There are any number of beliefs held by any number of people of any number of faiths that doing X or not doing X, or doing Y or not, or whatever, will lead to some benefit (or, conversely, drawback) in one’s life. I have not heard much from the camp that believe praying in tongues is essential or whatever, and not a lot more from the camp that holds it to be a sign of some inherent evil.
My guess, as a “religious” person not tied very strongly to any particular religion, is that whatever makes you feel more secure in your faith/practices without impeding someone else’s life without their permission (“an’ ye harm none” from Wicca is the most succinct way I’ve seen of expressing it) is perfectly fine. As such, I have no beef whatsoever with people who think it’s just fine to pray in tongues (and if I did, I would indirectly be castigating my mother, and we really can’t go there:D), but the notion that someone is saying it’s got some bad connection to the devil (as opposed to a good one?) doesn’t rest well with me, really.
I would not go so far as to say it is essential or that it is a bad thing … I am sure one could present evidence (to various levels of competency) for both sides. I am inclined to say, based purely on personal experience, that speaking in tongues is really a fairly harmless thing. And if you cannot do it, then forcing it for show, or because you think it is necessary, is probably not going to bode well for your relationship with whatever deity you hold to.
I hastily add, for those who believe that modern glossalalia is hooey, we have not one but two dopers (one who rarely posts and one who posts even more rarely than that) who are able to perform such a feat … if that is the right phrase for it. I have heard one of them and other dopers have heard the other. You are more than welcome to believe it is all fake, but I would hope my non-religious stance in general, coupled with the belief that those two, at least, who say they can are not saying so purely for amusement … well, lends something of credibility, to say nothing of the fact that one of them is not Christian but can still do it. If you’re feeling particularly brave you can try and figure out that one:)
I will also add that from my personal experience (and as I have no .wav file I have no cite here) not everyone who speaks in tongues is doing so out of religious fervor/zeal/etc. I recall one time Peta Tsunami did so, at andygirl’s request, at a dopefest, and I can recall on more than one occasion when my mother has spoken in tongues. In neither of these two cases was it called upon by religious fervor (especially in the former case, since Peta is not religious:D).
Oddly enough? I wrote my sociolinguistics term paper on glossolalia. That was a fun one.
From a linguistic perspective, it isn’t language. Call it a sociological or psychological phenomenon if you like, but it isn’t language in the way that English or Urdu or ASL is. There’s no grammar and no constructable vocabulary. Glossolalic utterances tend to be reduplicated syllables; the same construction will be “interpreted” by those who claim to be able to interpret in wildly different ways. There is no discernable pattern overlap between people who practice it. (They don’t say the same stuff, in other words.)
“Interpreters” have also erroneously identified foreign languages as glossolalia, btw. I’m afraid I don’t have my cites with me, as my school computer is currently at, well, school.
Also, research indicates that the state of mind that one is generally in while producing glossolalia is very much like that of hypnosis.
So it’s not going to be in the Ethnologue anytime soon. Which doesn’t mean that it’s not one of those interesting religious phenomena.
If all you do is pray in tongues privately and it does indeed deepen your relationship with God, then I agree. But if you speak in tongues or do any of the other things being discussed in this group out in the open in front of other people, it’s important to think about how your actions affect other people’s relationship with God. I’m sure you would feel very bad if your speaking in tongues had a negative impact on a child, like what happened to devilsknew.
ResIpsaLoquitor - I quote your reference to “tongues” being “trendy”. I’m 32, and I’ve seen it in church since I was 12. Does something “trendy” last 20+ years? "Trendy would imply that it came for a season and then was “out”. I personally disagree, but I am surprised that so many people in charasmatic christian churches as listed herein haven’t been exposed to it.
HPL - “the whole needing to speak in tounges thing just felt a little creepy to me” - ? Need? Did someone tell you that you needed to speak in tongues to be in the “Assemblies of God” church? I guess I shouldn’t find that shocking, but I’m still easily shocked. lol!
devilsknew - “…but in most of these churches it is ritualized and has become part of the “service”. It is scheduled and there is usually a part of the service when it is acceptable…it is a convention-not supernatural.”
Wow, if that’s true, and that does happen…again, shocked.
I truly am sorry for those of you who have had bad experiences. Truly I am.
I am with TeaElle. Spot on. I was raised in an Assembly of God home, my parents are very active in leadership in “our” church, however I currently am not attending.
Yogini
In my Pentecostal church experience, you can definitely feel when someone’s about to pull their finger out of the dike (so to speak) and let the tongue-speaking floodgates burst open. It’s not a thing that gets turned on like a faucet, but rather it’s more like starting a car on a 30-degree morning and waiting for it to warm up. When someone pops off with a string of glossolalic brouhaha under the influence, it’s certainly a sight to behold, and I do not doubt that the people in my church are doing it out of a heartfelt desire to be closer to God and that the power of the Spirit being exhibited through them is a very real thing that is not to be taken lightly.
As for myself, I believe I’ve been slowly corrupted to a point where I can rarely let go of rational thought long enough to be affected by any given outpouring of the Spirit. It usually only happens during revivals, whenever an evangelist will come through town, which implies that the rest of the time, when it comes to tongues, I’m spiritually dormant. Which, as far as God’s spiritual agenda goes, does not look very good on my heavenly profile.
When you are under the power of the Spirit, you are not really in a position to be actively thinking about how your loss of control over your body and your falling on the carpet are affecting 8-year-old Johnny on the back pew. You are concerned with the fact that at that moment in time, you are one with God and you are tasting a sample on Earth of the buffet to come in Heaven. You’re in a state of ignorant bliss, praising the name of your God and giving Him all the glory in a moment when you could care less about the mortgage payment due tomorrow.
Speaking in tongues is largely considered evidence of a mutual relationship with the Holy Spirit, wherein He will bless you if you will give up your carnal inhibitions and bless Him. There is rarely an interpretation to accompany it (and if there is, it’s after a message where people have acknowledged that God is the One speaking and they have quieted down in order to pay reverence to what is being said), and it always happens in a moment when someone has put away all fleshly desires and decided to focus all their efforts on worshipping God.
I think it is fine to decide not to work it into your daily Christian routine or to not put total stock in it (as many denominations have done for hundreds of years with no noticeable bad effect), but I’m not sure the Almighty looks too kindly on those of like faith who deride those who take it seriously (I’m looking at white Baptists here - the many black Baptist churches I’ve been to also exercise a fair amount of tongue-speaking, and my pastor is a big fan of T.D. Jakes).