This is a spiritual adventure story par excellence. After covering for "The New York Times" the trial of a preacher who had put a gun to his wife's head and forced her to stick her hand into a cage filled with rattlesnakes, the author is invited to attend a snake handling holiness church in Scottsville, Alabama. Covington is intrigued by the theatrics and the daring of those who take up serpents in the name of Jesus. He is even more stunned when he finds out that there were snake handlers in his family tree. Salvation on Sand Mountain presents an intriguing look at these Southern believers whose religion entails passion, violence, mystery, and male chauvinism.