Dennis Covington wrote the book Salvation on Sand Mountain published in 1995. This book takes place in Scottsboro, Alabama, in March of 1992 and it focus on Dennis and his experiences with Snake handling. Dennis who is just a journalist at the time, went to the snake-handling church of Jesus with signs following because of Glenn Summerford, who had been convicted and sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison for attempting murder his wife with rattlesnakes. Although Dennis came because of Glenn’s trail, he stayed for a completely different reasons.
First I guess I should tell you some more about Glenn trail because this is really what started it all. Alabama in the fall of 1991, Glenn Summerford, a snake-handling preacher, tried to murder his …show more content…
He wanted to observe firsthand the church known as ``signs following.'' The practice is based on one section of Jesus' prophecy: ``and these signs shall follow them that believe...they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them....'' In order to fulfill the prophecy, believers worship with poisonous snakes, drink strychnine, and speak in tongues. Basically he wanted to know what it was like to hold a dangerous snake while praying and dancing around. He even ask Uncle Ully Lynn in chapter one, “What’s it like to take up a serpent”. Uncle Ully replied. “It’s hard to explain. You’re in a prayerful state”. I think that Covington was never really made for a quite Baptist church because even when he was little his favorite preacher was brother Jack Dillard, who would suddenly b so overcome by the spirit, he would run down to the piano and start banging away on It. Covington described those days as “innocence and with a spiritual light that I would later miss”. Later on the book he says when he is in his quite Baptist church, he wanted to get up, clap and dance just like they do in Jesus with signs following. H even says, “In retrospect, I believe that my religious education had pointed me all along toward some ultimate rendezvous with people who took up
First I guess I should tell you some more about Glenn trail because this is really what started it all. Alabama in the fall of 1991, Glenn Summerford, a snake-handling preacher, tried to murder his …show more content…
He wanted to observe firsthand the church known as ``signs following.'' The practice is based on one section of Jesus' prophecy: ``and these signs shall follow them that believe...they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them....'' In order to fulfill the prophecy, believers worship with poisonous snakes, drink strychnine, and speak in tongues. Basically he wanted to know what it was like to hold a dangerous snake while praying and dancing around. He even ask Uncle Ully Lynn in chapter one, “What’s it like to take up a serpent”. Uncle Ully replied. “It’s hard to explain. You’re in a prayerful state”. I think that Covington was never really made for a quite Baptist church because even when he was little his favorite preacher was brother Jack Dillard, who would suddenly b so overcome by the spirit, he would run down to the piano and start banging away on It. Covington described those days as “innocence and with a spiritual light that I would later miss”. Later on the book he says when he is in his quite Baptist church, he wanted to get up, clap and dance just like they do in Jesus with signs following. H even says, “In retrospect, I believe that my religious education had pointed me all along toward some ultimate rendezvous with people who took up