The Snake Church in Médiapart | Cyril Abad

On January 11th 2023, Médiapart published Cyril Abad’s project « La messe, la transe et les serpents » (The mass, the trance and the snakes) in its Portfolio section. The project documents snake churches in the United States.

In West Virginia, in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, some Pentecostal communities have transformed their religious services into handling sessions of poisonous snakes, the representation of evil in Christianity. In this part of the United States, one of the hardest hit by the opioid crisis, Pastor Chris confided that he started his church after being saved by God from his addiction to methamphetamine and cocaine, diving into a risky church service.