The Fading Tradition of Snake Handling

This weekend The Washington Post magazine has a fascinating photo expose detailing what it calls, 'the fading tradition of snake handling,' focusing on a church in Jolo, West Virginia.  You can view the 13 photo slide show HERE.  One caption reads in part:

"The Pentecostal church was founded in 1956 by Bob and Barbara Elkins. One woman remembers the church being so full people would stand outside. But then one of Barbara Elkins’s children died of a snakebite in 1961 at age 23. These days, Pastor Harvey Payne says, the congregation has 10 members."