SpokaneFāVS brings author Julia Duin to Spokane for talk on Pentecostals, social media and snake handling

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Spirituality, serpents and social media: Why do 20-something Pentecostals in Appalachia still handle snakes in church in the 21st century?

SpokaneFāVS in collaboration with the Gonzaga Center for Community Engagement is hosting Julia Duin next month to discuss this topic. As Duin said her most recent book, “In the House of the Serpent Handler”

“In the House of the Serpent Handler: A Story of Faith and Fleeting Fame in the Age of Social Media, offers an intimate and engrossing look at the latest generation of Pentecostal believers who “take up” venomous snakes as a test of their religious faith. Focusing on several preachers and their families in six Appalachian states, journalist Julia C. Duin explores the impact that such twenty-first-century phenomena as social media and “reality television” have had on rituals long practiced in obscurity.”

Duin is an accomplished writer and journalist who has worked for five newspapers, written five books, along with more magazine articles than she can count.

Join us Saturday, May 5 at 2 p.m. at Gonzaga University in the Hemmingson Center as Duin shares about her book. As this is a fundraiser for FāVS, we are asking for a $10 donation at the door. Students can get in for free.

In the House of the Serpent will be available for purchase at the event.

If everyone who reads and appreciates FāVS, helps fund it, we can provide more events like this. For as little as $5, you can support FāVS – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

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About Francesca Nevil

Francesca Nevil is a sophomore student at Gonzaga University studying International Relations and Sociology with minors in Social Justice and Leadership. She is originally from Wenatchee and grew up in the valley engaging in all seasons of recreational activity with friends and family. She has a very strong faith life and holds her Christian identity at the center of who she believes and is. Meeting new people and engaging in different cultures brings her the most joy, hence she loves to travel. Nevil spent a year following high school graduation on a solo backpacking trip through Europe, then spent four months immersed in Costa Rican culture. Further, she thinks becoming culturally aware and religiously literate are of the utmost importance, so when she received a Wolff Fellow position partnering with SpokaneFāVS she said she was ecstatic.