In "Speaking in Tongues" by ZZ Packer, Tia and Marcelle are alienated from their church because they are "too old to sit with the children" and hadn't spoken in tongues yet, allowing them to sit with the adults. I was curious about why speaking in tongues would be so important to the people of Hope and Grace Apostolic Church of the Fire Baptized. What I knew about tongues was that it is a spiritual gift given to help those who have it lead people to Christ. My interpretation of it was that not everyone was given this gift, just as everyone is not given every other spiritual gifts. It seemed discriminatory to isolate those who couldn't speak in tongues from those who could. I figured it would be a good idea to research the concept of speaking in tongues a little more to see what I could come up with.
I'll start with a brief history lesson on tongues. The opinions of Christians on the practice of speaking in tongues are divided into three large categories: Glossolalists, Cessationists, and Skeptics. Glossolalists believe that those who practice speaking in tongues today are speaking the same language as those who spoke tongues in the Bible. They are divided in that some people believe that what the people in the Bible were speaking was a heavenly language. Others believe it was xenoglossia--the ability of a person to speak in unlearned languages. Cessationists believe that those who claim to speak in tongues today simply speak a cluster of unintelligible, gibberish words. They also believe that the tongue-speakers of the Bible were blessed with xenoglossia. Skeptics' beliefs are fairly predictable. They believe that all occurances of speaking in tongues, whether present or in the Bible, are made up and complete falsehoods. (For more information on speaking in tongues go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia)
Based on this information, I would characterize the people of Hope and Grace Apostolic Church of the Fire Baptized fall under the Glossolalist category. While Glossolalists typically perceive speaking in tongues as a gift from the Holy Spirit, the people from this church seem to believe that unless you were a child or a nonbeliever, you should be able to speak in tongues. This belief leads them to shun those believers who can't speak in tongues or (in the case of Tia) force her to pray or worship until she speaks in tongues. This almost seems backwards to me. According ZZ Packer's story, the church members believed that "you could only speak in tongues when all worldly matters were off your mind, or else there was no room for God." Following this philosophy, it seems as though you can't be forced to speak in tongues; it has to come to you when you personally are completely in tune to God. I don't think Tia was completely focused on God while Sister Gwendolyn had her in a headlock and forced her to recite the Lord's Prayer. It seems to me that the members of Hope and Grace Apostolic Church of the Fire Baptized genuinely want to believe that Tia believes in God, but they are going about cementing her belief the wrong way. Who would have thought that speaking in tongues could cause so much trouble, considering many people today have never heard of it?
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15 years ago
1 comment:
Interesting, thoughtful research, Becca (your brilliance is showing!). I like how this story depicts the social aspect of church. Religion, for many people, is as much a community as anything else, and every community has its own values, norms, rules, etc. I suppose prostitution does, too-- I wonder if that's one of the points that Zuwena was trying to make in her story: every community, no matter how distant in other respects, provides for its members a sense of structure and support.
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