With all the other phobias we UMs are supposed to watch out for, I hate to burden us with another. Alas, it can't be helped; too many of us are guilty of charisphobia.
Dictionaries don't yet list the word charisphobia—UM author Ken Kinghorn coined it a while back. My definition of charisphobia is: "An unreasonable fear or loathing of fellow Christians possessing charismatic gifts or aligning themselves with the Charismatic movement."
For the uninitiated, Charismatics are those who are known for praying for instant healings, raising hands during worship services and speaking in tongues.
Since the mid-'60s more and more persons in the mainline Protestant denominations have taken to doing these things. And another large group has resented it, sometimes beyond reason.
The theology behind the Charismatic movement is that God gives the same gifts to Christians today He did to New Testament-era believers. Paul said he spoke in tongues. He even laid down rules for proper use of the gift. Charismatics figure both gift and rules are still valid.
Most Baptists are charisphobic because they are dispensationalists (one of the longest words I know). That is, they believe virtually all the supernatural gifts died off with the apostles. No self-respecting Methodist buys that idea. Thus our charisphobia is prompted by other complaints. Among them:
1. Charismatics split churches. Pressed mostly by noncharismatic evangelicals, this charge is mostly a leftover from the days of the Lay Witness Missions in the late '60s and early '70s. In those days there was often some truth to the charge. Some Methodists, awakened from their spiritual slumber by the Charismatic movement, got so fired up about God and the spiritual gifts that they became positively obnoxious. Sometimes members would sort of choose sides ("split the church").
But I have not heard a case of a local UM church being "split" by Charismatics for a good decade. Most mainline Charismatic leaders freely admit that some overdid it in the early days. They also insist on a new maturity in their ranks. Personally, for every church I've heard of being divided by the Charismatic movement I know of two or three which have been helped.
2. Charismatics push tongues. This accusation is favored by persons with roots in the Holiness movement. Generally speaking, Holiness adherents fear and loathe tongues-speaking.
The Holiness movement (of which I am a product) was the original renewal movement within Methodism. It ignited over a hundred years ago, teaching that we ought to take John Wesley's Holy Spirit theology seriously.
Ironically, one wing of the Holiness movement was the birthplace of Pentecostalism (which in turn later spun off the Charismatic movement). Early Pentecostals accepted Holiness teachings and added a couple of their own-namely, being filled with the Spirit would be evidenced by speaking in tongues. This notion was (and is) terribly resented by Holiness people. It implies anyone not speaking in tongues isn't filled.
The problem with this charge is that, while it is true for Pentecostals in Pentecostal denominations, in general it is not true for Charismatics in the United Methodist Church. I have never spoken in tongues, and though I've hung around with lots of Charismatic Methodists, none has even brought up the topic. My impression is that, while most Charismatics do speak in tongues in private, their real enthusiasm is not tongues but Jesus.
3. Charismatics don't make good Methodists. Here the institutionalists are getting in their licks. In my experience most institutionalists couldn't care less what people believe—they're usually only interested in what they do. In this view Methodist Charismatics don't fit well enough into the system.
One otherwise excellent bishop and I were discussing Charismatic pastors a while ago. He agreed they often produced great results. "But they never want to move," he lamented. I thought, The church needs pastors more interested in staying with a church until they get the job done than moving up the ladder!
Mark Rutland gives perhaps the last word on this self-defeating thinking in his new book, The Finger of God:
What a pathetic picture when businessmen are praying for revival and the district superintendent, like some adolescent Barney Fife, is swaggering about with his bullet in his shirt pocket, demanding that they "act like Methodists"!
Charisphobia is a real thing in the UMC. Some of the resentment makes no sense. Some made sense years ago. In either case it's time, and past time, we welcome with open arms persons who are excited about God. After all, we hardly have spiritual assets enough to squander.
This article was published in Good News magazine (September/October 1988).