 Participants are Holiness, Pentecostals, Charismatics, or other evangelicals.Many writers have attempted to designate George Went Hensley (1880–1955) as both the progenitor and popularizer of Appalachian religious snake handling, but his role in initiating the practice has been disputed by academic studies.Kimbrough notes that claims of Hensley being the originator of snake handling are usually found to be unsubstantiated by research, and the origins of the observance are unclear.