Pentocostal

[MrsSassyPants]

How many of us have experienced they're circus?  Dancing around, practically ordering from the pulpit to get involved/on your feet, talk in tounges etc.  I went in front of the church with an honest desire to speak in tounges, but what came out..only a desire from within myself to say "fa la la la laaaaa" you get the point.  They will push you down, if the spirit forgets to.

[MrsSassyPants]

I lost God, and found atheism soon after that. Life has never been better.

[billhilly]

I went to one with my aunt and uncle once when I was a kid.  Pretty freaky deal all around.  Quite a bit different from the baptist church I was used to at the time.  No snakes though.................

[MrsSassyPants]

True!!!!! Great point!! Any people on here recovering from snake handling religion?   Wow, I would love to hear about that.

[stromboli]

Assemblies of God. Need say no more.

[_Xenu_]

True!!!!! Great point!! Any people on here recovering from snake handling religion?   Wow, I would love to hear about that.

I would love to hear about Westboro Baptist taking that up.  

[billhilly]

I'll donate some snakes.

[mykcob4]

How many of us have experienced they're circus?  Dancing around, practically ordering from the pulpit to get involved/on your feet, talk in tounges etc.  I went in front of the church with an honest desire to speak in tounges, but what came out..only a desire from within myself to say "fa la la la laaaaa" you get the point.  They will push you down, if the spirit forgets to.

That religious sect has evolved into what they now describe themselves as "charismatic." I don't actually know what that means, but my guess it is a lisence for the preacher to do what ever the hell he wants and for that church to follow in lockstep obedience.

[Lao Tou]

In my youth I went to several Wednesday night pentacostal prayer meetings at a Catholic church. Weird stuff. I prayed and prayed but never spoke in tongues. Never felt anything except that this might just be a bit of BS. Fortunately I then evolved into a more normal college student and started partying with people who only talk nonsense after too many beers.

[SGOS]

How many of us have experienced they're circus?  Dancing around, practically ordering from the pulpit to get involved/on your feet, talk in tounges etc.

I've known quite a few Pentecostals, but not from any church I ever attended, so I never got in on the gymnastics.  Without all the yelling and jumping around, they're just fundamentalists aren't they?

At one time, circumstances in my life put me in a situation where I was surrounded by fundamentalists, some of who were Pentecostals.  It was an eye opener to observe their inner faith and thought processes.  After many years of considering myself an agnostic, it provided the final nudge I needed to throw off any chains I still had to any sort of religious nonsense.

In some ways, I admired their commitment to their faith, but their reasoning and problem solving abilities were an abysmal testament to ignorance enhanced by religious indoctrination.  

People tend to reject the unfamiliar.  It's why Christians think the Hindus are wacky, and I would agree with that, but not because they have an elephant for a god, which I admit seems mighty strange.  But it's the reasoning behind the absurd beliefs that makes them wacky, and that reasoning is what makes Christianity every bit as strange as the rest of the religions around the world and from throughout ancient history.

[Colanth]

I have never been to their church, but their tongues or Glossolalia made me form a theory that an uneducated American invented it, someone who went to a catholic Church in Mexico and listened to a Spanish preacher, and being too stupid to understand Spanish, mimed the phonemes idiotically and brought it to the Pentecostal church to perform.

Wrong.  It comes directly from the Bible.  Mark 16:17 "These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues"

Acts 2:4 "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."

Speaking in tongues is mentioned many times in the Bible.  But, as with most religion, what's currently done is just a misinterpretation.  Back then the religion was a sect of Judaism, so everyone spoke Aramaic.  When it expanded to include people from other places, other languages were heard.  Those are the "tongues" spoken of in the Bible - languages that the Jews hadn't heard before.  It never meant anything like glossolalia.  (The word used means "languages".)

[MrsSassyPants]

Pentocostals speak in "tongues", lay hands on each other, and "speak" good into existence. If god "spoke" the world into existence, then we can speak good things, and they will come to pass. . This preacher told me god would take me from "glory to glory" but yet my life was still horrible!!!!  And thank god that BS lifted the smoke from my eyes bc I realized I was brainwashed.  I honestly never spoke in tongues, but the preacher spent 20 minutes with me trying. LOL.   I personally knew that I wanted it to be genuine and I waited for it to happen uncontrolled by me.  And of course it did not.  I had to create the noise, which I was not going to do.  All the people around me said it just happened!!! "Wow, god made me speak BABBLE!!"  Of course I am being slightly sarcastic, but that is basically what they said.

[Mister Agenda]

I was raised Pentecostal. United Pentecostal on my dad's side. Assembly of God on my mother's. The position of each church that the other was hell-bound based on a difference of opinion on one verse was noted.

As a clarification, my father didn't become serious about his Pentecostalism until after the divorce, so it wasn't a barrier between them during their marriage.

[Smartmarzipan]

Grew up Pentecostal (Assembly of God). Ain't nothing new to me.

[Mister Agenda]

I managed the speaking in tongues thing, Smarzy, though it didn't come easily (I thought there had to be more to it than opening your mouth and babbling)...you?