BUT WILL THERE BE SNAKES? Some thoughts on the Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter and charismatic Christianity

DAMMIT THE SHOW IS CANCELLED, and not in the sense that it's become politically verboten: she's got a fever and is sidelined in Portland.

DAMMIT! So it goes.  

https://rickshawtheatre.com/show_listings/reverend-kristin-michael-hayter/ 

EDITED TO ADD: I am coming fresh to the Reverend Hayter's works and wrote this without much foreknowledge of what to expect. I had not paid attention to Lingua Ignota, and did not realize that she'd done sold-out shows here under that name, also at the Rickshaw. There are lots of things to play catchup with, lots of better-informed readings of her work than mine (see here, for instance, for a record review of her current album, Saved!, or here, for a past interview with Hayter nearing the end of the Lingua Ignota project). Do note that Wednesday's show at the Rickshaw will be all-seated; that some pages (though not the Rickshaw's) note that Vancouver noise artist The Rita will be opening; that there are actually two albums of relevance to the show, Saved! and Saved! The Index; and that in many ways the standout track on those albums, at least on short exposure, is "How Can I Keep from Singing," which has piano that reminds one of Diamanda Galas, vocals that do not, and a layered background track of glossolalia (speaking in tongues), which you really need to stick around for to get the full effect. Yes, I have let Chris Towers of The New Creation know about this gig. . 

Oh, also note that she apparently really did get ordained (I believe I heard that here -- she describes it somewhat archly, disparaging her own qualifications, making it sound like the "Vegas wedding" of ordinations); that her background is also, it turns out, Catholic; and that I'm going to bring a copy of this book to gift to her as a gift, though no, there won't be snakes; my title is cheap. But snakes are not irrelevant and I really do hope to get one of those t-shirts... Now we go back in time to me, knowing nothing of the Reverend Hayter or Lingua Ignota, trying to orient myself: 

I was raised Catholic. Going to church on Sundays was fucking dull, often smelling strange (worse than the worst New Age bookstore, a cloying incense reek) and involving bizarre ritualized behaviours that were hard on the knees (kneel/ sit/ stand/ kneel, over and over; I never knew what the cues were, just followed everyone else, and never received an interesting or satisfying answer to the "why are we doing this" question; I wasn't convinced my parents knew, either). Everyone seemed stiff and uncomfortable, there was always a baby crying in the back, there were prayers that I could get little meaning from and some of the dullest fucking music ever made (there is LOTS of great gospel out there but none of that happened in our church!). It's kind of bizarre how un-moving the services were, considering they were generally about the teachings of someone who did things like throw people out of a house of worship for conducting business, who even allegedly "overturned their tables," while he was at it, suggesting some passion in the act. Christ instructs people to go out and minister to the poor, to reject material wealth, to confront hypocrisy, and to not make an idol of him; I don't think gathering in your Sunday best in front of his statue and talking about how great he was or how devoted you are to him actually would impress him much: "Why aren't you gathered in here instead of being out there, ministering to the poor? Why are you dressed like that? What's with the statue of me? Didn't you read the part where I said..." 

On the other hand, I think Christ would at least be entertained by charismatic Christianity: "Okay, no,  to be clear, this is also not what I meant you should do; but it's way more fun than what they're doing down the street." Electric guitars? Speaking in tongues? Drinking strychnine to prove your faith?  Feckin' snake handling? ("What on earth does this have to do with my teachings? No... what?... these people are insane... but let me watch for a minute.")

I actually wrote a paper on snake handling, once, so I know a bit about its origins -- that its founder, George Went Hensley, was inspired by a piece of gospel that suggested that "these signs shall follow" the faithful, that they would not succumb to poisons, nor die if bit by serpents: which made him all excited to go find a rattlesnake, pick it up, and see what happened (he ignored that other bit of scripture about not tempting the Lord thy God, and his followers apparently ignored the fact that years later the same man would die vomiting blood after having been bitten by one of his rattlers, which kind of suggests either that the signs lied or that he was not one of the faithful, either of which, you might think, would serve to discourage people from following his example, to say nothing of his painful, spectacular death, which he embraced while refusing medical treatment, because it's God's will and all that; if that's not enough to put you off a movement, well...). Note that that one dubiously-interpreted passage aside, there are no scriptural precedents for picking up snakes as an act of worship, though there was an early snake-worshipping Gnostic sect called the Ophites who thought the snake was in fact the second coming of Christ (it's been awhile since I wrote that paper so pardon me if I can't explain). But the snake handlers are not Ophites, and the snakes they handle aren't, in their eyes, manifestations of Christ, as far as I know (which is what the Ophites believed), but, uh, actual snakes (or possibly symbols of Satan?). Conversely, while the Ophites were into the snakes, from what I've read, they didn't hand them around -- they kept them on the altar and prayed to them, or something, but didn't dare them to bite. 

The things people do in the name of religion...

In fact, I am assuming that the Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter, playing the Rickshaw on Wednesday, draws a line in her artistic/ spiritual practice well before you get to rattlesnakes. Which is fine by me: much as I love the idea of snake handling -- since I like snakes and can think of no more insane (or colourful) manifestation of Christian worship; it's like passing around a partially-loaded gun and saying, "If you trust God, pull the trigger" -- if someone breaks out rattlesnakes at the Rickshaw on Wednesday, I'm fucking leaving. 

Or at least moving to the back. 

HOWEVER: 

1. It does sound like there may be some speaking in tongues! (There certainly is on the two records of relevance to this show, Saved! and Saved: The Index). 

2. What the Reverend (really!) Hayter is doing sounds extreme enough in some of its manifestations that there is at least some cause for concern about her mental health. Her dissertation, we gather, was entitled Burn Everything Trust No One Kill Yourself (!), which sounds a bit extreme, as, we gather, is some of her previous work as Lingua Ignota. And according to the show description on the Rickshaw page, her speaking in tongues is achieved by "self-imposing a variety of conditions; sleep deprivation, fasting, repetition of prayer, and sensory overstimulation." What? I've seen some pretty bizarre hijinks in my time as a punk -- Facepuller throwing a running lawnmower* into the pit at a show at the Cruel Elephant remains a favourite example, as does (though I wasn't there) the Spores show where Danny swung a length of cow intestine like a lasso, not realizing it was still full of blood and shit -- but I haven't heard of anyone using sleep deprivation as an aspect of their performance. 

Plus the same show description itself touches on the question of mental illness: " SAVED! is a renunciation of life. Here solace is found in absolute retreat from the world, far from pain and sin, burning with the holy fire until the end comes. And it is written: as you are when the end comes, so will you be when you must face Him. Whether this is enlightenment or insanity is up to the listener to decide."

3. And while I brought up snake handling mostly to be provocative, it turns out that it's way more relevant than I realized when I began writing this: for instance, Hayter's label, Perpetual Flame Ministries, did have a snake handling t-shirt for a time. To which I say, "Does it come in 3XL?"

And in fact, if you Google "Kristin Hayter snake handling," you get a few hits, though they are descriptions of her recorded music, not her concerts (ie., "I get snake-handling church vibes through the way this song is arranged," from this site, talking about the song, "Nothing but the Blood of Jesus").  And there is even an image from a snake handling service on one of Hayter's posters, which is also used as their Facebook banner.  Which image, I think, involves some of the same people photographed above, actually...

I expect, piquant as all this is, that in fact, what we will see on Wednesday might actually resemble more of an least somewhat conventional concert -- that it's going to have more in common with seeing, say, Diamanda Galas than an actual tent revival (Hayter and Galas cover the same song, even; I prefer Hayter's version). I could be wrong, but the impression I get from seeing Hayter interviewed is that of an intelligent, sincere artist who is using elements of ecstatic Christianity as an entry point into self-exploration (see also this Kerrang! interview). She is some sort of on-and-off Christian, so it's not an insincere or ironic engagement with faith that we're witnessing, but she has said that her relationship with God is complicated, which all the best relationships with God are... I assume that none of the things that actually make me uncomfortable about Christianity will manifest -- that none of us will be expected to kneel on the floor or the Rickshaw (though I bet it's more comfortable than the bar we had to kneel on in church); that no one is going to threaten me with hell if I don't join their dumb little club; and that Hayter isn't going to go on any rants about homosexuality (leave it to the guy with the microphone who testifies out in front of Metrotown Station, telling us that we must have "no homo sex;" you kind of wish he'd just get over it and suck some cock, like he so obviously wants to do). In fact, relevant or not, in emphasizing stuff like speaking in tongues and snake handling, I've been trying to titillate readers, to get people curious about the show, but really what I think the reasonable selling point is, is, uh, the music.

Which I really like, so far. It sure beats the shit out of the hymns of my youth. I actually want to save my experience of this for the concert setting, so I've only dipped a toe into the recorded works, but I'll be there at the Rickshaw Wednesday to see what this looks like in the flesh. I don't really know what to expect, but isn't it more exciting, that way?

More about the Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter here; more on the Rickshaw show here; and listen to the song, "All My Friends are Going to Hell," while you're there (and check out this song by the Knights of the New Crusade, while you're at it; they speak in tongues, too!). 

Oh, and by the way, Perpetual Flame Ministries also involves one of the people from Ontario metal band Vile Creature, KW Campol, though I have no idea if he's on this tour.  

*the lawnmower was sans blade, it turns out, but none of us knew that at the time.