No Speaking In Tongues At Southwestern
By Vince Leibowitz on Oct 19, 2006 in 2006 Texas Elections
If there is anything more intersting and hilarious to follow than Texas politics, it’s Texas’ Baptists.
Now, Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth has decided it will not tolerate the any promotion of people speaking in tongues.
Considering I can’t even speak Spanish after taking two years of it in high school, I’m sure I’m not a good candidate for speaking in tongues. I have witnessed people speaking in tongues before though. About 15 years ago I went to church with a friend who was Pentacostal. In addition to witnessing people “drunk in the Holy Spirit,” and seeing a woman jump over a pew, I saw and heard people speak in tongues. While it is an interesting sight, I think it’s more interesting that Texas psychoconservative Baptists have decided that speaking in tongues is simply too “out there:”
The 36-1 vote Tuesday came nearly two months after the Rev. Dwight McKissic of Arlington said during a chapel service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary that he sometimes speaks in tongues while praying.
McKissic, a new trustee at the Fort Worth school, passed the lone dissenting vote on the resolution.
It states:”Southwestern will not knowingly endorse in any way, advertise, or commend the conclusions of the contemporary charismatic movement including private prayer language. Neither will Southwestern knowingly employ professors or administrators who promote such practices.”
Seminary President Paige Patterson did not allow a videotape of McKissic’s sermon to be posted online or saved in the seminary’s archives with the sermons of all chapel speakers.
McKissic called for the Southern Baptist Convention to weigh in on the matter.
That will come in June, when the SBC meets. And this should be interesting, since I believe speaking in tongues is actually talked about in some Baptist houses of worship.
Very, very interesting.
I was my understanding that the Baptists acknowledged or imposed no authority between the individual and the Lord. One is never at a loss for words if the spirit moves you to glossolalia. I also want to believe in xenolalia, or as the car guys call it, foreign language syndrome, where somebody drops a bucket of bolts on your head and when you wake up you can speak french.