Whatever Happened to the Charismatic Movement


Being old, I have a lot of accumulated memories about churches and religion. I was a participating church member for a long time and now an ex Christian for a long time. Religion has gone through several chapters in my lifetime--will continue to change I am sure. 

One of the peculiar periods of church life is referred to as the Charismatic Movement. I guess there have been Charismatics since way back. A general definition, correct this if you like, is a version of the faith where the individual, not the group, receives some presence of the spiritual world or the divine. It is demonstrated by people holding up their arms, sometimes talking a lot during a sermon and maybe speaking in tongues. To the outsider it looks like people are trying to let others know they are beamed up with a secret contact from the spiritual world. 

The link author grew up in a charismatic church in South Dakota. I recall the period, in the early 1970's when charismatic behavior started to become popular in "straight" denominations. The author said actual charismatics were alarmed at this popularity. They felt these newcomers were not really charismatics and did not understand it. I remember hearing about this popularity among other denominations.

I had a close friend, a Priest, back then who was head priest in a large ND Catholic church. He used to tell me about priest life and its frustrations. He said a number of people in his parish began commenting out loud during his sermons, something he had never experienced before. Perhaps it was a "Praise Jesus" kind of thing. Then, during the music they would sway and wave their arms back and forth. 

Predictably, lots of the other mass goers did not like this. The arm-waving talkers said they could not help but demonstrate the message they were being beamed from God (or from whomever). The others said they must "cut it out." My priest friend, who moonlighted as an academic sociologist, decided to try an experiment. He called a meeting for all those wanting to discuss this disagreement. After all sides had spent time complaining about the other side, he made an announcement. "All those who want to be demonstrative, attend the 9 AM mass only. All those who don't like that kind of worship attend the 10AM and 11 AM. If you show up at the wrong service, I'll bust heads." It worked, my friend said. He smiled with satisfaction. 

I've read the Charismatic branch of Christianity is doing well. As to what happened to all that Charismatic behavior in other churches, I don't know.


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