Editing Snake handling in Christianity (section)

==== The Church of God with Signs Following ====
Hensley was a minister of the Church of God, now known as the [[Church of God (Cleveland)]], founded by Richard Spurling and A. J. Tomlinson. In 1922, Hensley resigned from the Church of God,{{sfnp|Hood and Williamson|2008|p=47}} citing "trouble in the home";{{sfnp|Burton|1993|p=42}} his resignation marked the zenith of the practice of snake handling in the denomination, with the Church of God disavowing the practice of snake handling during the 1920s.{{sfnp|Hill, Hood, and Williamson|2005|p=220}}{{efn|{{harvnb|Hill, Hood, and Williamson|2005|p=117}}: In 1914, the Church of God had around 4,000 members. By 1922, it had grown to 23,000 members. Hill, Hood, and Williamson speculate that the Church of God disavowed snake handling in an attempt to draw more middle-class Christians to their denomination.}}

In the 1930s, he traveled the Southeast resuming his ministry and promoting the practice.<ref>{{cite book|last=Anderson|first=Robert Mapes|title=Vision of the Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism|url=https://archive.org/details/visionofdisinher00robe|url-access=registration|year=1979|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=New York, New York; Oxford|page=[https://archive.org/details/visionofdisinher00robe/page/263 263]|isbn=978-0-19-502502-6 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Hood and Williamson|2008|pp=14, 37, 38}} If believers truly had the Holy Spirit within them, Hensley argued, they should be able to handle rattlesnakes and any number of other venomous serpents. They should also be able to drink poison and suffer no harm whatsoever. Snake handling as a test or demonstration of faith became popular wherever Hensley traveled and preached in the small towns of Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana. Sister-churches later sprang up throughout the [[Appalachia]]n region.{{sfnp|Kimbrough|2002|p=}} In 1943, Hensley and Ramond Hayes, a young adherent of Hensley's teachings, started a church together in 1945, which they named the "Dolly Pond Church of God with Signs Following".{{sfnp|Burton|1993|p=52}} Snake-handling churches influenced by Hensley's ministry are broadly known as the '''Church of God with Signs Following'''. In July 1955, [[George Went Hensley#Death|Hensley died following a snakebite]] received during a service he was conducting in [[Altha, Florida]].