Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
Covington, Dennis. 1995. Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.
Rating:
8
Summary:
Fascinating journalism
Dennis Covington, the author and main character in the book, became inolved with snake handling in Appalachia when he volunteered to cover the trial of a well-known snake handler who had used his snakes to attempt to kill his wife.
Though he had not intended to get involved with the snake handlers when he began his investigations, he ultimately did, to the point that he eventually handled one of the snakes himself and became a close friend and confidant to many of the snake handlers. The book tells the story of how he became involved with Appalachian snake handlers, became a part of their world, and eventually disassociated himself from them, during the early 1990s.
Review:
The book is fascinating to read. I did, however, not agree with one of the primary assertions of the author, but more on that below. The book is well-written, entertaining, and at times even humorous. For example, the author offers this exchange between himself and a snake handling preacher, “His grip tightened on my shoulder. “He [God]spoke a twelve-hour message to me on one word: polluted.” “Polluted?” “Yes. Polluted. Now, you think about that for a minute. A twelve-hour message.” I thought about it for a minute, and then decided Brother Charles was out of his mind” (p. 65).
Perhaps the biggest offering this book makes is the author’s ability to bring the South alive through brilliant imagery. “Scottsboro, Alabama, is Southern, but not in the way you’d expect. It doesn’t have a cotton gin in ruins by the railroad tracks or a dusty avenue lined with magnolia trees and Greek revival homes” (p. 21). I also was very impressed by the authors characterizations, “I saw now that the unnerving cast to the men’s faces was probably just inflexibility, an unwillingness to give themselves up to public emotion. It had to do not so much with their religion, I reasoned, as with their poverty” (p. 36).
Despite the great writing, there is one major problem with the book: the implication the author makes about modern, secular society. “The lure of the secular and worldly in a region once characterized as the Bible Belt has left a residue of rootlessness, anxiety, and lawlessness” (p. 24). This theme comes up numerous times throughout the book. I’m inclined to see this as a bit short-sighted. Yes, there are sociological theories that talk about the blasé urbanite, and the decline in mechanical solidarity, but there are also numerous theories that explore the new types of society that result from modernization and urbanization, including organic solidarity and the replacement of religious solidarity with organizational solidarity. In my opinion, the benefits of modern society and the seperation between the secular and the religious far outweight the consequences (if there be any). Given the personal involvement of the author in religion, it makes sense that he defends what he sees as declines in certain elements of society, but to the secular humanist, these things are not declines but pathways to the future being forged through the disassociation of religious beliefs based in irrationality from the awe-inspiring advances brought about through rationality.
Even though I didn’t agree with the authors assertions about the negative influences of secularization on society, I was impressed by his explanations given for spirituality and the involvement of the snake handlers in their particular form of religious worship.
“I knew then why the handlers took up serpents. There is power in the act of disappearing; there is victory in the loss of self. It must be close to our conception of paradise, what it’s like before you’re born or after you die” (p. 168). I’m not sure that I can personally relate to what the author was trying to describe, but given his participation in the activity, I’m inclined to believe him.
Overall, the book is a well-written look inside the snake handling practices in Appalachia. It does include some excellent pictures, taken by some of the author’s friends/associates. The book is well-written and very entertaining, but I believe it wrongly characterizes the effects of secularization, despite offering an enlightening understanding of the motivations of snake handlers. If you’ve ever wondered what these people are like, I would highly recommend this book.