I have a few questions for avid snake handlers:
1. Are the blessings received proportional to time spent with snakes in hand? Is there a limit to the blessings you receive should the snake handling time exceed the maximum blessing? You wouldn't want to continue handling any longer than necessary, I’d suspect.
2. Are you blessing-eligible at all for fondling non-venomous serpents? How do you know you’ve been blessed after a session with the serpents?
3. How long do the snake-handling induced blessings last? Say, if blessings dissipate from your soul around mid-week, could you make a quick snake run, handle a snake or two and get a blessing RELOAD to hold you over till the next Sunday service?
4. Is the amount of protection from viper bites, proportional to the strength of your faith? How do you know how much faith is enough faith to keep from being bitten? How do you measure that faith? Is there a faith meter installed in church? If you lack faith, are you more likely to get bitten? How would the snakes know?
5. What about poisonous spiders, frogs, and scorpions??? Any blessing credit for handling those? There should be some kind of sliding scale.
6. Do dancing, shouting and turning flips while handling the snakes increase the quantity OR the quality of blessings? What about talking in tongues? Does that help?
7. If you seek medical attention after a bite, are all your blessings canceled? How about a faith healer?
These are very important questions for current snake handlers or for those who hope to "take up" the practice.
Author: Doug Hullander
