I’ve never been to a snake handling church, but I was raised in a Pentecostal environment. They did the whole “speak in tongues” thing, which I never got into.
I had always thought it was related to this:
I never heard anything resembling a recognizable human language, and I study languages as a hobby. Later on, I was taught that it was a “heavenly language” that only God and those he blesses can understand—a way to pray that the devil could not understand. So, sort of like the use of Navajo during World War II.
I haven’t been to any church for a few years now. Sometimes I miss the social aspect, but I don’t miss all the other baggage that came with it. I guess I was too rational, even as a kid, to get it. I kept asking things like, “why does God speak in tongues through someone, and then have someone else offer an ‘interpretation.’ Why doesn’t God just speak in English the first time?”
I did like the music, though. It was certainly music you could tap your feet to, and I still listen to some of that music even though I essentially have nothing to do with the faith anymore.
That’s the opposite of what I recall growing up. If someone started speaking in tongues, the whole place got quiet, and they waited for someone to give the interpretation.
I have never spoken in tongues, but I have attended services where it happened. It was a pretty large gathering. There were designated people (elders of the church, and others who had experience in leading worship) where it happened. If someone was speaking in tongues, someone would go and pray with that person, and if it was too loud or was interfering with worship by others, they would lead the person out and pray with them in private. The church in question was pretty strong on the idea that speaking in tongues was mostly for the individual benefit of the person, unless it was a message meant for the church in general. If the person claimed it was a message for the church in general, there had to be someone experienced in the interpretation of tongues, which is a whole separate gift. The interpreter was responsible for deciding if the message really was for the whole church, or if the tongue-speaker was mistaken and it was not, which happened.
Those leading worship were aware that sometimes it is just attention-seeking behavior. They were not into public shaming, but they were very big on 1 Corinthians 14:26-33 -
Tongues were not part of worship for almost all of my worship growing up and after, so I had a major stick up my ass when I attended services where it was, but it was handled IMO well.
I don’t have or seek tongues. Not my gift. Part of that is my upbringing, part is my tight-assedness, part of it is that I encountered people who claimed that I had to speak in tongues in order to be fully indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and I then read the parts where the subject is addressed in Scripture and recognized that tongues are neither necessary nor sufficient. Good for people who speak in tongues, not good for me.
The churches with whom I have experience believe AFAICT that the gift of interpretation of tongues includes the ability to say, in essence, ‘that’s fine but keep it quiet’ as well as ‘that message is just for you and not everyone else’ and ‘that’s a good message for the whole church, but don’t disrupt other people’s worship’. And also cases where it really is a message for the whole church.
There are, IMO, two equal and opposite errors into which the church can fall. One is to say ‘there’s no such thing - sit down and be quiet’, and the instant someone starts speaking in tongues, the rest of the church has to stop what they are doing.
My wife the pastor knows a lot more about it than I do. But the Lord “tempers the wind to the shorn lamb” in my case - I don’t like tongues, and don’t feel I need tongues, and I have learned not to be guilted into thinking I have to do it just because I don’t want to. YMMV.
My experience with tongues in church is that it’s usually a low murmur (as pretty much everyone is doing it)–except when a message for the church is given–where people do get quiet. It’s no louder than when people are praying normally, or just normal speech to someone right beside you. And it’s much, much softer than anything from the front, like the music.
Taking everyone aside wouldn’t make a lot of sense in this context, as you’d be taking aside everyone. The assumption about those scriptures about “being silent” is that it doesn’t mean literal silence, just not disrupting the service, which it doesn’t.
I’ve always thought that additional verse came from a story in Acts, where Paul was bitten by a snake after surviving a shipwreck on a prison boat. The locals thought it was a sign he was a murderer, and that the fates had still not allowed him to live. But when Paul shook it off into the fire and was no worse for the wear, they changed their minds and decided he must be a god himself. j
What’s good enough for Paul is good enough for everyone else, so that scripture got slipped into one of the gospels by some group that thought it was important. No one else minded too much, since you aren’t supposed to “put the Lord your God to the test,” and people were willing to accept a lot, so it stuck around.
(Acts 27:39-44 for the shipwreck, Acts 28:1-6 for the snake story.)