The programmed responses freak me out because I see them as very cult-like. The speaking in tongues thing isn’t “freaky”, it’s sad. I’m embarrassed for people I see doing it because they have fooled themselves so completely that they’re out there babbling like an idiot and thinking it makes them special. I find that more pathetic than freaky.
“The rest of it” that you are not sure if you understood was a commentary on some earlier chatter where I may not have been clear. Essentially I was saying that the harder your life, the “meaner” your Christian God. OT nomads had it hard, their God was vengeful. NT people had it much easier, their God was correspondingly much nicer. Eastern Christian foundations were from a “civil” place for the time period, their God is compassionate. Western Christian religions, those in America, anyway, have their foundations with the first settlers, who had to literally build a world out of the mud, their God is much harsher, much stricter. With some notable exceptions a particular version of God tends to be as “hard” as the lives of his worshipers at the time of the religion’s founding. Thus, new versions of the Christian God would be much friendlier, reflecting the much easier lives of people today.
There are, of course, exceptions. Some Christian religions are born out of hate or anger and, accordingly, their version of God reflects that hatred and anger. He will be invariably vengeful and, as luck would have it, would direct his wrath at exactly the people the religion’s founders are angry with or hate.
Essentially it’s a commentary on a phenomena we’ve all seen, any given person’s version of God always tends to have the same likes and dislikes as the person, and with the same intensity. I don’t like homosexuality? Hey! Neither does my God! I think it’s okay to have two wives? Wouldn’t you know it, so does God! I’m angry at liberals? Well, God says they’re going to Hell for their evil work of giving health care to poor people! I think we should all just get along? Well, of course God says the same thing right here in the Bible! So, essentially, hard life, hard God. Easy life, laid back God. Kind of the “backbone” of what makes the religious beliefs evolve.