Warning! This covers a religious topic, not something I normally discuss. If you wish to skip this one, no worries. I’ll see you tomorrow.
I’m sincerely trying to understand this phenomena so don’t interpret this as being facetious or making fun.
The wife grew up Pentecostal and we tend to go to Pentecostal services on Sundays.
They believe in the ‘gifts of the Spirit’, divine gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit upon Christians. One such gift is Speaking in Tongues. My understanding of the gift is when someone starts speaking in a human language they don’t know (such as suddenly rattling off things in Spanish or French when you’ve never been able to speak them before) or speaking in an unknown language no one has heard before.
Further, it seems that if you are speaking in tongues it is either a personal prayer language used between the person and God, or if you are in a group setting then there should be a person speaking in tongues and a different person who interprets what was said.
I did not grow up Pentecostal. The first time I encountered this phenomena was when the preacher was going along in his sermon and suddenly changing to what I could only call babbling. I wasn’t sure what was going on at the time and it wasn’t util later when I asked the wife about it that she informed me the Pastor was speaking in tongues. She was unable to tell me the meaning of what he was saying. It has since happened multiple times but at least now I know what is going on.
To my ear I cannot discern any particular rhythm or syntax to what he is saying. I cannot recognize it as a ‘language’. There have not been any occasions where the Pastor has launched into speaking in tongues and someone else in the Church interprets it for the congregation so I have nothing like a Rosetta Stone to act as a basis for understanding.
I’m a programmer. I deal well with structure, order and logic. Speaking in tongues doesn’t seem to follow any of this. I find it very perplexing.
The Pastor has not been able to explain the phenomena to me beyond it being ‘a personal prayer language’. I do not get why you would need a language understood only by God to submit your prayers. Doesn’t God already understand all languages?
It seems to me that it would be much more practical if it operated like the ‘gift of the Timelords’ in Doctor Who. I’m not trying to be flippant here so hear me out. There was an episode where The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith are in Italy back in the 16th or 17th century (it’s been decades since I saw the episode and I’m working off memory here) when Sarah Jane suddenly realizes she understands everything being said and they understand her. The Doctor says it is ‘a gift of the Timelords’. Sarah Jane not only understands the actual words being spoken, but the meaning behind them as well. With as much miscommunication going on in the world today, where people don’t understand each other over the simplest things it would seem like this would be a much better application of ‘speaking in tongues’.
I would think something divine in nature would be something that brings people closer together. In my case is only causes consternation.
If someone out there can explain it to me or point me in the direction of something that would shed light on the subject I’d appreciate it.
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