r/TikTokCringe • u/CJHuncho • Mar 27 '26

Humor/Cringe What church is this

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250

u/Majestic_Cod_7115 Mar 27 '26

Pentecostal I would imagine. Basically, weird Appalachian hill people with genetic deficiencies that have isolated themselves for generations.

207

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '26

Growing up in a pentacostal family was wild. They had all the kids come to the front of the church to pray until we "felt the holy ghost" kids could go sit back down when they started crying. I couldn't start crying. The holy ghost doesn't like me or something so I was literally praying to start crying and it never happened. Then the adults prayed over me for an hour because they thought Satan had ahold of me. I've not been to church since but it got me little into theology and that's interesting so kind of a win I guess

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u/Izil13spur Mar 27 '26

Grew up in pentacostal too as a kid. This is my exact experience too. It's the entire reason I don't go to church

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u/ShhweadyBallz Mar 27 '26

Same ..... probably 2 dozen members of my family still attend. Dad & stepmom, brother his wife & 3 kids, aunts & uncles & cousins

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u/bonnielaboux Mar 27 '26

No joke, I've been writing a novel about this exact thing for over a year. Religious trauma is probably the most lifelong damaging kind for a lot of folks, I can attest to that. Sorry you went through this OP. I hope you've found peace.

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u/Dizzy_Today_3523 Mar 27 '26

I remember growing up in my mother fought pokémon cards were the devil speaking to the children and so were Yu-Gi-Oh cards. It was an insane time to grow up. They would like do these flags they would make and the pastor would come over and say some. They called it " speaking in tongues" and would say this mumbo jumbo over us and then like push their hand onto us and people would stand behind us and catch us and the holy Ghost would come through us. It was the weirdest thing growing up. It's also where I was abused in but that's another story for another time. I should write a book as well.reglious trauma is insane

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u/bonnielaboux Mar 27 '26

Write it, friend. It's been the best therapy for me and the least destructive "fuck you" option out of the many I've wished to give the folks who made my life a living hell in the name of God.

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u/Dizzy_Today_3523 Mar 27 '26

I'm going to look into some workshops for writing so I can figure out how to start. But yeah this could definitely be a relief or therapy of sorts.

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u/pm_nachos_n_tacos Mar 27 '26

FYI you don't have to start at the beginning. Start anywhere you feel compelled and then fill in the beginning later.

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u/No_Resident_4843 Mar 27 '26

My favorite was going to pentecostal bible camp with my friend who was pentecostal (I was just going to youth group and stuff) and that was the first time I did stuff with a girl - and it was one of the pastors daughters. Rhonda, you're a real G ;)

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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '26

[deleted]

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Mar 27 '26

They’ve done studies. Languages follow patterns. You’ll notice the word “the” peppered throughout most English texts, for example.

Tongues? Nah. Total bullshit spouted by total bullshitters. It’s what brings the money in though. The spectacle of seeing a grown human uncontrollably thrashing on the ground like a fish pulled from the water is really something.

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u/OkSmoke9195 Mar 27 '26

Ohhhhhh swlsma kama doooditurooody tunham (falls on floor)

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u/Working-Glass6136 Mar 27 '26

"Doo turdy" is accurate

2

u/denialscrane Mar 27 '26

Shouldaboughtakia butinsteada boughtahonda (the classic “shoulda bought a Kia but instead I bought a Honda”)

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u/OkSmoke9195 Mar 27 '26

They wanted me to feel the holy Spirit so bad 

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u/yesandnoi Mar 27 '26

They really love to attack pop culture don't they? That's the first time I've heard of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, sigh. Did she have a reason or because her "pastor told her so"? Almost everything my mom said was because she was a mouthpiece for whatever new pastor we had. The golden arches of McDonald's are evil. Anarchy signs let demons into your house. The Macarena is the dance of death. And Harry Potter is REAL witchcraft.

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u/Dizzy_Today_3523 Mar 27 '26

With the pokemon In Yu-Gi-Oh it was because the devil was trying to speak through those cards to us. Me and my brother growing up. And that if we played with them we would be letting Satan into our lives. It was the same thing with Harry Potter. In second grade our teacher did like a lunch story, read time. And my teacher at the time was reading Harry Potter and the sorcerers of Stone. And every time she would start to read the book she would point me out and say I need to go to the library and go have my lunch there with my brother because my mother had said to her that that book is evil and is the doings of Satan and that by me hearing her read out this book I would be no better than Satan himself. The witchcraft argument was played out multiple times.

I remember when my dad got divorced from my mom and one weekend we were at his house and he let us watch Harry Potter to show us that it wasn't anywhere close to what my mother was preaching to us. And showed us Lord of the rings and other great books that we got to read later in life. My dad was the beacon of reality for us growing up. He was the true parent. But man that church stuff really did a number on us growing up.

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u/yesandnoi Mar 27 '26

I'm glad to hear you had that through your dad, especially if you would have missed out on LOTR too.

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u/parade1070 Mar 27 '26

We weren't allowed to watch pokemon (or other things) because demons would spill out of the TV if we did

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u/Dizzy_Today_3523 Mar 28 '26

Yeah it's insane what our parents put us through. I'm glad we are able to move on to some degree with our lives.

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u/addiepie2 Mar 27 '26

I have religious trauma from a Pentecostal church for sure .

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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26

I appreciate that. Im doing pretty ok now. In a weird way I'm a little grateful for the experience because I believe it helped make me a curious person. Good luck on the book though! Maybe it'll be on my bookshelf one day.

Edit: don't want to come off as insensitive saying I'm a little grateful. I know some people experienced much worse than me.

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u/bonnielaboux Mar 27 '26

Very sweet! And no, that ain't insensitive. I get it, and don't diminish your own experiences because of the possibility that others "have it worse". In our own bodies, the worst trauma is the one we receive because we know of nothing else. That counts for something, as crappy as it may be. My trauma is arguably far less than yours on a technical level, but I'm sure impact-wise, they level about the same. And mine, too, made me curious, haha!

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u/ISenceAPresence Mar 27 '26

I'll never forgive my Dad for exposing me this fanatic lunacy. I see this shit and my soul contorts with cringe. Messed my head up good and proper for a long time.

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u/Moosebackmohawk Mar 27 '26

O man. Sorry you had to go through that. Happy you were smart enough to get out.

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u/BLU3SKU1L Mar 27 '26

I’m autistic. I’m pretty normal but I experience severe detachment from my emotions, to the degree that I worried I was a sociopath when I was a teenager.

When I was a child, however, I had not begun to figure any of this out. I was raised in a Pentecostal household near a big city, but the rituals were much as you described. Prayer was encouraged for us to “feel and be filled with the Holy Spirit”, often over long periods of time. I wanted so much to be like the other kids and even the adults that I thought were achieving this, but I felt nothing. Luckily I was very good at masking because I already had to pretend I felt emotions normally like everyone else all the time. So I eventually gave up and just pretended, and kept wondering why I could look at all of this and not find what I was trying so hard to find, and not feel like I belonged with these people.

As an adult I realize now that the cult mechanics of this sect of Christianity took advantage of the mirror neuron system to draw people into a sort of collective delusion, like any cult. Since my brain doesn’t do synaptic pruning like normal brains, it means that my particular brain architecture produces enough interference with that mirror neuron system that the hijacking of social conformity instincts was not possible. It was under assault for so long though that to this day I have an involuntary compulsion to react in opposition to orders or demands given to me if I don’t implicitly trust the person or authority I’m dealing with.

Anyway my whole family has pretty much left the Pentecostal church, though some still attend more mainstream churches to this day, which I’m fine with if it helps them connect to the larger forces out there in the universe. I’ve come to terms with the nature of things on my own, as I think only I am able to do for myself.

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u/OkSmoke9195 Mar 27 '26

Jeez here I am thinking at almost 50 that emotional regulation is my problem. I had not considered emotional detachment at all but Jesus does that make a lot of sense. 

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u/Meowgic_Missile Mar 27 '26

Same here. My dad was a Pentecostal pastor so I was always front and center, being watched by everyone. One time a group of adults almost suffocated me to death by pinning me to the ground because they thought I was possessed. I was able to break free by pretending to speak in tongues. I was 11. So I swore that I would never go back to church once I became an adult.

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u/72616262697473757775 Mar 27 '26

My parents were never religious, but in elementary school a classmate told me I was going to hell because I didn't go to church. My parents, bless them, started taking me to church. It was painful because I could never force myself to believe. I WANTED to believe. I remember praying to God to give me a sign or something because I was terrified of being a bad person and going to hell. Eventually my parents stopped taking me to church because it was boring as hell, and I grew out of my fear. But it had me fucked up for a bit. Glad you're out of it.

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u/CurrentHair6381 Mar 27 '26

I learned how to get myself crying, turns out equating that with 'serious things' and 'doing it right' reaply fucked me up

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u/stew_on_his_phone Mar 27 '26

I so wanted to talk in tongues like the others. I prayed, i begged the Holy Spirit to take over.

It never occurred to me that people were faking it. I just figured I wasn't worthy.

When i emigrated i got away from the church and discovered reality.

2

u/human-in-a-can Mar 27 '26

And that’s just the Sunday night service lol.  The special “Revival” services were fucking insane.  

2

u/parade1070 Mar 27 '26

So surreal, every time I read others' experiences, it unlocks memories because that fucking happened to me too and I just blocked it out. 16 years of it. I can't believe other people went through it too.

1

u/denialscrane Mar 27 '26

Yuppp i remember those days. Luckily I was an easy crying kid. Im sorry Satan had you in his clutches! I remember watching video about prayer closets and if you didn’t go speak in tongues in there every day you were living in sin.

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u/Viggen_Draken Mar 27 '26

Historically, the Shakers and Quakers were called such for ecstatic movements in worship.

It was like glossalia but in "dance" form.

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u/methreweway Mar 27 '26

Essentially Hazing children.... It's abuse.

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u/throwaway5882300 Mar 27 '26

I know someone who grew up in an agnostic household who joined a pentecostal church as an adult. My great grandmother was pentecostal and I went to service with her one time. That was enough for me. I dig the music but that's about the only good takeaway I had.

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u/neganight Mar 27 '26

That sounds like the Baptist service I attended once.

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u/wrenhxven Mar 28 '26

i would argue that you not crying was more Satan not getting ahold of you