ON SPEAKING IN TONGUES (UNINTERPRETED)

By speaking in tongues I mean speaking not in a language ordinarily used or understood by the speaker.

There seem to be two uses of tongues in Christian worship: (1) tongues without interpretation, and (2) tongues with.

(1) In the former use, no one present knows or claims to know the meaning of the utterance, and although it is often believed that the speaker is in fact using some unkown tongue, human or angelic, and that his words have an objective meaning in that language, knowing the verbal meaning is not considered important.

(2) in the latter use, either (a) someone present is moved to report to the congregation an interpretation of what was said, or (b) someone present who knows a foreign language reports that he has understood the utterance. This last (b) is what we are told happened on the first occasion when the Church spoke in tongues as described in Acts 2.

My remarks below apply only to speaking in tongues without interpretation. On the other practice, I have no useful observations to make.

Many Christians make "speaking in tongues," or glossalalia, a regular part of their worship. From time to time, mostly in group worship, but sometimes alone, they are moved to burst into a torrent of utterances that convey no meaning to the outsider. When asked about it afterwards the speaker will say, "I was praising God." What is the outsider to make of this? Speaking as an outsider myself, I should like to suggest a few other phenomena which may help to illustrate one aspect of speaking in tongues.

(1) Some of you may remember the television comedy series, I LOVE LUCY. It portrays a married couple. The husband (Ricky), originally from Cuba, speaks both Spanish and English but lapses into Spanish when under stress. His wife (Lucy) is impulsive and often gets herself into predicaments. When Ricky discovers that Lucy has done something really outrageous, he typically claps his hands to his head and begins to spout Spanish. For the television listener, knowing no Spanish is not a handicap. Ricky's tone and manner of speech express his feelings quite clearly, and it would be LESS effective if he were to say in English something like: "Woe is me! Calamity has struck! As the result of my crazy wife's latest escapade, ruin, poverty, and degredation await me! Oh let the earth open and swallow me up!" Precisely because the majority of viewers know no Spanish, they know Ricky's reaction solely from his tone and tempo, and thus his feeling of utter exasperation is conveyed as pure feeling, so to speak, without words getting in the way.

(2) Some of you may have helped to take care of a baby, and may have accidentally caused the baby some minor hurt, such as jabbing it with a pin when changing the diaper. If so, you are likely (depending on the age and personality of the baby) to have been thoroughly chewed out. The baby is not yet old enough to speak in words, but will shout at you in a tone that leaves no doubt that you are being told: "You clumsy idiot! What is the matter with you anyway? If you don't know how to handle a safety pin, then leave the diapering to someone competent, and meanwhile go off in a corner and jab yourself with a pin until you acquire some respect for the instrument." The words are not there, but the message is clear: REPRIMAND.

(3) Some years ago, I was on a bus which had just pulled into a transfer stop, and all the passengers were getting off. The bus I wanted to take was on the other side of the platform, and clearly preparing to take off. As I got to the door, the woman ahead of me paused and began a lengthy conversation with the driver about the best way to reach her destination. I waited with growing impatience, and finally tried to say something like, "Look, lady, I am about to miss my bus. Just let me past you and out the door, and then you can talk with the driver as long as you like." However, I was too agitated to form my sentences clearly, and was also afraid that if I tried to explain why I wanted her to step aside, my bus would pull out before I had succeeded. Accordingly, when I tried to speak, what came out was pure gibberish (but loud and angry). The lady looked very startled, but stepped aside and let me out, and I ran for my bus and caught it. Again, my manner of delivery was sufficient to convey my meaning.

(4) Some of you, if married, may have found yourselves in a particularly tender moment murmuring something in your spouse's ear along the lines of: "Oh, oozums own wootsy squidlums!" or some other speech that you would be equally unwilling to have to explain to your English (or other language) teacher. If so, you will perhaps not have found it a drawback that the utterance was in a sense incoherent. It expressed what you felt, and was not misunderstood by your spouse.

From these and similar examples, I infer that gibberish can be a useful means of expressing deeply felt emotion. Suppose that a Christian is filled on some occasion with an overwhelming sense of the goodness and greatness of God, and wishes to express his love and gratitude. (Or, alternately, that he is in deep distress and wishes to cry out to God in mourning, lamentation, and an appeal for deliverance.) Traditional ways of doing this include quoting appropriate passages from the Psalms or elsewhere in Scripture, or making use of the prayers and hymns that other Christians have written or composed, or simply speaking in one's own words. But to these may be added another way -- that of non-verbal utterance. Now this is not an option for me. Given my background, I would be too self-conscious, and I worship in a congregation where this would be thought odd (although on the rare occasions when other worshippers have done it, no one seemed to mind). However, if I were in a congregation where non-verbal utterance in praise or petition was a regular occurrence, and was taken for granted and accepted and approved, and if I shared that attitude, I might do a lot of my praying and praising in that form. Accordingly, I do not at all disapprove of non-verbal utterance as a form of Christian worship. It is just I follow a worship tradition that uses other forms of praise. I remember a posting last spring by a Christian brother saying (if I remember aright):

God gave us food for when we're hungry. God gave us drugs for when we're ill. God gave us rock for when we want to praise Him, And I will, I will, I will!

I cannot imagine myself using rock music as a means of expressing the praise of God (or expressing anything else, for that matter). Everyone knows that one uses Bach for that purpose! However, if God is using rock to nourish my brother's spiritual life, then Blessed be God! And the same holds for speaking in tongues.

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When I previously posted these observations, one listmember replied:

> Are you married or have you ever diapered a baby and stuck it > with a pin? The baby doesn't reprimand, it CRIES.... and if my > wife started talking to me in the way you describe, I'd > probably ask her to see a doctor.

Well, Sir, if your wife knows that that would be your reponse, I am not surprised that she doesn't talk to you like that. But that illustrates my point. When I gave this example to a roomful of married men, the majority nodded in recognition. How persons express themselves depends on what is acceptable in their society. A marriage is a small society, and every marriage has its understanding of what is an appropriate way of expressing oneself in a given context. In your marriage, tender gibberish is not considered appropriate, and so is not uttered. In other marriages, it is. In the South of GONE WITH THE WIND, fainting was considered normal behavior for a lady in a wide range of circumstances, and so ladies found it natural to faint. Today, this is less true. In some congregations, speaking in tongues is an approved and expected way of praising God, and so you hear tongues there. In others, it is not and you don't. Babies differ in personality. My god-daughter Elena almost never cried as a baby. If she wanted something, she would call, and if she got hurt and it was someone else's fault (if, for example, she was jabbed with a diaper pin), she would REPRIMAND. If it was her fault, she would bear it without complaint. I admit that not all babies are like this. Babies with different personalities will express themselves in different ways. Similarly, whether someone will speak in tongues is (I suspect) partly a matter of personality.

Yours, James Kiefer </pre>