Speaking in Tongues

I always thought speaking in tongues was primarily a Christian practice, and it still is as far as I know, but I think other faiths may be opening up to it as well.  I also always thought that speaking in tongues was for crazy people.  Here's why.


Growing up I was told that Pentecostal Christians were those crazy people that wriggled around on the floor during church and rambled gibberish and had all sorts of crazy notions about God.  I'm not meaning that statement to offend any Pentecostals who might happen upon this blog; I'm only sharing what I was taught as a kid from my parents.  It is interesting to note that my father was raised Pentecostal for a short time.

My parents saw the act of speaking in tongues as a joke.  They basically believed that these people who claimed to be able to speak in tongues were frauds.  I came to believe this, too.

My Episcopal priest gave a sermon on speaking in tongues one Sunday that I remember.  He explained the act of speaking in tongues by using the old testament story about the Tower of Babel as part of his defense for his position.  For those who may not be familiar with the story of the Tower of Babel, it was told that all of Earth's people spoke one language at the time.  The people basically attempted to build a tower that could reach God in Heaven.  God was angered by this and as punishment He "confused the language of the whole world." (Genesis 11:9)  My priest explained this to be when other languages came about and how come some people speak English while others speak Hebrew and others speak German, and French, and on and on.

The reason my priest used this as a foundation for his sermon was to set the stage for Jesus' disciples and their acts after his crucifixion.  He basically explained the miracle of speaking in tongues as the Holy Spirit touching a person and giving that person the ability, temporarily, to be able to speak fluently in a language foreign to them for the purpose of prophesying Jesus' message all over the world.  This explanation actually made sense to me; it gave a concrete and functional purpose to the gift of speaking in tongues.  I still believe to this day that truly speaking in tongues is this act by the Holy Spirit that my priest spoke about, and I'm not even Christian anymore.

I know that there are plenty of Christians out there who will discount my belief and give personal example of speaking in tongues as evidence.  What I would like to make clear is that I'm not trying to discount their experiences to say they're not spiritual ones; I just wouldn't label the practice as speaking in tongues.  Every persons' relationship with God or Goddess or Spirit or Deity is individual and personal.  If a person feels closer to God through letting their mouth and their tongue make whatever sounds it's going to make, I can accept that as a truly spiritual act.  In fact, it's much like meditation but through the use of one's voice instead of the use of one's third eye. It also hearkens to the Pagan practice of chanting to bring about a higher spiritual experience.


There are many other points I thought about making, but the overall idea of this post is to simply give my opinion on the act of speaking in tongues and what I believe the actual act is.  I believe fundamentalist Christians have misunderstood the reason behind and the meaning of speaking in tongues and have in turn stumbled upon another spiritual practice and have mis-labeled it.