Salvation On Sand Mountain

This past week I was killing time in the Dixon Street Bookstore and I found a book called "Salvation on Sand Mountain" by Dennis Covington. Its a Non Fiction account of a small church called The Church Of Jesus Christ: With Signs Following. Dont ask me why its named that because the author didnt even know. They are a small group of Christians that practice snake dancing. It is a ritual where they believe the the Holy Spirit speaks to you and tells you how to handle poisonous snakes without being bitten. It is similar to the Voo Doo believe of spirits possesing an individual for a short ammount of time is how you communicate with a higher power. This particular church had recently been under a lot of fire when the book was written (1992) because their preacher had just been convicted of killing his wife with venomious snakes. When I found the book it was filed under the "Cult" section so my assumption was that they were some kind of strange religon that had very few ties to Christianity but I was wrong.

The setting of the story takes place in the mountians of north Alabama, way out in the middle of no where. You never would know the church existed if it wasnt for the run down sign and arrow that pointed toward a long abandoned gas station. The site was chosen because it was well off the beaten track. The Church had been victom to so many violent acts of straight up terrorism that they had to be well removed from society. My first reaction to this was why?! What purpose does it serve for Christians to attack other Christians? We live in a time where bibles have to be dropped from planes just to reach certain people and in America we waste time fighing among each other. I agree that dancing with snakes is a very strange thing. But what I also must be reminded of is that Christian Rock is just a foreign to certain people. Who am I or anyone else to say that what they are doing isnt Christian, its cult activity. When the new preacher of the Church of Jesus Christ commented on the idea of being written of he said, "Well as long as you print the truth more people are going to learn the name Jesus right? Isnt that all that matters?" and that really hit home with me. Something strange and off the beaten track can be scary I will admit, but that doesnt mean its cult activity or unholy. We are all loved by God and our purpose is to spread the word of Jesus Christ because his name  must be heard in every nation before he returns. By that standard the Church Of Jesus Christ: With Signs Following has made great strides in spreading his name. It is our fault for being narrow minded and unable to look beneath the surface.

If Egypt can take down a government in 18 days with a few million people and twitter, imagine what over 100 million christians could do! If we could drop our differances and follow JESUS CHRIST think of the affect it could have. We spend our days arguing over weather or not certain Christians are going Heaven or Hell wile another person lives their life without hearing the word of God. If we put as much energy into spreading the gospel as we did tearing down eachother we could be unstopable. Christians can be the worst at loving one another sometimes and that is the exact opposite of how we are supposed to live our lives.

No one has the right answer to how we are supposed to practice our faith. Each one of us does what we think is best, so we are going to disagree, but it is acknowldgement of these differences and acceping them them that is the key to spreading the gospel.