Snakes alive! Serpent handling Pentecostal preachers from Tenn., Ky. to star in reality show

A pair of snake-handling Pentecostal preachers, one from Tennessee, the other from Kentucky, will be featured in a reality show called "Snake Salvation" that will begin airing at 8 p.m. on Sept. 10 on the National Geographic Channel. The show, whose 16 episodes have titles such as “Casting out Demons,” “Bitten in Church” and “Venom in the Vein,” stars Andrew Hamblin of Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tenn., and Jamie Coots of Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name church of Middlesboro, Ky., Bob Smietana reports for The Tennessean. (Tennessean photo by Shelley Mays: Jamie Coots handling a snake in church)

"(Executive producer Matthew) Testa said that because their faith is dangerous and illegal to practice in most states, serpent-handing congregations have been wary of the media in the past," Smietana reports. "By getting to know Coots and Hamblin, he said, viewers will get a view into a unique religious culture." Testa told Smietana, “We live at a time when, because of the Internet and television, we are all becoming more and more alike. To find a really distinct American subculture is incredibly rare.”

The show's producers said in a statement: “Many community members scoff at their bizarre practices, members of their own families teeter on faithfulness and reformed criminals use it as their best defense against backsliding into sin. National Geographic’s cameras were there when many church members were bitten by one of the poisonous serpents. But the pastors’ own faith never falters that they’ll be able to inspire their masses to seek their personal Snake Salvation.” (Read more)