There are several Charismatics in my Byzantine Catholic congregation- they attend charismatic prayer meetings at a local Catholic church on Thursday nights.
They’re all really nice people but it seems that a fairly high percentage of them are a bit, ah, off…
One of them is prone to the same sort of Biblical literalism and selective scripture quoting that the Fund-ist Protestants are notorious for. He does this to the point that he is incapable of carrying on an intelligent conversation. He cuts people off in midsentence to quote a Scripture that is not quite relevant, or to make some statement to the effect that “all the answers are in the Word” in situations where it is not appropriate to do so. Our pastor has taken him to task for selective quoting of Scripture, but it didn’t sink in.
One of the charismatics, I am still trying to forgive for some very severe spiritual damage he did to me back when I first came home to the Church. In a tear-filled session with my pastor, he told me that a lot of the problem I was having was that I hadn’t asked the First Question yet (he wouldn’t tell me what that question was, he wanted me to come to it on my own). After a period of intense prayer, I realized that the Question was, “Who is Christ?”- not the biographical data, but who He is in relationship to me. Then I had to come to the answer. Well, I was talking to “Bob” once about the difficulty I was having, and about the Question, and that I needed to find the answer. “Bob” said, “I know the answer.” I told him, very explicitly, “Well, don’t tell me, because if you do, then I’ll know the answer intellectually, but I won’t know it in my heart.” “Bob” then proceeded to tell me, “He’s your Lord and Savior”. I felt like I had been punched. I was angry. I told him (now repeating myself), “Thanks, now I know it on an intellectual level,but I won’t know it in my heart” and he said, “Well, take it to heart.” As though that were something an overly cerebral person such as myself could do in an instant. Six years later, I still know it intellectually… I allowed this guy to pray over me even though I had this fresh wound. He prayed in English, then said, “Now I’m going to pray in the Spirit… tedeumtedeumtedumtedeumtedeumtedeumtedeumtedeum”. I really think he was faking it. I can’t believe someone could just turn the Holy Spirit on like a switch. From all that I’ve heard from charimatics of both the Catholic and Protestant varieties, the Spirit just comes over you… I’ve also witnessed glossalalia, and his inflection wasn’t anything like what I’d heard before. It just sounded like the guy was saying “tediumtedeumtedeum” (Te Deum?) over and over again, and he didn’t seem to have gone into any kind of trance as the other “tounge speakers” I’ve encountered had. He was “speaking in tongues” in his own, normal vocal inflection. I also think that if “Bob” were truly in tune with the HS, the Spirit would have prompted him that he should keep his mouth shut rather than tell me information that I had seconds earlier specifically asked him not to tell me because I needed to come to the realization on my own. That’s assuming that basic common sense wouldn’t have taken care of the issue. I think I would be a much better Christian than I am now if he had done as I asked an left me to learn on my own rather than tell me. I’m more of an “intellectual Catholic”, I believe the teachings of the Church on an intellectual level, but I have a hard time feeling the workings of God in my life in a spiritual way, because I never really learned in my heart that Christ is my Lord and Savior. The intellectual knowledge blocked, in some way, the knowledge getting deep into my spirit. I’m still very uncomfortable around “Bob” for this reason.
I’ve also seen instances of speaking in tongues which I’m fairly certain were demonically inspired. Back in Indiana, I used to watch the local Christian channel, which was owned by the lagest Charismatic church in town. The pastor was greedy beyond belief. Once, during a fundraising telethon, he berated, on the air, someone who had made a 10 pledge. “God won’t bless you if you only give ten dollars. Get back on the phone and pledge more,” he demanded in a very hash tone of voice. Apparently he hadn’t read the bit in the Bible where Jesus saw a poor widow giving two mites to the temple’s charity box and declared that she had given more than all of the wealthy folks who had laid expensive gifts at the altar… this guy had taken on a twisted, gargoyle-like appearance (he had actually been quite handsome as a young man). His oldest son who inherited the whole ministry when he died, was similarly twisted. I was convinced, even then, not being a Christian, that this man had a demon in him.
I’m not saying that all charismatics are somehow mentally deficient or even evil. The majority of them have all their marbles in one bag, but it seems like an uncomfortably large minority of charismatics, at least of the Catholic variety, are missing a few pieces of very important mental equipment.