Religious sects, including Pentecostals and indigenous faiths, are proliferating in places like Africa and Latin America.
"Serpent handling, " as Pentecostals prefer to call it, began in 1909 near Cleveland, Tenn.
Pentecostals believe that when people are anointed by God, nothing evil can hurt them.
Whereas the Catholic Church is a would-be monopoly, Pentecostals create thousands of competing churches.
Weber's God remained aloof whereas the Pentecostals' God reaches down to touch the human heart.
Pentecostals are restoring much that the Puritans drove out of Christianity, such as visions, miracles and healing cures.
Witmer claims this movement is global and spans religious denominations: Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals as well as Jewish and Muslim investors are all taking part.
Poloma says some people might hear that and say Palin believes this is a holy war, or that Pentecostals think this is a holy war.
Best known for what they call "gifts of the Holy Spirit, " like speaking in tongues and giving prophetic utterances, Pentecostals seek a direct, personal connection to God.
He brings an insider's wit to tracing the fate of official Christianity in an age of doubt, and to addressing modern surges of zeal, from Mormons to Pentecostals.
Pentecostals believe God routinely intervenes in human affairs and Palin sounded like a Pentecostal when she asked people at Wasilla Assembly of God to pray about building a gas pipeline through Alaska.
Darrell Bock, a New Testament scholar at Dallas Theological Seminary, says some Pentecostals hold to their convictions in the face of opposition because they believe they are in tune with the will of God.
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