All Things Profane and Sacred

I saw the movie "Saved" the other night-it's a really excellent movie, so if you haven't seen it, go on out and rent it (or whatever it is you crazy kids do to get your movies these days). I thought it was a pretty accurate depiction of the evangelical community as I remember it, though back in those halcyon days no one was riding the gay hobby horse. I also don't remember any adults being shy about talking about sex, so long as it was in the context of marriage-after all, sex is the carrot for getting married, which leads to children who become the next generation of evangels carring forth the cause, etc, etc. Anyhow, I don't want to talk about the sex today, I want to talk about speaking in tongues.

I remember one visit to a friend's charismatic church's bible study, where I got to get an up close look at the whole "speaking in tongues" thing. It gave me a real bad feeling on the back of my neck. Didn't like the whole thing. I remember on the way home, my friend confessed to me that she was pretty hurt that she "didn't have the gift of speaking in tongues." Supposedly God lets you speak in tongues if he really likes you. She had prayed about it, but nothing. I personally thought that she was too honest for that sort of thing-it seemed to be mostly wishful thinking on the part of the participants. They just wanted it so bad, that they convinced themselves it was comming from God.

But, hey, I'm no theologian (I don't even think I spelled that right, but I'm too lazy to look it up). It just seems odd to me that a culture that is so paranoid about dark forces would smile upon people babbling like they are possessed on the thin justification that the disciples spoke in tongues. Of course in Acts when the disciples are running around doing this, they were talking in acutal languages, unlike the jibberish that passes for "tongues" today. I think the former is a bit more impressive (not to mention useful) than the latter.