Henry Imler October 5th, 2008

"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." Mark 16:17-18 (KJV)

Click below for the two-part documentary "The Holy Ghost People" by Peter Adair.  It takes a look at members of  a Holiness movement Pentecostal Church in Scrabble Creek, West Virginia in 1967.  You can download the movie in its entirety at the internet archive (part 1, part 2).

The movie features many interviews of adherents and the recording of a worship service.  The worship service features speaking in tongues, being slain in the spirit, serpent handling, and the use of the acoustic and the electric guitar during the worship service.  It is really fascinating because it really captures the self-described mood and rational for being an adherent.  Here is one reviewer’s take:

It would be easy to dismiss these people and their primal ways as cranks and fanatics; it’s hard to imagine anyone these days believing enough in something to risk their lives for it. But Adair’s respectful, nonsensational approach precludes this. He lets the purity and raw power of this do-or-die religion speak for itself. And it’s far from the huckster-capitalist paradigm of Falwell and his ilk. The "holy ghost people" are unpretentious, and ask for little. Egalitarian in surprising ways, they have no minister, relying instead on anyone rising out of the crowd with an inspiration to lead the service.

That is what I liked the most about it – the respect offered and letting the people speak from themselves.  A glimpse of the subaltern.  It is easy to ridicule them as crazy people up in the hills – just ask my students after watching the movie.  It was completely alien to them [1] and they reacted accordingly.  Some were confused, one girl couldn’t watch the part with the snakes, others thought their practices should be outlawed, and others still wanted to pontificate about the heresy of the group.  [2]

It was difficult to steer them towards analyzing this group on the group’s own terms.  They kept wanting to view them only in light of how they contrasted with their own beliefs and practices.  To see Christians talking about drinking poison and actually throwing around snakes was a gigantic shock to them.  “Crazy” was the word they threw out there most often.  Honestly, it was my first reaction as well.  There are so many points of contact and so many departures.  Ultimately, the film is a great object lesson on how to treat the religious other because it forces your hand in religious studies.  It forces you to see the bizarre in terms of the familiar. 

1. and to me [↩]
2. this is where talking about literal interpretation was fun [↩]

• Christianity , Religion
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