Have you ever known anyone who "spoke in tongues"? I did,....

[ohiosmith]

my mother, as well as several others who attended the church I went to as a kid.

[redqueen]

1. Yup.

And even at that tender age, I knew those folks were NUTS.

[guitar man]

2. most of my in-laws

they are a bunch of nut cases too.

[Shell Beau]

3. I think it would have totally freaked me out.

I think it still would totally freak me out.

[Sequoia]

4. Yes, at an Assembly of God during my middle-school years.

This gal and the preacher would out-shout one another. My siblings and I thought they were fake and tried not to laugh. The preacher reminded me of a dark haired Andy Taylor.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. yes. a lot of hindu charlatan gurus. mostly to cheat people of their money. nt

[Taverner]

13. Funny how the snake oil salesmen just do so well selling invisible things

Dobson, Robertson, the gurus...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. the taliban too. who has seen those virgins lately?

[Taverner]

16. Definitely

I think selling something that doesn't exist must be a better business than selling something that does.

Things that do exist might need tech support or warranties.

It's not like Mohammed Atta can get a refund for being an insane fuck now...

[NJmaverick]

6. I have always dismissed this as utter nonsense

So I have not even bothered to learn the details. What exactly is speaking in tonques?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. Hope this helps --

All Bible-believing Christians who study the Word of God are in agreement that the gift of tongues is present in the inspired Scriptures. In the New Testament two lists of gifts appear in which the gift of tongues is included. In 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 “kinds of tongues” and “the interpretation of tongues” are said to be sovereignly bestowed gifts of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12:28-30 “tongues” appears in the list of gifts. We call them “spiritual gifts” from the Greek word charisma, suggesting that the gift is a bestowment of God’s grace. It is not a natural ability that one might develop, but rather a special gift as those appearing in the above mentioned passages in First Corinthians.

more at link: http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=393

[NJmaverick]

22. so is "tongues" the ability to speak another langauge or do you

speak some sort of gibberish?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

25. why do you automatically assume that I speak in tongues ?

[NJmaverick]

36. cause I can't understand you

:9 Seriously I don't, but since you explained everything else, I figured you would know the rest.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. The gift of tongues as described in the Bible is the ability to speak other languages

The gift of tongues as practiced by Pentecostals has been researched by psychologists and found to be identical to what happens to people from a lot of different cultures around the world when they reach a stage of religious ecstasy. It's called "trance," although other cultures think of it as channeling the gods.

Sorry, but what the Pentecostals practice is NOT the Biblical gift of tongues.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

26. I truly, could not care less. --

No need to apologize to me. I am not Pentecostal.

[siligut]

38. "The gift of tongues as described in the Bible is the ability to speak other languages"

Agreed. Erroneous translation of the bible has led us down some really stoopid paths.

As a note, my sister went to a church when she was younger, and she spoke in tongues with them. Now she tells me it was gibberish and goes on to do it for me as an example, it really is stoopid.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

41. It's not even erroneous translation

All the English versions of the Book of Acts say quite clearly that the disciples are speaking to travelers from around the Roman Empire in their own languages.

I suspect that some ecstatic worshipper once went into a trance state and started babbling, and the uninformed people around him decided that he had the "gift of tongues."

(Pentecostals hate to hear this, but their trance state is like that of Voodoo or Santería.

[MrCoffee]

7. Some dude in a hotel parking lot in Missouri laid some glossolalia on me

I backed away slowly and avoided eye contact at all costs.

[hamsterjill]

8. Never actually seen it

I've never actually seen anyone do it in person, but is that what Robert Tilton (the disgraced evangelist who is now only on late at night) is doing when he starts mumbling gibberish?

I have insomnia sometimes and I've passed him when channel surfing. I've seen him him asking for money in one breath, then mumbling some made up stuff and then coming back on message.

Had a good laugh. It reminded me of when I was little and my sisters and I used to pretend we could speak French or something.

[RainDog]

9. yes

I'm from the south... what do you expect?

I've also seen people "slain in the spirit" - this is a Pentecostal practice in which someone will stand before the pastor, speaking in tongues or not - but surrounded by others who are and the pastor usually is speaking in tongues and also speaking in english and the pastor puts his hand on the person's forehead and sort of "pushes" them while speaking louder.

The person "slain in the spirit" then falls down.

Pentecostals also believe in modern prophecy. People can stand up in a church service and start speaking, telling about some future event and that's considered valid.

The "official" or doctrinal way of talking about speaking in tongues is the idea of the "baptism of the holy spirit," taken from Acts as the moment when the apostles began speaking in tongues.

I think there are lots of parallels to this whole sect of Christianity in other religions - like the whirling dervishes who spin themselves into religious frenzy/trance... I would imagine every religion has its version of this - and it's an example of mass psychology, too - people convince themselves this is possible and have the experience b/c it is validated by others having it too.

and it probably feels good. I would imagine dopamine is involved in hitting those pleasure center buttons with this stuff.

[crim son]

34. I've seen that, too.

As a kid, a friend took me to her church and actually pushed me up to the pastor so he could lay his hands on me and fill me with the holy spirit. Needless to say, it didn't work.

[LanternWaste]

10. I've grown up in and around churches...

I've grown up in and around churches, so I guess that I should be amazed that I've never come across anyone who's ever spoken in tongues. I guess I should be amazed too that I've never come across a Biblical Literalist, either.

But then again, most of the services I've attended were either Southern Baptist or Presbyterian churches in Texas-- the only Tongues we've come in contact with were Bar-b-q'd pork tongues with a side of slaw (not a nice meal... just in case you're wondering) on Sunday afternoons.

I think I'd get a little freaked out if I witnessed someone actually doing that. My first thought would be "call that Catholic Priest from the Exorcist movie! We need an exorcism, stat!" :evilgrin:

[RainDog]

11. southern baptists are bible literalists

...at least the parts that they want to consider literal. when I was growing up, speaking in tongues was considered a one-time thing. however, the story of creation is taken literally by southern baptists, or at least it is taken literally by the southern baptist convention.

[LanternWaste]

12. services I've attended each implied the qualification

The Southern Baptist church services I've attended each implied the qualification that Interpretive Works are both ongoing and necessary, and recognized parable, metaphor and allegory, of which the Creation story is indeed included in that. :shrug:

[RainDog]

18. The southern baptist convention believes in a literal genesis story

I grew up as a southern baptist in Nashville, where the southern baptist convention is located. members of my family are part of the ministry and my former pastor was a former head of the convention.

if you can find any official southern baptist doctrinal statement that says the story of genesis is a metaphor, I'd love to see it because, my entire life, I was informed that creationism is the truth (and should be taught in schools) and the book of revelations is a literal story of the end of the world.

maybe you've attended an American baptist church? they have diff. beliefs and are not such literalists. but the largest baptist denomination in the U.S. teaches a literal genesis story.

[LanternWaste]

21. They were Southern Baptist Churches, all part and parcel of the SBC

"maybe you've attended an American baptist church?"

They were Southern Baptist Churches, all part and parcel of the SBC, and all in TX, OK, LA, and MS. I don't presume to know what the SBC states as Canon, as I've never read any of their literature-- I've simply attended this or that Southern baptist church, each one different in tone, tenor and message than the other, one of the only common threads in them being that Interpretive Works are necessary.

I'm certainly not stating what is or is not SBC Canon, only that I have yet to come across any SBC affiliated church that precluded metaphor, allegory and other literary devices as tools to better understand the Bible.

[Taverner]

14. Back in college I dated a girl who was Four Square Gospel

They do that stupid shit...and yes, its bullshit

She drank the kool aid, but I can usually tell when someone is lying

Great sex, though

[SidneyCarton]

19. Yeah, I heard evangelicals do it when I was a missionary in Brazil.

It was terrifying, like hearing a off-key chorus of the damned trying to out-sing each other.

[pokerfan]

20. A girlfriend took me to her church once where they were doing that shit

In my defense, she was really really hot (former beauty queen) and the sex was mind-blowing.

An atheist/evangelical partnership was doomed to failure. But did I mention the sex?

[Monk06]

32. So you and Taverner were bangin the same chick?

[pokerfan]

42. might speak to something about repression/sex

That's been my experience anyway.

Every single time I've gotten involved in a church was because I was being lead by the short hairs.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

23. I did.

In college, I knew people who could slip in and out of it at will. It was seriously fake. That is not what it was about in the bible. It was someone who was so taken with the spirit that they started speaking Aramaic spontaneously. It's really annoying actually.
Duckie

[LostInAnomie]

27. It's a load of shit.

The only people I have ever known to actually buy into that shit are impressionable, mental weaklings just begging to belong to a group.

[sakabatou]

28. I think I could pass it off to people who don't know me...

^_^

[Lil Missy]

29. I met someone years ago at work that said she had experienced this.

I asked her to explain "speaking in tongues" to me, because I didn't understand it, and she seemed to be seriously sane and level headed. At that point, I thought is was something like their tongues flying all about, and speaking gibberish.

Oops! I hit post when I meant to hit spelling, so now I have to finish this on edit.

I truly had an open mind when I asked her about it, but I walked away feeling like I had been sold a buttload of snake oil. She really could not explain it, other than it was a matter of faith, and that no one else could hear or feel it.

Riiiight!

[enigmatic]

30. Me, after a bottle of MD 20/20

:D

[sasquatch]

31. Nice post Midlo

:P:D

[crim son]

33. Yes. A man down the street did, and became very unhappy with his wife

when she didn't do the same. It almost broke up the marriage, but eventually they switched to a different church. The fellow was definitely a strange character: military, rigid republican, didn't allow flowers in the garden because they were "too liberal." :eyes:

[old mark]

35. When I worked in a state mental hospital, I knew someone

who spoke a "different" language, that is a made up language occasionally containing the word "motherfucker", probably an English import.

I also worked on a ward that had 2 Jesus's at the same time.
They refused to speak to each other.

I do not think that people who "speak in tongues" have any real idea of what the bible is or what they are doing, but they are simply believers in a form of magic in the guise of christianity.

The entire fundamentalist movement is so much bullshit, and is fostered by ignorance.

mark

[AngryAmish]

37. Christmas 06

My brother-and-sister-in-law are fundies. They dragged us to Pentacostal Christmas Eve service. As a Catholic I gotta say it was much different than out Midnight mass. One thing, there were much fewer drunk people there. (Midnight Mass is one of the few times a year I get drunk on hard liquor - less peeing).

Also, a few people were doing the speaking in tounges part.

So, there we were, 2 fundies, a Muslim, a Catholic and 2 Lutherans at a Pentacostal service. Sounds like the beginning of a joke.

[noonwitch]

39. At college and at a couple of christian rock concerts.

I was an evangelical, but never a pentecostal. A hot guy asked me to church my first weekend at WMU-I went, and it was a pentecostal church. The people were speaking in tongues. What was really funny was that there was no Sunday School or nursery for the children, so they were imitating their parents' behavior.

There was no sermon, just "worship" and prayer. They did a communion ceremony that was something-each row of congregants approached the front together, and when each individual partook of the bread and wine, all the people who were from the same row of seats laid hands on him or her, and the minister also laid hands on him and prayed in tongues over him. I didn't partake, and stayed in my seat. I was polite, but I never went back.

I went to see The Second Chapter of Acts, a christian band, with Young Life. There was some of that going on, but really not like at the church.

It freaks me out, to be honest.

[Forkboy]

40. I've known a few talented people with their tongues, but it had nothing to do with speaking.