Comments on: Glossolalia and Sarah Palin, Part 3

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:44:39 +0000

This is a very interesting post. It reminds me of This American Life. Very well written.

I had a coworker that went to a Pentecostal summer camp as a little girl, and the campers learned to speak in tongues. But the coworker never picked up on it. She returned to her cabin, and there was Susie or whatever her name was, still speaking in tongues, and my coworker thought, “OK, little miss tongues, enough already. You think you’re so cool. What is wrong with me?”

By: Mark T. /Denver Co.

Mark T. /Denver Co. — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:49:59 +0000

It was very interesting to read your comments. I was at Faith Center during the same time period as you. Roy, even in death is an inspiration to me, an example of someone who lived what he believed. I only hope that my own life will be as much of an inspiration and shining example of the life of Jesus as was Roy’s.

By: unclevinny

unclevinny — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:46:59 +0000

Thanks for the comment! Yep, I’d tend to agree about Roy’s character. He seemed to have a lot of integrity, and really deeply wanted to do the right thing… wanted everyone else to do so as well, of course.

The thing is, as I grew into my mid-teens, it started to bother me that the church became more affluent, and that it was kind of a running joke that Roy had a really fancy sports car (a Corvette, maybe? It was black) and he was always getting speeding tickets. At that time I was starting to take Jesus’ message about materialism seriously. His message of “sell all that you own, give it to the poor, and come and follow me” is pretty straightforward, and kind of hard to square with the behavior of most Christians except for monks and nuns. The whole Corvette thing seemed like such a flagrant deviation from that, and it took a little of the shine of Roy for me.

Having said all that… the same would be true for plenty of preachers, and Roy had uncommon leadership and inspirational gifts that more than made up for his faults. I guess it just began to bother me how much modern Christianity misdirects its energies away from serving the poor and towards politics and meddling with other people’s rights.

Ugh, this is getting too long. I’ll make another blog post sometime!

By: Charlotte

Charlotte — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:29:45 +0000

Hi.. )

I just happened to come across your post. I went to Faith Center too..probably..early to mid eighties?

I have to say one thing about Roy Jr. I know what you mean about the bizarre nature of the Charismatic faith, but..I have to say–out of all the ministers I’ve known..and I’ve known a lot of them–none of them had the level of integrity that Roy did. I’ve yet to meet another like him.

He had no problem nailing..a problem! I started out–living in Bend. The pastor we had there was out of Faith Center. He would constantly complain about how “mean” Roy was. Roy..didn’t mince words when it came to wrongdoing. My pastor–had problems with that.

I’m so glad I got to know him. He really was one of a kind.

Charlotte Groth
Rio Linda, CA

By: lolarusa

lolarusa — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:50:42 +0000

This is a great essay. I had a similar experience growing up in a fundamentalist church. We didn’t speak in tongues, but there was the same expectation that the Holy Spirit was at work in the church, and the same gnawing suspicion – and eventual conviction – that half the people there were mistaking their own emotions for supernatural events and the other half were doing what they thought was expected of them.

It’s sometimes hard to describe the excruciating cognitive dissonance that a child feels growing up in a fundamentalist church, but you’ve done it very well.

And you’ve also captured the fact that these kinds of churches can be very fun – which is why they’re so popular.

By: daranee

daranee — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:50:04 +0000

Great story. The moment for me was when you grew impatient and just started babbling. I was raised Southern Baptist (Southern Baptist convention) and I had a friend who went to Vineyard Christian Fellowship which is a non-denominational version of a Pentecostal church.

My friend would tell me about how the spirit of the lord would knock people over in church. That people would literally fall back as if pushed by a strong force. Of course I wanted to be knocked over by the spirit of the lord too. So I went to her church. I saw people talking in tongues. I saw people rolling around the ground laughing. It was actually a little chaotic to hold my interest. After a few times, I realized that I wasn’t going to get knocked over and I stopped going.

Thanks for posting this. It was very interesting.

By: unclevinny

unclevinny — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:35:46 +0000

Thanks for reading! Yeah, I have a bunch of stories about my Pentecostal days, I should probably blog ‘em. My millworking and blackjack-dealing days might make for a few good posts, too.

By: David

David — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:29:34 +0000

Wow. Interesting stuff there, pal. Amazing how many people have fascinating and unpredictable episodes in their past. Thanks.