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snake handling

Alabama Snake – Death by Faith?

December 9, 2020 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“Do you think we believe what we want?”

“It may be the other way around; we believe things whether we want to or not.”

Theo Love’s true crime doc Alabama Snake is a search for truth amidst conflicting accounts. Finding the truth may rest more on what we believe and what we believe about the people involved than on what facts we come across. It could also be that those involved have come to believe their stories whether they are factual or not.

On October 4, 1991, a crime was reported in Scottsboro, Alabama. EMTs went to a rural home and found Darlene Summerford in very grave condition from a snakebite. She managed to survive, but soon thereafter her husband Glenn was arrested for attempted murder. Glenn Summerford was the pastor at a Pentecostal church that included snake handling. He kept various snakes in the home. Darlene’s story is that Glenn forced her to put her hand in the cage of one of the snakes. Glenn says Darlene was trying to kill herself. Can we tell who is telling the truth?

The story is related with conversations with witnesses to the events and through reenactments. Much of the film is based on research done by Dr. Thomas G. Burton, a now retired academic who had a particular interest in Appalachian life. Among those we meet as this tale unfolds are the paramedics who responded to the emergency call; the current police chief in Scottsboro, who was a young officer at the time; the lead investigator in the case, now retired; the court reporter from Glenn’s trial; Glenn’s first wife, Doris; and Glenn and Darlene’s son, Marty. We also hear Darlene tell her story on camera, and hear Glenn’s version on tapes that Dr. Burton made in his study of the story. Burton also gives us insight into the culture of snake handling churches.

The film is essentially a true crime film, but because of the religious aspects of the story, we do learn a bit about the practice and the biblical reasons for it. These religious aspects are presented without judgments as to their appropriateness or critical biblical understanding. The idea of handling snakes in churches is based in the textually dubious Longer Ending of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 16:9-20). For those outside the Holiness and Pentecostal tradition, the scenes of snake handling may seem bizarre, but for some this is an important expression of faith.

Another religious aspect deals with Glenn Summerford’s life story. Glenn had a history of violence and brawling. But about halfway through the story, he finds redemption and new life. We are told that his life changed, but we may also see evidence that there was little change, that he continued to act violently, especially when drinking. When we hear Glenn tell his version of events, he continues to speak with a faith-filled understanding of events, even as he sees himself wrongly accused.

Is this story anything other than a look into an obscure religious practice that is mostly (although not totally) confined to poor rural areas? Actually, it is hardly that at all. These religious traditions are really only the backdrop into the search for truth in the crime story. Searching for truth is often more than just about facts. It can also be about which sets of facts we are willing to accept and for what reason. Are we more likely to believe or disbelieve people who view handling snakes as a gift given them by the Holy Spirit? Do we judge them by their pasts, or by their socioeconomic situations?

Perhaps a key question we should ask ourselves in watching a film like Alabama Snake is where we see ourselves and our own understandings of faith. As Dr. Burton says in the prologue to the film, “I find that in collecting their life stories, traditions, and beliefs, it’s really one way of understanding our own history.”

Alabama Snake is available on HBO.

Photos courtesy of HBO.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: documentary, HBO, Holiness, pentecostalism, snake handling, true crime

The Duel – Spiritual Captivity in the Old West

June 24, 2016 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“The river doesn’t speak. It only divides: the light from the dark, life and death.”

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The Duel, set in the wild Texas of the late nineteenth century, boils down to a battle between darkness and light, between good and evil. David Kingston (Liam Hemsworth), a young Texas Ranger, is sent by the governor to go undercover in a town near the Rio Grande to investigate a series of disappearances and murders of Mexicans that threatens to create an international incident. He takes his wife Marisol (Alice Braga) along. The town is presided over by Abraham, aka The Preacher (Woody Harrelson), a charismatic (and Charismatic) leader who dresses in white and holds the town in thrall. He is also the man who killed David’s father twenty-two years earlier in a hand-to-hand duel.

While The Preacher has a reputation for healing, he is played by Harrelson as creepy, even when he is being friendly to David and Marisol when they arrive in town. He immediately makes David the town sheriff, perhaps as a way of keeping him in town. Soon he has set his sights on Marisol, seeking to bring her into his fold. The two men know from the start that they will eventually have to face off. But the steps they go through before their final showdown make this more of a psychological thriller than a typical Western.

Although David has the law and right on his side, the border between good and evil in this battle wanders and winds much as the river does. David may seem to have come to terms with his father’s death, but how can this possibly not become personal—especially when Abraham had designs on his wife? Yet, through it all, David manages to keep his mission in mind. When the time comes for him to put an end to the great evil being perpetrated by Abraham and the town, David seeks to set free those who are held captive in various ways.

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The idea of captivity is important to the film, although it often seems to be operating in the background. There are physical captives, but there are also emotional spiritual captives. These later forms are perhaps even more dangerous that the physical imprisonment of some. It is in this that the film portrays evil. Evil is not acts of violence (although it may involve that). The true evil is the spiritual captivity The Preacher exercises over people. That evil is often manifested in racism, hatred, fear, and violence, but all of that is undergirded by the spiritual captivity. When we see many of the same troubles in the world around us, it is easy to limit the term “evil” to those ills. It may help us to remember that those manifestations are all built on foundations that threaten to hold us all captive to the evil around us.

Photos courtesy of Lionsgate Premiere

 

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Alice Braga, Charismatic religion, Liam Hemsworth, murder, psychological thriller, racism, snake handling, Texas Ranger, western, Woody Harrelson

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