I sat in front of my computer entranced and repulsed by the film Jesus Camp earlier this week. The film is a dramatic depiction of Evangelicals indoctrinating their children with Christian religious beliefs in what I would describe as a cult-like fashion. We see children being home schooled with the pseudo-science of Young Earth Creationism. We see children being admonished that they are sinners and shamed into admitting their sins in front of their peers. We see children being forced to worship a “false idol”, a life sized cardboard cutout of George Bush. We see children believing that they are soldiers in "God’s Army". We see children being told about the evils of abortion through the use of fetus dolls. We see children approaching strangers on the street to spread the word of the God: witnessing. We see children being worked into tear streaming trance like states by the camp's nauseating Pastor. We see children practicing the strange phenomenon of speaking in tongues.

While all of the aforementioned practices are weird to varying degrees, the most bizarre of all has to be the Evangelical’s practice of speaking in tongues, or Glossolalia.

Glossolalia is defined at dictionary.com as "incomprehensible speech in an imaginary language, sometimes occurring in a trance state, an episode of religious ecstasy, or schizophrenia."

From Wikipedia:

Both Pentecostals and Charismatics believe that the ability to speak in tongues, and sometimes the utterance itself, is a supernatural gift from God.

From the Evangelical Speaking In Tongues website:

It is also commonly taught that you have not received the Holy Spirit and are not saved unless you have demonstrated the gift of speaking in tongues ...

Some skepticism from The Skeptic's Dictionary:

Glossolalics behave in various ways, depending on the social expectations of their community. Some go into convulsions or lose consciousness; others are less dramatic. Some seem to go into a trance; some claim to have amnesia of their speaking in tongues. All believe they are possessed by the Holy Spirit and the gibberish they utter is meaningful. However, only one with faith and the gift of interpretation is capable of figuring out the meaning of the meaningless utterances. Of course, this belief gives the interpreter unchecked leeway in "translating" the meaningless utterances. Nicholas Spanos notes: "Typically, the interpretation supports the central tenets of the religious community" (Spanos, 147).

And, from ABC News Nightline, let's finish up with a video segment that shows Evangelicals speaking in tongues.

I'm sure that you or I could speak in tongues if we were pressed to do so. Just rhyme off random foreign sounding gibberish with the odd "Jesus" thrown in occasionally to make it seem credible and none would be the wiser.