The other day William got to handle one of our garden visitors in these parts…

Don’t worry- I was not letting my son cuddle up to a snake. It is one of the lovely slow worms- which is actually a kind of legless lizard. They eat all sorts of things that you do not want near your vegetable patch, so they are doubly welcome here.

But it got me thinking about this-

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Mark 16:18 (although only in the later manuscripts.)

Mad.

Stark staring bonkers.

And yet, to anyone who has been part of a fundamentalist subculture- weirdly logical.