if you had a clue you would know they do not like being called 'snake handlers' they prefer 'serpent handlers'
but do go on
they do use rhythms etc but unlike the charmers they do pick the serpents up and pass them around.....at the altar....men go first then women if they are inclined...children are not allowed to handle serpents
They're extremists who put themselves and others in very grave danger of an excruciatingly painful death, just to prove their faith. It's not only incredibly stupid, and a violation of the teachings of the Bible (Deuteronomy 6:16), it's also a hazard to public safety, and animal cruelty. If some dumbass wants to play with a wild animal that's very pissed off, scared out of its mind, and has two organic syringes filled with a fatal dose venom attached to a lightning fast, spring loaded jaw, then by all means, let him earn his Darwin Award. Putting other people, including children, in that environment, however, is reckless. It doesn't matter if the kids don't touch the snakes, the reason why the children aren't allowed to is because a 7 year old girl was killed during a snake handling ritual in Georgia. It's a felony, but baron's video conveniently failed to mention that.
Rattlesnake venom is nothing to play around with. It causes living tissue to swell, rot, and die. A rattlers hemotoxin also prevents clotting so it's prey will bleed out quickly as the flesh and muscle swell so much that it causes the tissue to burst. Even if the victim survives, they will be permanently disabled.
Some species of rattlers in the Mojave desert produce a powerful neurotoxin that causes paralysis of the nervous system, and halts respiratory function. The worse thing about the Mojave Rattlesnake is that a victim the size of a human being would be fully conscious as the venom took its full effect, and the person would suffer immensely as they tried to tell make their unresponsive body take in air, to no effect. A healthy adult male could be in a state of pure hell for up to five minutes if they're a swimmer.
These cults are a hazard to themselves and others, it's animal cruelty, and the really stupid thing about this nonsense is that the entire premise of these cults originate from one out-of-context verse that was cherry-picked from 31,102 other verses. There are countless ways to prove and test ones faith, if one is so inclined, so there is no reason for this endangerment to even exist.
