Baptist Church, and nothing was more important besides the family and the farm than church. “There was more to Sunday church
Bloody rituals and moonlit sacrifices define a cult. As long as religion exists, cults also exist. Initiation involves feats of courage and skill and often results in fatality. Once they complete their initiation they gain the status of an official member. Members advance in rank by following the regulations and being faithful to their deity. New recruits rank lowest and the priest or prophet are the highest ranking members; climbing through the ranks takes years. Judith Lorber, the author of “Believing Is Seeing: Biology as Ideology,” assists in understanding the ideas presented in Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber’s article “The Spread of the Cult of Thinness…” ; society gives “cult” members body expectations they must follow for them to secure their places in the “cult” of thinness, or society rejects them.
Ed Christopher Vecsey. NewYork: Syracuse University Press, 1981. - - - . Native Religions of North America: The Power of Visions and Fertility. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
Speaker. I am a shaman. The MIT Press, Clinton, Massachusetts. 1967. The.
Cults are dangerous institutions that have existed for many years, corrupting and reforming the minds of innocent people into believing outrageous doctrines that eventually result in disaster. Horrifying cases involving men such as Charles Manson, Jim Jones and David Koresh have bewildered people and raise the question: how could individuals be easily susceptible to the teachings of these men, so influenced that masses go as far as to commit the unthinkable? Individuals who are in a vulnerable position in search for an identity are attracted to cults because they offer a sense of belonging. In addition, isolation from society contributes to the functioning of a cult for it creates an atmosphere where submissiveness and obedience runs high. These two factors seem to hold true for one of the most notorious cults currently established in the United States and Canada. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or, FLDS, is an international polygamist sect that incorporates belonging and isolation along with a dangerous mentality that have resulted in the abuse of women and children in the name of God.
Liberty, M. P. (1970). Priest and Shaman on the Plains: A False Dichotomy? The Plains Anthropologist, 73-79.
Rehder, John B. "Folk Remedies and Belief Systems." Appalachian Folkways. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2004. 224-43. Print.
...er of evangelical history, in which the Pentecostal-charismatic movement is quickly supplanting the fundamentalist-conservative one as the most influential evangelical impulse at work today”(Carpenter 237). The neo-fundamentalist movement, stemming from Graham and Falwell, is just another story in the rise and fall of influential popular movements, as now Pentecostalism has become the fastest growing form of Christianity in the world, with three to four hundred million adherents(Notes 12/3). The pattern in this rise and fall tends to be pieces that overlap and pieces that change and fundamentalism is no different. This was a movement that survived through hardships and adapted to welcome every human being, but it appears that it will remain mainly a twentieth century phenomenon as new forms of the pattern take its’ place.
Still, some narcissistic people gravitate towards religion in order to be praised by followers, exploit for personal gain, or dominate others (Sandage & Moe, 2012; Kernberg, 2014). In essence, what Sandage and Moe (2012) refer to as exterior religiosity (e.g. structure, benefit, and gain) are what often attracts narcissists to organized religion. For instance, several religious organizations are comprised of layers of hierarchy in which narcissists can entrench themselves, several church leaders have abused their posts for personal gain, and some organizations offer rewards for the faithful–such as the early Mormon Church’s offer of bigamy, worlds like the Earth for the deceased, and to eventually become god-like when one dies (Young, 1852).