A bill that looks at religious freedom was up for a final vote in the West Virginia House of Delegates Monday. House Bill 3042 is called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and is similar to a bill that failed in the West Virginia Legislature in 2016.
A bill that looks at religious freedom was up for a final vote in the West Virginia House of Delegates Monday.
House Bill 3042 is called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and is similar to a bill that failed in the West Virginia Legislature in 2016.
Supporters argue the state needs the law so residents can challenge government regulations that interfere with their religious beliefs.
Those in opposition say the proposal will be used to discriminate against LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups.
Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, attempted to amend the bill twice. One proposal would have required businesses to post signage in their windows saying what kind of people they would not serve. Pushkin’s amendments ultimately failed.
During full debate of the bill, Pushkin argued what he felt were the true intentions of the legislation.
“This is about whether or not somebody should be able to be kicked out of their apartment because they’re gay, somebody should be fired from their job because they’re gay, somebody’s refused service in somebody’s store simply because they’re gay,” Pushkin said. “If you believe that, go ahead and vote for it. I think you’re better than that. Vote against this garbage.”
Some delegates, such as Del. Todd Kirby, R-Raleigh, argued the intent of the bill is to protect individuals, such as school teachers, from having to speak in support of lifestyles they don’t agree with.
“Such things as promoting transgenderism, homosexuality, in our classrooms, in our grade school classrooms,” Kirby said. “And these policies are sold to the American public and to the labor unions, the teachers unions, as being open, which that may be the intention. But what is happening is these teachers and administrators rights are being violated. Their religious beliefs are being infringed upon, because they’re being forced and compelled to speak in a way that violates their religious beliefs.”
Other delegates in opposition argued the bill could cause medical discrimination if a doctor or pharmacist doesn’t agree with a patient’s lifestyle.
“Let’s say somebody, an unmarried woman, comes in for birth control. Can a pharmacist refuse to fulfill that prescription?” asked Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia. “What if a gay man comes in for an HIV pill? Can they refuse to fulfill that prescription? I think that’s what this is about. It’s about whether a doctor can refuse medical care.”
The bill’s lead sponsor, Del. Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason, told the body the law would not determine what is right and wrong but rather create a judicial process in state code for situations where religious freedom comes into question.
“We’re not determining something to be illegal,” Pinson said. “Rather, we’re creating a judicial test. We’re giving statutory instructions to the judiciary, that when a RFRA case where someone would allege that a law that we pass in this body or a local municipal ordinance or county ordinance is in violation of their religious conviction, that the judiciary is to use this to point us to a two question test: number one, is their compelling state interest? And number two, is the state acting in the least restrictive means possible?”
The House debated House Bill 3042 for more than an hour, and it passed 86 to 12.
Some people said West Virginia needs a law to codify the right of residents to challenge government regulations that interfere with their religious beliefs because of growing threats to their constitutional freedoms.
Others who spoke during a public hearing at the state Capitol Friday said they are worried the proposal advancing in the Legislature will be used as a tool to discriminate against LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups.
“Exercising your religion does not mean discriminating or condemning people because they do not have same beliefs as you,” said Jessica Eplin, who said she is worried about how the proposed law could affect her as an atheist and her child, who is transgender.
The bill, which passed the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week and is now before the full House of Delegates, would require a government entity to have a compelling reason to burden someone’s constitutional right to freedom of religion and to meet its goals in the least restrictive way possible.
A similar bill failed in 2016 after lawmakers voiced concerns about how it could affect LGBTQ residents. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael wiped away tears on the Senate floor as he spoke in support of Democratic-proposed amendment that would bar the legislation from being used to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
The bill also dictates that the proposed law could not be used to permit access to abortion, which was banned by West Virginia lawmakers last year. The provision was included as abortion rights groups are challenging abortion bans in some states by arguing the bans — supported by certain religious principles — violate the religious rights of people with different beliefs.
Republican sponsors say the bill has good intentions. Del. Chris Pritt of Kanawha County, who is a Christian, said the bill would make West Virginia attractive to economic development. He said it’s not just about protecting Christians, but religious minorities in the state, too.
But Catherine Jones, a gay woman, said the bill would do nothing but “legalize discrimination against already marginalized communities.” She said she fears the bill could allow businesses to challenge city ordinances prohibiting discrimination in housing or employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“I should not be afraid of not being served at a restaurant because I have a different relationship than you do,” she told lawmakers. “This bill will do nothing but spread hate and violence across our state.”
At least 23 other states have religious freedom restoration acts. The laws are similar to the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, which allows federal regulations that interfere with religious beliefs to be challenged.
Eli Baumwell, advocacy director and the Interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, said the 1993 federal law was designed to designed to protect people, especially religious minorities, from laws that affected their ability to engage in personal practices of their faith.
“Unfortunately, people have seized upon a good idea and turn it a shield into a sword,” said Baumwell, who spoke in opposition to the bill. “RFRAs today are promoted by organizations and ideologies and aren’t concerned about individual religious observances. They’re focused on circumventing laws that require fair and equal treatment.”
People who spoke in support of the bill said they were concerned about the government imposing vaccination requirements against people’s religious beliefs and restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic that limited in-person worship in states across the U.S.
Monica Ballard Booth said she supports the bill because she wants to see equal protection for people of all faiths. “Since some have questioned why this was necessary, I’ll tell you why it’s necessary: Christians are the most persecuted group in the world,” she said.
Pastor Bo Burgess of West Virginia Baptists for Biblical Values said he doesn’t believe the bill could be used to discriminate against anyone — it’s about protecting people from discrimination, she said.
“This legislation doesn’t allow me or a business to go around and attack other people groups,” he said. “There’s no people group language in the bill.”
Baptist Pastor Dan Stevens of Wood County said people like him want the same benefits of equal protection as people who oppose the bill.
“We live out our firmly held religious beliefs and convictions about marriage, the family, human sexuality, the value of human life from conception to the grave without fear,” he said. “This bill designed not as a tool of discrimination used by people of faith but to protect the people of faith against discrimination for those who are opposed to our beliefs and our lifestyle.”
Folkways reporter Zack Harold interviews musician, songwriter, painter and former preacher Abe Partridge about his podcast “Alabama Astronaut,” which chronicles the world of Appalachian snake handling churches and the unique genre of music found within their walls.
This story originally aired in the Nov. 4, 2022 episode of Inside Appalachia.
Folkways reporter Zack Harold interviews musician, songwriter, painter and former preacher Abe Partridge about his podcast Alabama Astronaut, which chronicles the world of Appalachian snake handling churches and the unique genre of music found within their walls.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Harold: Can you give us a brief introduction on how you became familiar with the world of snake handling churches?
Partridge: I guess it depends on how far we want to go back, but I pastored in Middlesboro, Kentucky when I was in my mid 20s. I went through a crisis of faith, I guess you could say, and I was in the process of leaving the church.
During that time, I met a guy by the name of Jamie Coots, who was pretty well known in the serpent handling faith. We probably had a 30 or 45 minute conversation, but in that 30 or 45 minutes, it was a real striking conversation that I never forgot. He gave me his phone number — I think he knew that I was struggling.
Well, I started playing songs and painting and stuff like that. I was touring on the West Coast with artists by the name of Jerry Joseph and this other Alabamian from Birmingham named Will Stewart. He had a song that he wrote called “Brush Arbor.” It had a line in it that mentioned “copperheads and the Holy Ghost.” And I thought that was odd. I asked Will what it was about and he’s like, “It’s about a book I read called ‘Salvation on Sand Mountain.’” I read it at the beginning of the pandemic. And guess who’s in it? Jamie Coots.
So I said, “I’m going to go find this serpent handling church and I’m going to go.” Well, I found a few. And at every one that I went to, I had heard songs that I never knew — that I’d never heard before. And I had spent a large portion of my life in church.
Courtesy
Musician, singer-songwriter, painter, podcaster and former preacher Abe Partridge
Harold: For people that haven’t heard the podcast — what makes it special, compared to church music they might be familiar with?
Patridge: It differs, number one, in the lyrical content. These people happen to believe a certain passage of scripture that’s found in the book of Mark, chapter 16, verses 18 and 19. It draws from Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he ascended into heaven. And the last things that he told his disciples was there were five signs that were going to follow them that believe. Very quickly, the five are: cast out devils, laying hands on the sick and they shall recover, speaking in tongues, “they shall take up serpents,” and then “if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.”
Now there are hundreds of millions of Pentecostals that exist on planet Earth. And nearly all of those Pentecostals will do three of those signs — speaking in tongues, they profess to cast out devils and they profess to lay hands on the sick and then they recover. But outside of these few believers, I’m not aware of any other ones in the world where they literally take up serpents and literally, if they consume a poison that it does not hurt them.
So whenever you hear a song that references those, you know that it had to originate within this sect of believers — because there is literally no other sect of believers on planet Earth that falls under the realm of Christianity that believe these things.
Harold: The musical style is also unique. How would you describe that?
Partridge: Dennis Covington wrote the book “Salvation on Sand Mountain.” He described it as a mixture of Salvation Army and acid rock. And then other people have called it rockabilly, rock and roll, rock and roll sacred music. I call it serpent handling gospel music. They just call it music.
Harold: So how is this tradition being passed down?
Partridge: The same way that music was passed down for all the centuries before man had access to means of recording. Person to person, church to church. I have yet to meet a serpent handling musician that had any type of formal training in music. They pass down both the songs and the style of their playing, I guess you would say, orally.
Harold: But you’ve got churches all the way from Alabama up into West Virginia. It’s a pretty big swath of territory. Are they visiting one another and passing along songs? How does that cultural exchange happen?
Partridge: The serpent handlers know each other. They sometimes have special meetings they call them “homecomings.” Sometimes they have meetings called “revivals.” And people will travel from the other churches to attend. I’ve actually been in services before where, if you listen to the audio, you would assume there was only one guitar player. But in actuality, there were multiple guitar players. They pass the guitar along as each one feels led. But they play the same style, because it all derives from their sacred music.
Harold: Has there been a change over the years in the kind of music that the snake handling churches are playing? Or has it maintained some kind of consistency?
Partridge: I wouldn’t call them “changes,” I would call them “tweaks” with the introduction of electric instruments, probably in the ‘60s. But before that even, they were playing acoustic instruments, and they were playing the same type of songs they’re playing now.
It’s still actively, right now in 2022, being passed down. And I’ve got hundreds of hours of recordings that show this kind of music being played back into the ‘50s.
Harold: It seems the depth you’ve gone into all this — is it all just about the music? Or is there something else behind it too?
Partridge: So it’s always been music first. That was my goal. But I will tell you this, if it was just about the music, I wouldn’t still be going. I’ve already got hundreds of hours of recordings. I could put a record out but two weeks ago, I was still there.
It’s actually helped rekindle my own faith. I wouldn’t necessarily like to line out what that looks like. And, you know, I’m not going to start picking up snakes. But I have witnessed things in the moment that felt absolutely supernatural.
Harold: So you’ve got the recordings. What’s the plan to present those to the public?
Partridge: We have released the Coots Duo album, which is an album that we recorded inside of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus’ Name in Middlesboro, Kentucky — which is Jamie Coots’ old church — with his son Cody, and his wife, Cassie.
Cody happens to be a fourth generation serpent handler, serpent handling preacher and songwriter. So we’ve recorded music with them. And we’ve already put that out on our website. It’s already available for download.
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The Coots Duo album, produced by Partridge, features snake handling preacher Cody Coots and his wife Cassie.
The goal is to create a documentary record that is captured within the church. But now I need to find the most powerful moments and get these things mixed and mastered — which I do not personally have the skills to do. So that’s where we’re at right now.
And let me tell you when it gets done, it is going to blow your mind. Because it’s so good.
Harold: This is one of the most compelling podcasts I’ve heard in a long time. It gives a peek into a side of American culture that I don’t think a whole lot of people have thought about. A lot of people don’t even know exists. And it handles it with such respect and an apparent love of the subject matter.
Partridge: It’s not hard to treat them with respect. It’s not hard, but it never gets done. I think the overall theme is, there’s a lot of people in this world. And like Dr. Hood said in the podcast, if we’re going to have diversity in this country then it requires a respect.
You can find more information about the Alabama Astronaut podcast, the Coots Duo album and Partridge’s other projects at AlabamaAstronaut.com.
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This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.
The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts, and culture.
A West Virginia school superintendent is investigating a Feb. 2 religious revival event that occurred at Huntington High School, saying he believes some students’ rights have been violated.
Cabell County Schools Superintendent Ryan Saxe announced the investigation in a statement issued on Friday. About 100 students at the high school walked out in protest on Wednesday during an advisory period, chanting, “Separate the church and state” and, “My faith, my choice.”
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes had invited Nik Walker Ministries to hold a revival at the school, which was advertised as a voluntary event. School officials have said there was supposed to be a sign-up sheet to attend but that two teachers mistakenly took their entire classes.
That prompted complaints from some parents and from students who organized the walkout.
“It was reported to my staff that some students were required to attend a religious event during the school day,” Saxe said in the statement. “At this point in the investigation, it is my belief that some students’ rights have been violated. As the investigation continues, we must follow due process, which takes some time, in addressing any responsible employee while working to ensure a situation like this never occurs again.”
Saxe said the district honors students’ rights to express their views and respects their right to religious expression but that “forcing religious expression on those with differing beliefs is not acceptable and is not in alignment with district, state, or federal policy and will not be tolerated by my administration or the Board of Education.”
This year has tested us in many ways. Restrictions and stay-at-home orders prevent people from sharing familiar traditions and worshiping together. Some say the coronavirus has tested their faith and beliefs.
Not only do they mourn those who’ve died, they miss gathering with their congregations, whether it’s in a pew or kneeling on the floor for daily prayers. Many churches, mosques and synagogues now offer online services in a virtual realm, which can open new doors.
Faith practices in the time of COVID-19 look and feel different, but how has the virus changed our spirituality?
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
COVID-19 has changed many aspects of worship for people of different faiths, including religious holidays. During Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, fasting and communal meals in the evenings normally mark many of the tradition.
This year, things were different, as Muslims across the globe were unable to meet in person with their friends and family.
A mosque in Huntington, W.Va., did reopen during Ramadan, but with social distancing measures in place. Normally, the main worship room in this mosque can have hundreds of people crammed in shoulder to shoulder, all kneeling on the red carpeted floor praying together.
This year, during Friday prayers on the final week of Ramadan, the ornate red prayer carpet had a new pattern of white Xs made from masking tape, each six feet apart.
About 30 people were there, including Majid Khader. “We’re slowly getting back to that normal as you see. We have to maintain a six-feet distance between individuals who come to pray.”
Before he or anyone else could set foot inside the mosque, he had to put on a mask and have his temperature taken at the door.
The Friday morning prayers are normally an hour long, but now they’ve been cut to 15 minutes in an effort to minimize potential exposure to the coronavirus.
Omar Attarabeen is a professor from Jordan and attends services here at the Huntington mosque. He said even though things are returning to normal, having just a fraction of his fellow congregants around feels strange. “The social aspect of the prayer, seeing people, every single week. Now it’s just different. We lack that sensation. We don’t have the same thing.”
The traditions during Ramadan have been especially different this year. Most Muslims fast from sunup to sundown. So they look forward to the end of the day when they can get together and have dinner with their friends and family.
“We used to have the community dinner. We used to invite people to come and eat,” said Saleem Salamea, another worshiper at the Huntington mosque. He said he misses seeing his family. His son lives in Michigan. “He said he wants to come. I said, ‘No, stay where you are.’”
And yet, for some Muslims, quarantine has provided them with more free time to study the Quran. Nazia Ahmed, a physician in Charleston, West Virginia has taken advantage of the downtime to study the Islamic holy text with her daughter at home.
“In times of hardship, you increase your connection with God,” Ahmed said. “You worship more, and that’s where you get your strength from.” She said the Quran explicitly encourages Muslims to focus on the end of hardships like the COVID 19 pandemic, and to view these challenging times as a test.
“Those who believe in that mighty power, we know that everything happens for a reason,” said Ahmed. She also mentioned that her time away from her mosque (or “masjid”) has made her love for place of worship stronger.
“We have all learned to appreciate the masjid more because we haven’t had it for so long and especially in Ramadan.”
Since March Ahmed said she and her family have been attending services online though the Islamic Association of West Virginia. Her masjid recently began the process of reopening, but Ahmed has been cautious, saying she will continue studying the Quran with her children and praying five times a day from home. As for the call to prayer, Ahmem said she can always listen to her favorite call to prayer (or “adhan”) on YouTube.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said Nazia Ahmed has been spending more time studying the Islamic holy text with her children. Ahmed only has one daughter.
