Friday, May 16, 2008
And Then, My Jaw Hit The Floor
Long ago, partially to develop a program far more complex, and partially as a goof, a friend and I wrote a computer program that "spoke in tongues." It generated partially orders strings of letters that resembled speech but came out entirely non-sensical. We were trying to develop a program that could deliver 10 bars of music that "sounded like" whatever extraordinarily expensive jingle writer you wanted. Thus a local advertiser could get a very expensive sounding jingle for a fraction of the cost. The tongues program was a step in the evolution of the program.
At any rate, we joked that we could sell the tongues program to Christian publishers who could then grind out "books in tongues" by the truck loads. Needless to say, my friend and I did not have a very high view of public tongues. We were both in a place where the veracity of our faith was being called into question because we lacked the gift, and we were watching a number of otherwise completely reasonable people being being swept up in a mania of prophetic utterance that had become silly (e.g. - "I got a word that I need to go to the bathroom.")
With this background in mind, I actually took seriously MMI's link to this post about someone that blogs in tongues. Frankly, I always thought it inevitable that some durn fool would do that.
The essential question in the little tale I have just told concerns whether my cynicism lies at the heart of my gullibility, or is my gullibility a natural and reasonable result of how many charismatics abuse their gift and all that surrounds it. The answer, I think, is a little of both, plus some more.
The discussion surrounding tongues seems to be such an either/or based discussion - "You are not a full, true Christian if you do not speak in tongues, at least once." "Tongues died with the apostles." Where is the middle ground in all this? Such polarization invites lunacy, and creates my expectation thereof. My gullibility is not strictly about abuse of the gift of tongues, but it is about the extremism that so deeply marks the discussion - on both sides.
I long for a church marked by reason, not extremes.
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At any rate, we joked that we could sell the tongues program to Christian publishers who could then grind out "books in tongues" by the truck loads. Needless to say, my friend and I did not have a very high view of public tongues. We were both in a place where the veracity of our faith was being called into question because we lacked the gift, and we were watching a number of otherwise completely reasonable people being being swept up in a mania of prophetic utterance that had become silly (e.g. - "I got a word that I need to go to the bathroom.")
With this background in mind, I actually took seriously MMI's link to this post about someone that blogs in tongues. Frankly, I always thought it inevitable that some durn fool would do that.
All was going well for Heinburger until the time came for him to actually make his first post.That is written so authentically and so in line with my expectations that I bought it, hook, line, and sinker. Well that is, until I tried to find the actual blog discussed - a missing link is always a clue. A search of the "tongues phrase" cited yields only the MMI post and the underlying post. I was at once relieved and saddened. Relieved because the blog did not exist. Saddened by my expectations that is did.
"I sat in front of a blank screen for several hours" stated Heinburger. "I just didn't know where to begin. As a Christian I wanted to say something important and useful but I've never been much of a writer."
As the time passed Heinburger started a number of different posts only to become frustrated, erase them and start over again. This situation went on for several days until finally, late one night Heinburger claims he received a "revelation."
"I just sat in front of the computer and suddenly the most amazing thing happened" said Heinburger. "I just started typing, just anything, just whatever came to my mind. It just kept coming and coming without stopping. I didn't know what was happening to me."
When it was over Heinburger realized that had typed a rather lengthy post, but with one major distinguishing factor; it was all in "tongues." He quickly posted his words and went to sleep. He awoke the next morning and received quite a surprise.
"I woke up and checked my email to see that I had almost 50 comments on my first post" he said. "I checked my stats and over 2000 people have visited my site in just the day. All of these people were visiting my site and posting their interpretations of what I had written in tongues."
The essential question in the little tale I have just told concerns whether my cynicism lies at the heart of my gullibility, or is my gullibility a natural and reasonable result of how many charismatics abuse their gift and all that surrounds it. The answer, I think, is a little of both, plus some more.
The discussion surrounding tongues seems to be such an either/or based discussion - "You are not a full, true Christian if you do not speak in tongues, at least once." "Tongues died with the apostles." Where is the middle ground in all this? Such polarization invites lunacy, and creates my expectation thereof. My gullibility is not strictly about abuse of the gift of tongues, but it is about the extremism that so deeply marks the discussion - on both sides.
I long for a church marked by reason, not extremes.
Technorati Tags:tongues, blogging, expectations, reason, gullibility, extremeism
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