What Do These Christian Kids Think They’re Doing? What About Their Parents? 1

Sometimes I’m dumbstruck when I see how people practice their religion. These folks, below, are anything but. They can’t shut up — and the mystery is, no one has a clue what they’re saying. Not even they do.

I’d wager that glossolalia (speaking in tongues, as this preacher does at 5m34s and at various other points in the video) is, for the most part, learned behavior. And the learning, evidently, starts young.

When adults perform this insanity, and they claim it brings them closer to their chosen deity, I reckon there’s no harm in it (other than that it helps destroy rational people’s faith in humankind, of course).

I’m not so sure about their offspring. Should kids be encouraged to carry on this way? Or is this a form of indoctrination bordering on child abuse?

It does remind me an awful lot of this pro-teeth-brushing scene from a Barney show, but less funny.

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One comment on “What Do These Christian Kids Think They’re Doing? What About Their Parents?

  1. Rebecca May 31,2013 1:01 am

    Most interesting, I think, is to watch the kids who *don’t* immediately start doing it. Toward the beginning, there’s a boy in the foreground who is standing and watching-it looks to me as if he isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do and, I’d guess, is probably waiting for some authentically irresistible force to overtake him. The person behind him (presumably a parent?) keeps their hand on the back of his neck, and is clearly pushing him forward–and yet, he doesn’t do it. The pastor comes over and puts his hand on his head–he still doesn’t. Three more adults crowd around, blocking the camera, and we can’t see what happens next, but the next time we see the scene from that camera, there is no confused boy standing, observing from the outside anymore.

    Later, another boy is walking around, watching the other kids–he strikes me as more amazed/incredulous and less, “waiting for guidance” as the first one. The pastor and at least one other adult converge on him at the same time, doing a move I’ve heard called “slaying in the spirit.” Essentially, the pastor pushes him over and the other adult guides him to the floor.

    Basically–obvious coercion on display here.

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