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" Pentecostals have always been the red-headed stepchildren of American Christianity -- holy rollers who were known for speaking in tongues or laughing wildly and even barking like dogs while seized by religious ecstasy, or producing miracle healings on command and handling venomous snakes without fear. "

Disclaimer: I'm not Pentecostal myself but I have friends who are. Some living, some not.

I've never seen or known of any of them "laughing wildly", barking like dogs or handling snakes. One, who was a retired RN, prayed over my injured hand once after wrapping it with a bandage and giving me some aleve. I suppose that might qualify as a "miracle on command" in this guys books because my hand did get better.

Also, Oral Roberts was an evangelical Methodist by denomination, not Pentecostal.

Living here in "Northeastern Oklahoma", I can vouch for the fact that there's much criticism of the Roberts family that sticks, but my goodness... people like this guy ought to at least do some homework before they start revealing their ignorance.

Where does stuff like this come from?

Easy: from hell.

Because satan knows that “Christianity” neutered of Holy Spirit’s active and dramatic working is not that much of a threat to satan’s kingdom.

So satan spends a LOT of time and resources attacking and polluting Pentecostal/Charismatic expressions of Christianity.

If memory serves, Oral Roberts started out in the Pentacostal Holiness denomination but was asked to leave once he became “too controversial.” At that point he joined the Methodists who were pretty open about having him.

I am a Baptist who has spent most of his life in Georgia and central Florida and I can attest that snake handling churches do exist in the Appalachian region. I recall a couple of churches near Cartersville, GA where some serious bites ocurred a few years ago. There was also a church not far from here in Florida - I believe it was in Lakeland - where a revival took place in the ‘80’s where people who said they were touched by the Spirit would engage in what they called “divine laughter.” They claimed that it helped to heal them, body and soul.

Dog barking? I don’t know of any actual incidences of that. It is one of those things that non-Pentacostals like to talk about. Maybe there is truth behind it, maybe not.