Marked for Life

Cody's down-spiraling.
 
“There I was,” he says, “18 years old and a blaster in the coal mines.” 
 
Jamie demands he stop sleeping around, or else, get married. He subjects Cody to a verse from First Corinthians:
 
“I say therefore to the unmarried and widows," it reads, "It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.”
 
Stop fornicating, Cody is told, or excommunication from the family church is looming.
 
There is a third option: cruising the streets of Middlesboro in search of streetwalkers to douse the burning.

What is Marked for Life?

Cody Coots is a fourth-generation serpent handler. By age 6, he handles mock serpents with his sister, Trina, in the church, using leather belts for props. Cody secretly yearns for a normal childhood.

He likes to ride his bike, play drums, and watch WWE wrestling with his father, Jamie. (Jamie is the world's most famous serpent-handling preacher.) A terrible act of violence befalls 8-year-old Cody, shocking the serpent handling community. A preacher pleads guilty to charges of deviant sexual abuse, but it's too late: Cody's innocence is shattered. Anger boils inside him, so he turns his wrath upon his parents, his church, and even his God.

As he cruises the backstreets of Middlesboro, Ky, looking for nothing but trouble, Cody's sins begin piling up. But the consequences do, too.

Is Cody beyond salvation? Or, is he as the community describes him: "Marked for life?"