George Went Hensley

Snake handling was an outgrowth of the Azusa Street revival. In 1910, after reading in Mark 16:18 "they shall take up serpents… and it shall not hurt them," former bootlegger George Went Hensley, aka "Little George," took a rattlesnake box into the pulpit. He reached in and lifted out the venomous viper, showing his faith to take God at his Word. He then challenged his congregation to do the same. News spread throughout the hills of Grasshopper Valley in southeastern Tennessee. Before long, others joined in the handling of rattlers. The practice continued for ten years until one of the faithful died of a snakebite. Hensley moved to Harlan, Kentucky.

Ambrose J. Thomlinson, a travelling Bible salesman and founder of a Church of God of

Prophecy (a new Pentecostal denomination), ordained Hensley into the gospel ministry. For the next ten years Hensley preached and demonstrated snake handling. While on a preaching tour, he discovered his wife and a neighbor were having an affair. Hensley attacked his friend with a knife. Fleeing to the hills and turning his back on the faith, he rebuilt his whiskey still. A short time later, the law apprehended "Little George" and sent him to work on a chain gang. But Hensley executed a brilliant escape to Cleveland, Ohio, where he remarried and resumed preaching the Oneness Pentecostal message. Before long, he was again picking up serpents and heading back to Kentucky. Hensley’s fame spread far and wide. He married and divorced four times.

In 1928, the Church of God in Prophecy revoked Hensley’s license to preach and forbade all its members from further handling of snakes.

Snake handling did not return to Grasshopper Valley until 1943 when Raymond Hayes, one of Hensley’s converts, conducted a revival there. The outcome was the founding of Dolly Pond Church of God with Signs Following. Located on the spot of the first snake handling service, Dolly Pond Church is considered a hallowed site.

There were approximately 2,500 snake-handlers in America in the early 1940s. When deaths from snakebites became prevalent, state legislatures passed laws, which forbade the taking up of snakes in religious services. Despite the new statutes, snake handling persisted. Between 1936-1973, 35 persons died from poisonous bites, including Hensley who died on June 24, 1955 at the age of 74.

A typical snake-handling meeting usually consists of songs of worship and preaching. The front of the church, beyond the altar, is the designated area for handling snakes. Many participants bring their own boxes containing rattlers, copperheads or cobras. The snakes are symbolic of Satan (Genesis 3:15; Luke 10:19). One demonstrates his power and authority over the enemy by picking up snakes. As the service progresses and the anointing flows, those receiving the unction open the box lids and lift the snakes high into the air. Some practitioners hold several snakes at a time, allowing them to slither and wrap themselves around their bodies. Usually the snake-handling members slip into altered states of consciousness during such episodes. Their eyes roll back and they twirl or dance in the Spirit and speak in tongues. However, not all are expected to handle snakes; only the anointed.

Besides the handling of serpents, many congregations encourage the drinking of poison during the worship service. They base their beliefs on Mark 16:18 - "And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." The most common substance used is strychnine.

When a person is bitten in a religious ceremony, it can signify one of five things:

1. That the person has sin in his/her life. If discovered to be the case, the faithful members shun the sinners.
2. That the person handled the snake without being under "the anointing" of the Holy Ghost. Since God promises no protection to the unanointed, snakes are prone to bite them.
3. That the person lacks the faith to handle the serpent. Handling snakes without faith is presumption.
4. That God is testing the handlers to see if they will deny the faith when they are bitten.
5. That God is a healer. One of the ways to know this is for him to heal the victim of a venomous snakebite (see Acts 28:1-5).

In each case, the embedded poisonous fangs reveal something about the handler or God.

Snake-handling churches in America probably number in the low hundreds. They are mainly located in Kentucky and Tennessee, but also have congregations in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Texas. Each church is autonomous, but many people travel between churches in a fifty to sixty mile radius to share in multiple snake-handling experiences. Approximately 5,000 people actively practice ceremonial snake handling. Periodically, the masses gather for a conference, called a homecoming, to take up serpents in each service.

Snake-handling churches embrace the Oneness Pentecostal doctrines, including baptism in the name of Jesus, baptism for remission of sins, the giving of the Holy Ghost subsequent to baptism, and speaking in tongues as the evidence of salvation. Additionally they call upon their members to practice holiness in dress and demeanor Women cannot wear slacks or cut their hair. Members greet each other of the same sex with a "holy kiss." They rarely go to doctors or take medicine.

Taking up serpents is not a sign of spirituality. Indian snake charmers have been around for hundreds of years. They are masters of handling poisonous snakes. The ability is intuitive or a skill, and has nothing to do with "the anointing."

Snake-handling churches constitute a narrow branch of Oneness Pentecostalism. The movement is predominantly a rural one. The potential for the movement to grow beyond a few hundred churches is small. Remove snake handling from these churches and the only thing left is a lower middle class version of the United Pentecostal Church.

Sims, Patsy. "The Snake-Handlers: With Signs Following." Can Somebody Shout Amen! Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1996. In chapter 4, Sims writes of her first-hand investigation into snake-handling churches. She recounts her forays into several snake-handling meetings. The chapter contains snippets of interesting interviews with snake-handlers. The reader experiences vicariously what it is like to attend a snake-handling service in the backwoods of Tennessee and Kentucky.

Pelton, Robert W. and Karen W. Carden. Snake Handlers: God Fearers or Fanatics? Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1974. This book is a religious documentary of snake handling. It is filled with interviews and eye-witness accounts. Contains over 100 graphic photographs of snake handlers practicing their rituals.

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