The novel’s antagonist, Carson Chambliss, is the leader of a charismatic church and a self-proclaimed healer. His qualifications for either role are unclear; his backstory, when it emerges, suggests that he was not ordained but rather appointed himself a mouthpiece for God following a conversion experience in prison. Whether that conversion was sincere is, in some sense, beside the point, as the novel suggests that unthinking religious fervor provides con artists with all the tools they need to fool others—and even, perhaps, themselves. 

A literalist interpretation of the Bible has paved the way for Chambliss’s influence in the community and is at the heart of some of his most dangerous practices—e.g., handling snakes, in violation of both logic and nature. This has predictable consequences, but once again, a strict interpretation of Christian doctrine comes to Chambliss’s aid. When a parishioner, Molly Jameson, was once bitten by a venomous snake, Chambliss insisted that she would either be healed of the poison by God or die because God had destined her to do so. In either case, Chambliss evaded personal culpability. 

Chambliss also profits from the desperation and hope that draw many to religion.