Speaking In Tongues

[Mythopoeika]

My next door neighbour belongs to some happy clappy church or other and she regularly speaks in tongues. That is to say she'll start muttering gibberish and calls it "speaking in tongues". Actually that sounds a bit harsh because I've no doubt she genuinely believes what she's doing.

The other night I heard her shouting in tongues. Turned out she had found an enormous spider in her living room and was using this "gift" to rid herself of it. Personally I always find twatting them with my shoe to be more effective but then again I've never considered what the arachnid's spritual beliefs might be.

Whatever happened to just catching the spider and throwing it outside?

She's used the same method to rid herself of the Mormons and JWs and swears it works.

I find that keeping the door shut works well enough.

I once went along to her church and witnessed the whole collapsing with the holy spirit and glossolalia schtick. Personaly I felt the whole thing smacked of group hysteria. It was almost as if they had licence to behave in an unrestrained way where they wouldn't be judged hence the hysterical laughter, crying, collapsing etc. Hey, if it makes them feel better who is anyone to judge? All I know is that I felt zilch and I'm usually quite attuned to atmospheres. Perhaps Jesus just doesn't want me for a sunbeam. :hmm:

Awww.

 

[LaurenChurchill]

Dammit now I have that song stuck in my head

My best friend was brought up evangelical pentecost. Her family went to church every week and every one of them was "overcome by the holy spirit", fell to the floor, convulsed, spoke in tongues, etc.

She never felt that way though. When she was called up to the front of the congregation once (with other people, not alone) she felt like she had to do something, so she fell to the floor and babbled crap and hoped they bought it, and to this day she wonders how many of the others were doing the same thing as she had been.

I have no doubt that some people are overcome by some sort of spiritual sensation, I'm just too cynical to accept that of everyone.

 

[OneWingedBird]

A certain amount is the power of suggestion i think, have to admit that i experienced the 'slain in the spirit' thing a few times when i was involved with an evangelical/charismatic church cira 1996/7, several times it did seem to be involuntary until you realised they were pushing your buttons and you kind of did want it to happen, there were a couple of times too where the people doing the ministry seemed to be trying so hard it seemed like the thing to do just to not dissappoint them.

There was one time too i went over just because the pastor pushed me on the forehead that hard

 

[McAvennie]

When she was called up to the front of the congregation once (with other people, not alone) she felt like she had to do something, so she fell to the floor and babbled crap and hoped they bought it, and to this day she wonders how many of the others were doing the same thing as she had been.

:lol:

 

[cece23]

Yeah, both my sisters belong to a 'happy clappy' religion too, never quite worked out what it is but I think its born-again christian though they maintain it isnt any one religion. Anyhoo one of them I know collapsed in church, maybe thats when her real belief started.. apparently she sees visions of angels and all kinds of other weird stuff. The other sister showed me lots of photos of orbs and told me they were angels - didnt take me long to work out these were dust particles and a common phenomena (sp?) of digital cameras. I think one of them also experienced speaking in tongues. When I was discussing all of this with my third sister (a very devout catholic) and told her I was starting to believe that they were involved with a cult she said no, and that I wasn't to worry, though she obviously wasn't prepared to discuss it with me!

I sometimes think I am the only one in my family who is open-minded enough to contemplate alternative points of view - I am athiest and am still looking for proof that there is a god/gods. Instead what I have found is how easily people can be swept into believing what others want them to believe - I call it hypnosis or brainwashing.

 

[OneWingedBird]

never quite worked out what it is but I think its born-again christian though they maintain it isnt any one religion

non-denominational is sort of code for evangelical/charismatic/born-again or as you say happy-clappy.

 

[ravenblade]

I speak like that on firday nights, usually after 3:00 a.m. and quite a few pints.

 

[AsamiYamazaki]

The funniest thing was coming over to Toronto during the height of the Toronto blessing thing (there was a church near where I lived in Surrey in the UK ... Pioneer? that were really into it) and no one in Canada had ever heard of it.

My parents were a bit happy clappy and were going to the Pioneer church at that point, and refused to believe that no one in Toronto knew about it.

 

[uair01]

This is an old documentary. Still interesting:
Cool how the pastor talks about science.

A bit more skeptical with less respect:
This video is by the author of this good book:
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism - Amanda Montell

This is thorough linguistic analysis, and thus very technical. Still interesting:
30:38 is most interesting.

Wow, this Muslim knows a lot about Christianity, more than most people here in the Netherlands, who can't explain Pentecost:
(No speaking in tongues in the Koran.)

And good Christian analysis:

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Toward a Theology of “Speaking in Tongues.”
Overview:

The increasing frequency of the phenomenon of "speaking in tongues," in the Roman Catholic and other Christian denominations, challenges one to outline a "theology" of this spiritual gift. Morton Kelsey has made an important contribution in the field of psychology.1 However, while psychological investigations are valid and interesting, they can hardly throw adequate light on supernatural phenomena. One may compare 1 Cor 2:14-16: "The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. Tor who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him?' But we have the mind of Christ.,,la The present essay will be approached purely from the biblical point of view.
​

Source: Ford, J. M. (1971). Toward a Theology of “Speaking in Tongues.” Theological Studies, 32(1), 3–29.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Features associated with speaking in tongues (glossolalia)
Abstract:
Reports of the frequency, context, associated behaviours, feelings and meaning associated with glossolalia were collected from three groups of informants: speakers (N = 14, who practised glossolalia), witnesses (N = 15, who had witnessed but had never practised glossolalia), and controls (N = 16, who had neither witnessed nor practised glossolalia). All informants were practising Christians. Speakers reported glossolalia as a regular, daily, private activity, usually accompanying mundane activities, as a special form of prayer associated with calm, pleasant emotions. By contrast, witnesses and controls were more likely to describe glossolalia as an exceptional activity, usually occurring in the religious group, and associated with excitement. The views of witnesses were closer to those of speakers than were the views of controls. It is suggested that there may be two types of glossolalia, of which one is more likely to be associated with psychopathology.
Source: Grady, B., & Loewenthal, K. M. (1997). Features associated with speaking in tongues (glossolalia). British Journal of Medical Psychology, 70(2), 185–191.​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Speaking with Tongues: A Critical Survey of the New Testament Evidence.
Overview:

There is no reference in any of the canonical gospels to "speak- ing with tongues." It is never attributed to Jesus and is never promised by him to any of his followers. The saying which precedes the Lord's Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount appears to deprecate any kind of unintelligible utterance in prayer: the rendering of the New English Bible, "Do not go babbling on like the heathen," conveys the sense better than most other renderings. The verb used here is very rare in Greek; there appears to be no more than one other instance in all known Greek literature. BarraXoyEoc is formed of a verb-ending meaning "speak," with the prefix Sarra, which is not a meaningful word but an onomatopoetic suggestion of the sound made; the literal sense would be something like: "Do not go on saying, "Batta, batta, batta." With it we may compare the noun fa3raXos, meaning "stam- merer," or "stutterer"; and the verb faarrapi3co, meaning "to stammer," "to stutter," etc. In the context of the sermon, it clearly does not refer to a mere defect in speech, but to the repetition of meaningless sounds (abracadabra)​

Source: Beare, Frank W. “Speaking with Tongues: A Critical Survey of the New Testament Evidence.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 83, no. 3, 1964, pp. 229–46.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

The Speaking with Tongues’ of the Early Christians.
Overview:

In the year 1833 there appeared in the Theologisclie Studien und Kritiken a plea for a new arrangement of the sermon with reference to its form and content. The author, Klaus Harms, was generally known through his ninety-five theses against Rationalism, which were issued on the occasion of the 3ooth anniversary of the Reformation. As a title to his article on the sermon, he used the words: I With tongues ! Dear brethren, speak with tongues !’ He knew very well that a correct interpretation of the biblical expression would not permit of this application, but he evidently did not comprehend the full meaning of the words, or he would scarcely have thus used them. What, then, does the formula, ’to speak . with tongues,’ really mean according to its original interpretation​

Source: Clemen, C. (1899). The Speaking with Tongues’ of the Early Christians. The Expository Times, 10(8), 344–352.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Speaking in Tongues: Early Evidence Outside the New Testament Bearing on “Glossais Lalein.”
Overview:
There are Christianst implies several claims : first, that these Christians know what is meant by the New Testament expression glössais lalein, "to speak in tongues55 ; second, that what these Christians do is so similar to what some Christians did in the first century that the same name, glössais lalein, is appropriate both to the current phenomena and to those of which the New Testament speaks; and third, that, since glössais lalein is spoken of in the New Testament as a gift of the Spirit, what these contemporary Christians are doing constitutes a manifestation, perceptible to the senses, of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Each of these claims raises questions in the minds of other Christians today. Take the first claim. Is the exact meaning of glössais lalein in the New Testament really so clear and plain and simple? In some places it appears that glössais lalein means to speak in a human language one has not learned; in others it is possible to suppose that glössais lalein means to speak in a nonhuman language or to give utterance to sounds which are not language at all in the sense of connected discourse, even if the sounds are in some way meaningful.

Source: Currie, S. D. (1965). “Speaking in Tongues”: Early Evidence Outside the New Testament Bearing on “Glossais Lalein.” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 19(3), 274–294.​