Dennis Covington's 'Salvation on Sand Mountain' Essay

Dennis Covington's 'Salvation on Sand Mountain' - Essay Example The purpose was to cover the trial of Glendel Buford Summerford who was charged guilty of murdering his own wife with a snake. The scenes are powerful and spectacular. Summerford’s own wife isn’t aware of how exactly his name is spelled, if the N is single or is it double. There is an old woman referred to as Aunty Daisy by everyone, was pacing up and down the room making predictions. She was predicting that God will send Summerford out of jail. Even creepy was the presence of some women who would keep pictures of their favorite snakes in their pockets. In the trial that followed, Summerford gets convicted and imprisoned towards the end of chapter two. That was that about him after which he wasn’t seen as such. What follows is Dennis Covington’s growing obessesion and fascination with handling snakes. He slowly accepted the guarded and suspicious community of â€Å"Jesus-Onlys†. Ironically, Glenn Summerford was a part of this community as well. There are only two ways in which an alien culture can be dealt with.. Either one patronizes it and dismisses it or becomes romantic and starry eyed about it. Convington had a skill which even anthropologists don’t. He started recognizing the snake holders as entities who had their own culture and who should be respected and understood on their own terms. There is reference to drinking strynchnine only when one feels that he is living life the right way. The statement does make sense if one believes that God protects those who have a strong relation with him. Snake handlers tend to be very easy targets of ridicule and mockery. However Covington resists the mockery. He doesn’t try to make fun of their poor grammar, their strange interpretation and readings of the bible and their creepy living conditions. However this doesn’t mean that he was under the impression that they were â€Å"noble and persecuted people†. They may have been

Europe in the Early Middle Ages Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Europe in the Early Middle Ages - Essay Example It was very awful that during this period, a mysterious disease attacked many individuals killing around 20 million2. This disease spread very fast since it was transmittable from one individual to the other and hence was very difficult to prevent it from spreading. After the fall of the Roman empire, the Catholic Church united people and with time, Charlemagne’ empire became the Holy Romans’ Empire. Additionally, during this period, the Islamic religion became very great and powerful since the death of their prophet, Muhammad. There were also many books and articles written on Islamic Religion. Consequently, it became almost three times larger than before. Additionally, there were also mass crusades by the Christians, whose main intentions were to expel and fight the Muslims3. However, they did not succeed in the end. In the beginning of this period, Feudalism scholars governed Europe. The peasants performed most of the work and were promised protection by this system4. They also experienced a hard time since they could not leave without permission without approval by the