Speaking in Tongues (question from a different thread).

[WindRiverMan]

Okay, someone more religious than me explain this shit to me. I always thought "the gift of tongues" was suppossed to be when God gave the apostles the ability to understand and speak lots of religions to go out and teach. In that regard, I would say Pope John Paul, who spoke like 20 languages had the gift of tongues.


What is this is other "gift of tongues" where you babble like Keith Richards on a bender suppossed to be? Apparently the Church Palin goes to "speaks in tongues". What the hell is it?

[stopbush]

1. It's a shameless public display of ignorance and gullibility.

[shadowknows69]

3. and thanks for that equally ignorant and intolerant answer

technically people are seized by the holy spirit and speak in the tongues of "men and angels" and then historically someone else in the congregation will "translate" it. Also being directed by the holy spirit.

[Fuzz]

6. That's pretty much it.

One has to be 'saved' and get the 'gift' first. It's supposed to be a direct line to god. It's almost a frenzy, but I've seen it forced a lot, and some people get so good at it they can turn it off and on at will. I've seen others just go crazy as well, fall down, pass out, dance, all depends on the mood of the place. What's funniest is when someone is thought to be 'inappropriate' by going too far for what is deemed 'normal' for the function. They get looks like, 'wow, they are weird.' Been out of it since I reached the age of reason.

[stopbush]

9. Yeah. Technically, a load of BS.

BTW - I respect your right to believe what you will when it comes to religion, but that doesn't mean that I must extend that respect to embrace your religious beliefs as having even a grain of truth to them.

Respect the believer, disrespect the belief itself.

[thecrow]

12. Seems like they could cut to the chase and just speak

and not need to speak in tongues and then have somebody else translate.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. An album by the Talking Heads?

And they all run around dancing to McCain's yet undiscovered campaign song, "Making Flippy Floppy".

[TomInTib]

4. Freaked me flat out, the first time I witnessed that business.

Evidently, it is when the Holy Spirit gets inside of someone and they start babbling all this jibberish.

Some of them have honed it to a fine edge.

"Sister Josephine was really in the Spirit today, wasn't she, Sister Clauzette?"

Sure as hell got my attention.

My sister was one of the worst.

[Obamanaut]

7. I have a sister-in-law who not only does "speaking in tongues"

but also babbles on about "being slain in the spirit" (picture Benny Hinn rendering folks unconscious by waving at them) and "mountaintop experiences", about which I know nothing.

[TomInTib]

15. I know of a church in North Texas....

where they practice "vomiting of Demons".

Although I am a very curious person, I have no plans to attend any of those services.

[Obamanaut]

18. That was so gross, I just had to google it. Found out that Pastor

John Hagee of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio has this procedure at his church. Hagee, BTW, endorsed Sen. McCain.

Now I must tell my S.I.L about this. She refers to her church as "bapti-costal." Ms ret88 and I don't go at all, but I'm not allowed to ridicule her sister to her face.

[TomInTib]

21. Dontcha just love it?

I have had that same sort of problem. At Family gatherings, the wackos feel free to go on and on about their religion.

But let me say one word in dissent, and it's as if I had maybe asked if they wanted to go to the barn and f**k or something.

[tannybogus]

5. Here you go:

Glossolalia is "utterances approximating words and speech, usually produced during states of intense religious excitement".<3> The word is applied to similar phenomena in various religions.

'Speaking in tongues' is given various meanings by various people that are dependent on their viewpoint. Those who consider the outward appearance of the phenomenon understand 'speaking in tongues' to be the glossolalia practised by some Christians; that is, it consists of utterances that approximate words and speech, rather than being words and speech. Others, usually Christians themselves, dispute that understanding of the practice and therefore dispute the meaning of 'speaking in tongues'; they may assert that when people 'speak in tongues' they "speak in languages which they have not learned"<4> (xenoglossia), perhaps the language of angels.<5> Among such, what is spoken is understood to be a 'message from God',<6><7><8> although some limit it to "prayer or praise".<9>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia

Some say language. Others say gibberish.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

8. Why can't God or his emissaries speak in a language people can understand

so that there won't be any more confusion? Why does it always sound like either (a) someone straining on the toilet or (b) a student of Klingon?

[shadowknows69]

10. Bureaucracy

Heaven hasn't upgraded its various office systems since way before Windows 95

[Obamanaut]

13. One would almost think that an "all knowing god" would cause

his message to be in words of the region, so that everyone listening would understand. Otherwise, there may be some change in that message due to translation problems, nuances, or just plain dumb.

[Fuzz]

20. I've heard stories like that

Supposedly a person spoke in tongues and there was another person there who was from India and the tongue person spoke his exact dialect and told him what he should do with his life.

This was in the church in New Haven where my dad was the associate pastor and John Ashcroft went when he attended Yale Law.

[goclark]

11. I went to a party once and the guests formed a circle

and started speaking in tongues.

I was floored!

This was in the late 50's.

A real Hollywood crowd of fairly young people, I will never forget it.

[paparush]

14. Watch Borat..most of the movie is awful. When he visits the Pentacostal Church its SCARY.

Read Matt Taibi - "Jesus Made Me Puke" in which Taibi (Rolling Stone reporter) goes undercover with the Christian Right.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20278737/jesus_made_me_puke/print

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Psychologically, it's nothing more than trance

I once heard a lecture by a linguist who had analyzed the utterances and actions of Pentecostals "speaking in tongues" and the utterances and actions of practitioners of santería and voodoo in the Caribbean who went into trance states, and he found that they were exactly the same.

What modern-day Pentecostals and charismatics do is NOT what is described in the Acts of the Apostles, which clearly says that the apostles spoke real languages.

[Dorian Gray]

17. Ridiculousness

[Lerkfish]

19. serious answer

originally, it comes from the day of pentacost, when the disciples were possessed by the spirit, as you point out.
later, the early church practiced it, but Paul admonished the phenomenon unless there was also interpretation.

the problem with churches that employ "gifts of the spirit", is the having it can become a badge of specialness and miss the point entirely.

like all things religious, in the wrong hands it can be just as harmful as helpful.