Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
Dennis Covington
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN: 0306818361
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Set in the heart of Appalachia, Salvation on Sand Mountain is Covington’s unsurpassed and chillingly captivating exploration of the nature, power, and extremity of faith—an exploration that gradually turns inward, until Covington finds himself taking up the snakes.
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print on the wall of Jesus appearing in the sky above a waterfall. “The night I walked out down there, I told them, I said, ‘Well, I’m no longer a member here.’ And come to find out, Brother Glenn didn’t write the letter to start with.” J.L. now believed that the letter had been written by Bobbie Sue. When J.L. left the church, Brother Carl decided that he’d stop trying to keep it open, too. For all practical purposes, it was the end of The Church of Jesus with Signs Following. The miniature
Bible aloft. “This is it right here. With the word of God, you can put that devil to flight! That’s what Jesus used to get the devil when he was fasting for forty days and nights. He used the Word!” Amen. Thank God. “He’ll put the devil to flight. It’ll make him put his tail between his legs and run like a scalded dog!” And he hopped and convulsed like it was him instead of the dog who’d been hit with the Holiness gun. “This thing is real!” Amen. Thank God. “It takes the Spirit of God!” Brother
back any time,” he yelled. “And, hey, it’s not us that’s messed up, Brother Dennis. It’s the world.” My journey had come back around to the congregation on Sand Mountain, the remnant of Glenn Summerford’s flock that had left the converted service station on Wood’s Cove Road in Scottsboro and then met under a brush arbor in back of J.L. Dyal’s house until the weather got too cold. After worshiping for a while in the basement of an old motel, they finally found a church for sale on the mountain.
love your brother and sister. You’re in one mind, one accord, you’re all combined together. The Bible says we’re each a part of the body, and when it all comes together ... Hey!” He whistled through his teeth. “What was it like for you?” he asked. I didn’t know what to say. It’s hard for me to talk about myself. As a journalist, I’ve always tried to keep out of the story. But look what had happened to me. I loved Brother Carl, but sometimes I suspected he was crazy. Sometimes I thought he was
double-edged: it has meant higher wages, better health, and less isolation from the rest of the world, but it has also meant the loss of a traditional way of life. The hill people had prided themselves on their independence and self-sufficiency. They grew what they ate, bartered for what they couldn’t grow, and did without those conveniences they couldn’t fashion out of the materials at hand. But contact with the dominant culture in the cities and towns began to change all that. The new highways,