christians and speaking in tongues?

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I thought that speaking in tongues means that everyone can understand you.

Not that you babble nonsense that no one can understand.

definitely nonsensical babbling that no one can understand. the stories often mention someone stating that the babbler was speaking in an actual foreign language.



i've heard these stories in many churches in many cities in several states. i've participated in these fraudulent ceremonies. i find it very interesting that, online, i seem to only see articles that refer to it as a divine language that people can't understand. in church, it was always claimed that the nonsensical babblings were other human languages.

I knew people who would do this. It was scary and humorious at the same time. You would have thought a cat was having a seziure. I was mercilessly bullied by Christians on church grounds and as a result they leave a bad taste in my mouth. I am extremly distrustful of anyone who calls themself a Christian. I believe in God and Jesus but I don't call myself a Christian. I am a closet rastafarian.

Note that the phenomenon is NOT limited either to Christianity nor to instances of religious activity, though various forms of trance + / - ecstatic utterance and / or behavior often occur in religious contexts. Some reason to believe some of the OT prophecy [is Saul; also among the prophets?] falls into this category.

While some subspecies of Christianity emphasize and encourage it, the church overall has born in mind that for every genuine glossolalic there are two outright frauds and three who push it, and that utterances may come from entirely the wrong spirit.

Read a book once - guy had a Tongues experience, said wow this is cool - and went around the world finding every real or purported glossolalic he could find. Test the spirits.

So, in other words, you're a Christian but due to issues with other Christians you give yourself another name that reminds me of nothing but the FSM. Even if FSM is the immitation...

Edit: Spelling failure, probably the Devils fault.

Last edited by Avarice on 19 Mar 2010, 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

Just listen to any politician or diplomat. The words may seem understandable but its glossolalia at its finest.

Yes and I idenify with a lot of Rastafarian pricipals but not all of them. Rastafarins do believe in God and are therefore Christians. I'm not a true rastafarians and I'm not a true Christian. I'm somewhere in between. I don't really idenify 100% with any religion or branch of faith. Saint Francis of Asissi had some Rastafarin beliefs as well. He wouldn't let anyone tear down trees because it would interfear with what God had designined. Rastafarins grow dreadlocks because they believe that combing hair is messing with God's design. I don't like combing my hair because it changes it from it's natural way. If their was a magic cure for autism, curing it would conflict with God's plan.

Sand > "Just listen to any politician or diplomat. The words may seem understandable but its glossolalia at its finest."

I am tempted simply to agree with you, but my finicky genes [you should have seen my grandfather] constrain me.

At least 3 phenomena:

Glossolalia [not faked, not forced, genuine ecstatic utterance]: clearly not normal language, so far as one can see empty of content, lacking any communicative agenda on the part of the utterer, not under conscious control.

My now pretty deeply Alzheimerisch father: sounding very close to language, so far as one can tell empty of content, intended by the utrterer to be communication but the wires do not connect, not under coscious control - it is the best he can do.

The politician or, if you will, the Dean of Arts and Science [I will not name names]: sounding very much like language, pretty much empty of content, intended by the utterer to SEEM to be communication, very much under conscious control [most of them CAN talk human].

1. I wouldn't call a Rasta a Christian, simply because - Christians stop with Jesus and he was the end of the line which God sent. But Rastas believe Selassie was the reincarnation and God, which any non-Rasta Christian would disagree with.
2. If you don't believe Selassie is God reincarnated - then you aren't a Rasta, even if you agree with some of the things they do.

Quartz, this is what we call "syncretism", which is basicly the adoption of other religious icons or precepts into an existing one. For example, go check out voodoo, it uses many of the Christian saints for their lwa" or spirits. :p And even recently, i've heard that in Montreal, one of our voodoo communities even integrated divinities from buddhism or hinduism.

(amusing note: There is an equivalent in voodoo of St.Patrick, except he's portrayed as the saint of snakes since 1) he wears green <.<, and 2) because on some of his iconic pictures, there are some snakes included...Heh, blame the missionaries!)

Last edited by phil777 on 20 Mar 2010, 1:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Then I guess I am not a rasta but then I am not a true Christian either. I don't know what I am really.

well, you're obviously a meerkat.

It's really unfortunate that this is what Christianity has been reduced to, & that this is how people who aren't Christians view it. I don't blame you all for thinking it's crazy with the examples/experiences that were shared. I myself am a Christian, & go to a "tongue-speaking church," & I can tell you that there are NOT people being "slapped & healed" or speaking in tongues & claiming that it is God speaking through them or that they can't control it. The Bible defines speaking in tongues as a "prayer language" & that's what my church believes. It's individual to each person & should be personal unless you believe you have an interpretation. It's kind of hard to explain I guess...but it's definitely not a euphoric sort of thing or an out of control sensation.

Then your church is in error.

In the Book of Acts, when the Apostles "spoke in tongues", it was not a "secret prayer language" - the miracle was that everyone present, whether Greek, Roman, Assyrian, Celt, or what-have-you, heard the speech in their own tongue. God does not want His words to be incomprehensible - what would be the point of revealing them?

Hysterical glossolalia was turned into another snake-oil "miracle" during the tent-meeting revivals of the 19th century. Anything those charlatans could seize upon as "evidence" of God's favor was used, all in the interest of getting the locals to spill as much cash into the collection plates as possible before the tents all left town. (At least the secular snake-oil salesmen would leave their customers with something in exchange for their money, even if it was just a bottle of moonshine and sugar water.) It has absolutely no Biblical basis, as you would know if you actually read the Book.

Sorry for the tone, but religious hypocrisy really tees me off.

Believe me, I've read the book of Acts many times, & I know it well. I didn't say it was "secret," I said it was individual to each person. If tongues is really only speaking in other languages, then why does the apostle Paul exhort the church more than once to "pray in the Spirit" or "pray in tongues" on "all occasions"? You'll also see in Acts that when people were filled with the Holy Spirit they "spoke in tongues & prophesied." Were they not speaking in their own tongue prior to this experience? There is no mention, however, of flailing about or any out of control sort of sensation, so I agree with you that the "hysteria" that is usually accompanied with praying in tongues is completely un-Biblical.

My post was vague because I wasn't looking to get into a religious debate...just sharing my 2 cents for anyone interested.

for various reasons----when i was a small child i stayed with my grandmother. she had what i now know is schizophrenia. did all sorts of things to me. wow, did she ever speak in tongues. not far from her housing project was a small church, on a hill-top.

one night she led me up the hill and into the church. it was like a bad acid trip. this was your basic holy-roller church and indeed, there were people on the floor, doing their thing. she pulled me up the aisle and i remember everyone staring at me. some were screaming loudly, speaking in what now seemed to be tongues. at the area where the 'preacher' was standing, she handed me to him. i'm pretty sure he had some large snakes and one was put on my arm. i was so terrified i cannot swear to the snake part, but it seems real and i recalled this specifically during hypnosis regression.

then, i am up in the air and being stuffed into a tank of water. had no idea at all what baptism was. when i am finally dropped on the ground, i start running as hard a those little legs could carry me. ran to the apt of another kid whose mom was the kindest person i have ever known. i stayed there till my mother was released from custody and came looking for me.
. what a friend i have in jesus.

another kid in the gang we sort of had tried to kill his father and was taken away. why you ask? cause dad used to beat him and his mother so bad they almost lost their sight, among other things.

oh yes, jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.



so god looks after those children who have parents that care about them. i can understand that. but...those of us who were born garbage are just the debris of existence, not worthy of jesus's acknowledgement.

so speak to your god in as many tongues as you want. make yourself feel special.