You know what I’m talking about; how people are so familiar with the King James English translation of the Bible that they actually think it’s the original version. When imitating a Biblical character, people use “thee” and “thou” when real Biblical figures would find that just as foreign as the English we use today. Even at some churches, people start talking like that as if it brings them “closer to God”. Why would speaking as if we were in 17th century England make us more “holy”? One of our local radio station DJ’s starts the Sunday morning gospel line-up saying “Good morning unto you”. What they hell does he think he’s doing? He sounds like an idiot!
I get annoyed by that too. I guess its because it is a translation of another language into english, but yet the english is no longer recognized. There are “plain english” versions of the scriptures which are modernized it it seems like those versions would be more widely used.
The only time I can see any sense in keeping “thees” and “thous” is when they are worked almost inextricably into the rhyme scheme of hymns. And even in some of those I’ve seen where whole lines have been changed to modernize the language, not to mention making it gender neutral.
I’m 49, and I can remember the hoorah in my childhood church when they switched to Revised Standard from the King James. But even then, as a little girl, I wondered why everything was couched in male language.
There’s a line in the familiar Christmas carol “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” that went born to raise the sons of earth that now reads, in our Episcopal hymnal, as well as others born to raise each child of earth.
I was raised Missouri-Synod Lutheran, very conservative. There are two lines in the hymn “A MIghty Fortress” in which the singer is expressing all they are willing to give up for God. I learned to sing And take they our life/Goods, fame, child and wife , which is rather literally translated from the 16th century German. But modern translations will replace it with something like this Let goods and kindred go/This mortal life also, which is much more inclusive. I’ve also seen Were they to take our house/Goods, honor, child or spouse which is almost as good.
Some of the more fundamentalist sects believe the KJV is the only one God has protected. The others have interpretation errors and outright fabrications.
Pentecostals have what they call “speaking in tongues”. Sometimes when that happens someone will be “taken over by the Spirit” and interpret. In my experience growing up in a Pentecostal church, they never failed to use the faux-King’s English peppered with thees and thous and verilies and untos.
As long as they don’t call it old english I’m happy.
I love how televangelists like John Hagee and Jan Crouch will slaughter proper English (often in a deliberate attempt to be folksy- “We ain’t got no problems heah, not with JEEEZUS sharin’ ou’ load!”) then in prayer lead with “Oh Father we beseech thee, if it be thy will for us to have this satellite…” as if God can’t understand them properly if they say “you” and “your” (plus “thy” and “satellite” play so naturally together).
George Carlin once remarked “I wonder how people who have those King James Only bumper stickers speak at home.”
Verily. 
Especially when it’s done wrong - and the people doing it have no clue when to use “Thou,” “Thee,” or “Thy” and put an “eth” on every third word, regardless of things like the part of speech, because it will sound more “holy” that way.
Even though that’s better than the hymnals that I’ve seen that have it changed to “born to raise us from the earth,” and still, the original sounds better than both. Most hymn revisions hurt my ears. (The NRSV does not - but then, that doesn’t need to scan right, be singable, or fall correctly on the music… the lyric changes almost never work). The worst offenders are the ones that make Jesus gender neutral.