A preacher checked his phone while 'speaking in tongues' and now it's a meme

Charismatic movements and megachurches are a strange phenomenon for those looking in from the outside. While people are free to worship in whatever way they see fit, the likes of Joel Osteen have been heavily criticized for benefiting massively off their following. 

Osteen reportedly lives in a mansion worth $10.5 million but was criticized when his congregation started turning away Hurricane Harvey victims in need of food and shelter from his Lakewood megachurch. Following social media backlash, the church went on to open their doors. 

And now another preacher, Perry Stone of Perry Stone Ministries in Cleveland, Tennessee, is also being criticized. 

The Friendly Atheist blog recently shared a short section of Stone leading a service at Omega Center International in Tennessee on Thursday. In the clip, Stone appears to be speaking in tounges, but partway through the video Stone picks up and checks his phone. While still speaking on tounges. 

According to Dictionary.com: 

"A person who has what is known as “the gift of tongues” is usually in the midst of religious ecstasy, trance, or delirium. The speaker — and often witnesses too — believe that they are being possessed by a supernatural spirit or channeling the language of a deity or divine being, although the words are incomprehensible otherwise."

Unsurprisingly, social media users didn't seem to think that Stone seemed very "possessed." Twitter user @nuns_on_film also shared the clip, with their tweet receiving over 6,500 retweets and 27,000 likes as of the time of writing. The Twitter user wrote: 

"This video of a preacher checking his phone while speaking in tongues is my favorite video on the internet right now." They continued: "Him just staring at his phone and groaning for a minute is actually what I do every time I log onto here. Can we also talk about how this is the most unenthusiastic speaking-in-tongues I've ever heard."

Many other Twitter users seemed to agree, with one writing: "I grew up Catholic and then my parents converted to Pentecostal Christian and this is the most unmotivated speaking-in -tongues I've ever seen. I respect the non-hustle."

Another added: "One thing that continues to astonish me is how absolutely easy it is for people to scam people, and how unabashed they are about it, to the point where they can do shit like this and likely never suffer any negative consequences from any of the people they're grifting."

While one user concluded: "Speaking as someone who grew up in a holy roller type church, that's not even speaking in tongues." 

Another user joked: "I couldn't stop laughing at his groan while staring at his phone. Had to check it wasn't on repeat, it lasted so long. I imagine it was a text from his bank telling him he's overdrawn or something."

Some people can just relate way too hard, with one user joking: "Every time I log on to twitter dot com."