Babbling in ‘Tongues’

by | July 15, 2021

By James Haught

President Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court may rouse debate over the dubious Christian practice of “speaking in tongues,” or glossalalia.

She’s a fervent Catholic who belongs to a charismatic fringe clique, People of Praise, whose members reportedly babble “the tongues” like all Pentecostals. Various researchers say the kooky practice has spread so much that one-fourth of all Christians around the world are tongue-talkers.

During Senate confirmation hearings, it will be interesting to see whether any senators or news reporters are brazen enough to ask her bluntly: “Have you spoken in tongues?”

Comedian Bill Maher certainly is brazen enough. During his HBO monologue, he blurted: “She’s a fuckin’ nut [about] religion…. I mean really, really Catholic — like speaking in tongues.”

Back when I was religion reporter for our Appalachian newspaper, I witnessed “the tongues” frequently — especially at remote mountain churches where believers picked up rattlesnakes. A worshiper suddenly would spout gibberish like “shend-a-la-goosh-a-ma-dee-dee-dee,” causing nearby churchgoers to erupt in similar sounds. I took my doctor to a service, and he said the talkers seemed to be in hypnotic trances. Believers themselves said the Holy Ghost took control of them, and they had no power over the outflowing utterances.

A couple of years ago, I wrote the following analysis:

 — -

The Book of Acts says the risen Jesus told his apostles “ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” And when they gathered on Pentecost, “suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind… and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire… and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues.”

Just over a century ago, a little-educated evangelist named William Seymour, a son of ex-slaves, preached that modern Americans could “get the tongues” as the apostles did. In a Los Angeles slum, he led followers in ardent prayer, hoping for the “rushing mighty wind” from heaven.

Finally, on April 9, 1906, after five weeks of beseechment, a follower began spouting uncontrollable sounds. Next meeting, six more believers experienced glossalalia. Then the minister himself followed — and word of the “miracle” spread like wildfire. Hundreds, thousands, of believers flocked to the ramshackle church, where many “got the tongues.” Excitement spawned missionaries who carried the mysterious new phenomenon to other cities — and finally to other countries.

The Los Angeles Times heard the buzz and sent a reporter, who wrote:

“Meetings are held in a tumble-down shack on Azusa Street, and the devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories and work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their peculiar zeal. African Americans and sprinkling of whites compose the congregation, and night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howlings of the worshipers, who spend hours swaying forth and back in a nerve-wracking attitude of prayer and supplication. They claim to have the ‘gift of tongues’ and be able to understand the babble.”

Another L.A. newspaper reported:

“They cry and make howling noises all day and into the night. They run, jump, shake all over, shout to the top of their voice, spin around in circles, fall out on the sawdust-blanketed floor jerking, kicking and rolling all over it. Some of them pass out and do not move for hours as though they were dead. These people appear to be mad, mentally deranged or under a spell.”

Pentecostalism became the name of the practice, and it snowballed into a national, then worldwide, movement. The Assemblies of God was established in 1914, followed by the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World in 1916 and the Pentecostal Church of God in 1919.

For decades, Pentecostals remained a remote fringe, derided as “holy rollers.” But gradually, they inched into the mainstream. Republican politicians like Sarah Palin and John Ashcroft were Assemblies of God believers.

As late as 1980, Pentecostals were smallish, comprising a tiny fringe of Christianity. Then a remarkable upsurge occurred. The Atlas of Pentecostalism, maintained by the Pulitzer Center, says:

“An estimated 35,000 people join the Pentecostal church each day. Of the world’s 2 billion Christians, a quarter are now Pentecostal — up from 6 percent in 1980.”

As most of Christianity shrinks, Pentecostals are the fastest-growing group. A Wheaton Theology report says:

“There were 631 million Pentecostals in 2014, comprising nearly one-fourth of all Christians. There were only 63 million Pentecostals in 1970, and the number is expected to reach 800 million by 2025.”

Will much of Christianity be transformed into jerking, howling, swooning congregations who utter incoherent sounds? If so, that’s one more reason for thinking people to renounce irrational supernaturalism.

(Haught is editor emeritus of West Virginia’s largest newspaper, The Charleston Gazette-Mail, and also a senior editor of Free Inquiry magazine, where the latter section of this essay was published in theFeb-March 2018 issue.)

— 

*Associates and resources listing last updated May 31, 2020.*

Canadian Atheist Associates: Godless Mom, Nice Mangoes, Sandwalk, Brainstorm Podcast, Left at the Valley, Life, the Universe & Everything Else, The Reality Check, Bad Science Watch, British Columbia Humanist Association, Dying With Dignity Canada, Canadian Secular Alliance, Centre for Inquiry Canada, Kelowna Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists Association.

— 

Other National/Local Resources: Association humaniste du Québec, Atheist Freethinkers, Central Ontario Humanist Association, Comox Valley Humanists, Grey Bruce Humanists, Halton-Peel Humanist Community, Hamilton Humanists, Humanist Association of London, Humanist Association of Ottawa, Humanist Association of Toronto, Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics of Manitoba, Ontario Humanist Society, Secular Connextions Seculaire, Secular Humanists in Calgary, Society of Free Thinkers (Kitchener-Waterloo/Cambridge/Guelph), Thunder Bay Humanists, Toronto Oasis, Victoria Secular Humanist Association.

— 

Other International/Outside Canada Resources: Allianz vun Humanisten, Atheisten an Agnostiker, American Atheists, American Humanist Association, Associação Brasileira de Ateus e AgnósticoséééBrazilian Association of Atheists and Agnostics, Atheist Alliance International, Atheist Alliance of America, Atheist Centre, Atheist Foundation of Australia, The Brights Movement, Center for Inquiry (including Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science), Atheist Ireland, Camp Quest, Inc., Council for Secular Humanism, De Vrije Gedachte, European Humanist Federation, Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, Foundation Beyond Belief, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Humanist Association of Ireland, Humanist International, Humanist Association of Germany, Humanist Association of Ireland, Humanist Society of Scotland, Humanists UK, Humanisterna/Humanists Sweden, Internet Infidels, International League of Non-Religious and Atheists, James Randi Educational Foundation, League of Militant Atheists, Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, National Secular Society, Rationalist International, Recovering From Religion, Religion News Service, Secular Coalition for America, Secular Student Alliance, The Clergy Project, The Rational Response Squad, The Satanic Temple, The Sunday Assembly, United Coalition of Reason, Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics.

— 

About Canadian Atheist

Canadian Atheist is an independent blog with multiple contributors providing articles of interest to Canadian atheists, secularists, humanists, and freethinkers.

Canadian Atheist is not an organization — there is no membership and nothing to join — and we offer no professional services or products. It is a privately-owned publishing platform shared with our contributors, with a focus on topics relevant to Canadian atheists.

Canadian Atheist is not affiliated with any other organization or group. While our contributors may be individually be members of other organizations or groups, and may even speak in an official capacity for them, CA itself is independent.

For more information about Canadian Atheist, or to contact us for any other reason, see our contact page.

— 

About Canadian Atheist Contributors

Canadian Atheist contributors are volunteers who provide content for CA. They receive no payment for their contributions from CA, though they may be sponsored by other means.

Our contributors are people who have both a passion for issues of interest to Canadian atheists, secularists, humanists, and freethinkers, and a demonstrated ability to communicate content and ideas of interest on those topics to our readers. Some are members of Canadian secularist, humanist, atheist, or freethought organizations, either at the national, provincial, regional, or local level. They come from all walks of life, and offer a diversity of perspectives and presentation styles.

CA merely provides our contributors with a platform with almost complete editorial freedom. Their opinions are their own, expressed as they see fit; they do not speak for Canadian Atheist, and Canadian Atheist does not speak for them.

For more information about Canadian Atheist’s contributors, or to get in contact with any of them, or if you are interested in becoming a contributor, see our contact page.

— 

Image Credit: James Haught.

Category: Education Tags: ,

About Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the Founder of In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal and In-Sight Publishing. Jacobsen works for science and human rights, especially women’s and children’s rights. He considers the modern scientific and technological world the foundation for the provision of the basics of human life throughout the world and advancement of human rights as the universal movement among peoples everywhere. You can contact Scott via email, his website, or Twitter.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.