What is Speaking in Tongues


Decades ago a late friend, who was a priest, told me of a problem at the time in his large congregation. It was that several members had begun speaking in togues during mass. This annoyed others and they complained. They told my friend he should do something about it. He said he called a meeting of all those involved and told the speaking in tongues group to come to the early mass only and stay out of the later one. It worked. I don't know if this fad lives on in that church or not.

Around the time when our priest friend told us of this I was a mayor. A couple of religious zealots addressing out City Commission were so carried away with anti-abortion or anti-gay passions they briefly lapsed into a babble that must have been speaking it in tongues. 

A columnist on Christian Post tried to answer the question, "Can I be a good Christian if I do not speak in tongues?" Apparently, some people really wonder about that--feel unworthy if they cannot babble pointlessly. The columnist explained that speaking in tongues is the Holy Spirit working inside a Christian. The person is not talking, the Holy Spirit is talking. He quoted some scripture about gifts given to the faithful by the Holy Spirit. One is a gift of speaking in tongues.

The columnist went on talking about what the Bible says and invoked the favorite phrase in all of Christianity, "What this means is...."  What the Bible means, the columnist says, is that the faithful receive several different kinds of gifts from the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues is only one. If you receive any of the other "gifts" you are in good standing. So, no, don't have a cow if you cannot do the pointless babble called speaking in tongues. 

The well know crooked TV preacher Robert Tilton spoke in tongues often and once rambled on about his remarkable and convincing act. As I recall, he said "It's easy. Your just let it roll, like (he babbled)." He was smiling like his act was fun to do,  

The Bible uses the term "speaking in tongues" but because it was written thousands of years ago no one can honestly say he knows what speaking int tongues means. Maybe it was people speaking an actual language not understood by others. Maybe it was a person with a speech disability. Probably the modern version has nothing in common with whatever the ancients experienced.

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