Photos:Snake-Handling Pentecostal Pastor Vows To Defy law

Pentecostal pastor says he will keep handling rattlesnakes and copperheads despite charges for illegal possession of venemous reptiles

As beads of sweat slithered down his temples, Andrew Hamblin stared in wide-eyed wonder at the three-foot timber rattlesnake he had thrust towards his congregation.

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"I am a soldier in the army of the Lord," he boomed in a thick southern drawl, stomping a foot on the hardwood floor. "And the enemy has been fighting me this week harder than ever before".

In this shed tucked into a dark valley of the Appalachian Mountains, before 60 adoring followers speaking in tongues, throwing up their hands and dabbing tears from their eyes, Mr Hamblin was breaking the law.

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The 22-year-old preacher is facing up to a year in prison after being charged with illegally possessing 53 venomous snakes seized from his church by Tennessee wildlife agency officers earlier this month.

Yet the charismatic young pastor, part of a century-old Pentecostal tradition in the region that takes literally an instruction in the Gospel of Mark that "they shall take up serpents", remains piously defiant.

Since appearing in court, he has continued wielding poisonous snakes during his raucous services at Tabernacle Church of God, after fresh creatures were snuck inside by his allies.

"I'm willing to fight this, because here in the United States we're supposed to be guaranteed our religious freedom under the first amendment of the constitution," he told The Daily Telegraph.

"We're Christians who believe in being saved by the blood of Jesus Christ just like any other – it's not like we're part of some different religion. I do feel it is an attack upon our religious freedom."

His followers claim they are victims of a state crackdown. Mr Hamblin's mentor Jamie Coots, a a preacher based just over the border in Kentucky, had three rattlesnakes and two copperheads confiscated after being stopped while driving home through Tennessee earlier this year.

Mr Hamblin said he was called on by God to handle the creatures, and that their appearances were shows of divine power. He likened the practice to "Catholics using wine".

Yet Matthew Cameron, a wildlife agency spokesman, dismissed all talk of persecution and said Mr Hamblin's storage of the snakes in a back room was simply a serious "public safety hazard".

"We treat him just as we would anyone else found to be storing venomous snakes in their home," said Mr Cameron, who stressed that zoos and circuses must obtain permits to possess snakes in the state.

Several pastors have died from bites in recent years. Mack Wolford of West Virginia, who led one of the best-attended snake-handling churches out of an estimated 125 in the region, made international headlines after being killed by a timber rattlesnake in May last year.

During Mr Hamblin's service on Friday night, several young children, including some of his own five, wandered around just yards from the snake's box, while their parents prayed and sang.

Mr Hamblin stressed that only adults may handle the creatures. "I can understand not wanting to endanger another's life," he said. "That's perfectly understandable. But in 100 years, there have been only 10 deaths in Tennessee from serpents." He is himself unable to make a fist with his right hand, after being bitten on a knuckle in 2010 and ending up in hospital. "I was at death's door," he said. "Me and death were just about ready to smoke a cigarette together".

Yet God told him to continue, he said, and showed that he would be safe by allowing another snake to bite him on the back of the neck soon after.

While Mr Hamblin's shirt was soaked in blood, he escaped serious injury. "I never swelled, I never itched, I never suffered nothing but bleeding," he recalled.

And his congregants are intensely devoted to his style of worship. "Just weeks ago I was far from God," said Jeremy Henegar, 20, with a piercing stare.

"Whisky, beer or moonshine – I was a full-blown alcoholic. But when I took up serpents I was right there in the presence of God. I felt approval for the first time. What once was deadly, he made harmless."

While dozens of his fellow pastors hold their services in secret and close their doors to outsiders, Mr Hamblin is determined to bring his sect into the mainstream. He hopes to found America's first snake-handling mega-church.

He is due back in court next month, and may face additional charges. Yet his followers have no intention of allowing the state to stop them. "If I were to be sent to be prison," he said, "boy – I think that would set off such a blast".