If you are not familiar with the Pentecostal denomination of Christianity, they tend to be on the more extreme end of fundamentalism. The church in which I grew up was very strict. We had a really long list of things we didn't do or didn't approve of and we were very proud of our list. It showed how good and righteous we all were.
Members of the congregation 'speaking in tongues' was a regular event in each service. In fact, as it was taught in that church at that time, you hadn't received the 'Holy Ghost' if you hadn't spoken in tongues, and you were not 'saved'. Hell fire and damnation was a regular feature in the sermons. But if you have not ever sat through a service like that you cannot understand it. There is nothing else in our society to give a context for comparison.
When fundamentalist speak in tongues, it is always unintelligible. No two different people 'speak' the same and in my experience, no one ever interprets what is spoken. And if you know your scripture, you know to speak in tongues without interpretation is useless. That part was not discussed though. Also ignored was that fact that we were all native English speakers and so to speak in tongues was superfluous. In our church there were the regulars; those who would stand up and speak in tongues with predictable regularity. There were the newcomers, those who showed up a few times, spoke in tongues but in a short time would fade out of the scene the same way they drifted in.
The regulars 'spoke' frequently and with ease. For anyone else it was an extended and arduous experience. Usually it would start with an alter call. Someone praying fervently, perhaps staying at the alter longer than anyone else would have. Then one person would come over and lay hands on them. Then another, and another. Eventually there would be a mass of people surrounding a single person, all of them reaching to put their hands on that one person. The prayers would become louder and more fervent. Eventually the one person at the center would begin crying and speaking in tongues.
Sometimes people speaking in tongues would fall down on the floor and begin convulsing as if having a seizure. Sometimes they would begin jumping up and down while convulsing and they would begin screaming louder and louder. Others would run up and down the aisles.
When I was about six or seven I spoke in tongues. I ran up and down the aisles. While I was aware of my self and what was happening around me, there was a sense of being outside of myself. Looking back I believe that it was a state of hysteria. I can elaborate at length but I will spare the reader, at least for the time being.
That same night I spoke in tongues I was baptized. Then everything went back to normal. It was a big and important occasion, sort of like all of the sudden it arbitrarily became a holiday and everyone responded accordingly. I was baptized, then just like that it was over and I was just a kid. Like any other kid. I didn't ever speak in tongues again. In time that became an issue that would lead to my first of many spiritual crisis'.
It happened that my first spiritual crisis coincided with my mother's illness getting worse and then dying. Predictably, I thought God took my mother to punish me.
Then my dad didn't behave the way the church 'family' thought he should and we were all ostracized. Take a moment dear reader, consider a child about eight or nine years old thinking that God has taken his mother because he has been bad, quite possibly because he has not spoken in tongues. That child has had contact with his church severed. I had lost my mother. My church family. I had been isolated from all of my friends.
My father, in his grief became a somewhat irregular presence. We were passed from my father to grandparents to one of two other families, back and forth, like a hot potato. And it is all about to get worse.
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