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Rating: 
Summary: Best Book About Religion in the South
Review: In my opinion, this is the best popular culture book ever written about the importance of religion in the South. Whether you're a Southerner by birth, a researcher, or just curious, you'll find something of interest here.
I was born and raised in southern Virginia, and raised a Baptist, and the entire book rings true to what I saw and felt as I was growing up.
But more than that, I was surprised to learn how diverse that Southern religion traditions are. The book is broad-based, fair and even-handed, yet sympathetic. It's the best book I've ever read on the subject, and I've read a lot of 'em.
The chapter on snake-handling alone is worth the price of the book, and it serves as an good example of the "Foxfire" approach. Nothing I've ever read comes as close to putting you right in the middle of a snake-handling worship service. Like the rest of the "Foxfire" series, it does a great job of explaining and demystifying a piece of Southern culture.
The only complaint that I have is that some of the interviews are long-winded and dry in places, but that, too, is characteristic of us Southerners, when we get on a subject that's important to us.
Rating: 
Summary: a disection of the snake handlers
Review: Sunday mornings are always my favorite times to go driving. There is no one on the road and the church parking lots are filled. Religion is the backbone to the south; every small town has atleast 2 churches, if not more. Going through one town, I counted 5 different churches in one mile of each other. I moved to South Carolina when I was a child. Both parents were "yankees" and had no use for the local Baptist women's group or the ARP pews. I never attended any summer Bible schools or belonged to any youth groups. My world consisted of playing on top of the chicken coop or climbing the large oak trees on our property. It wasn't until I reached high school until I realized how important religion is to this area. I opened my locker one day and there was a note inviting me to a revival. I decided that I would go. What a shock it was. At that point, I had only attended Catholic churches, and not very often at that. I had never heard people speak in tounges before, and when the person I was standing next to fell on the floor, I was ready to leave. Several months later, I was in a bookstore and came across "Foxfire 7". I took it home and stayed up reading long into the night. I apperciated that it was broken into different sections, such as "Baptists", or "Methodists". The people who talked about their domonation were preachers and parsioners both. Each subject was fully researched and developed. I use the book still as a refrence. I have carried on my parents lack of enthusium toward southern religion, but I will take the tracts given out by soon-to-be preachers at the local grocery store.
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