| A Pagan's Path |
| I spoke in tongues. The anthropologists call it �glossalia.� The Nazarenes call it possession by the devil. We called it �speaking Heaven�s language,� and that is exactly how it feels. Glossalia is ecstatic speech by a person who is, or believes himself to be, behaving under the influence of a spirit. The Pentecostals and some other sects of Christianity know it as speaking in tongues and believe it to be the evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The church I belonged to even claimed it to be a necessary part of the salvation of one�s soul based on the birth of the Christian church as told in the Bible (Acts 2:38). My parents converted to the Pentecostal church when I was nearly four years old. My father, who was an alcoholic, gave up drinking for good and both parents quit smoking. Two years later my father felt the call to preach. He has been a minister in the Pentecostal church almost as long as I can remember, for ten years under the leadership of another pastor, then as a pastor of his own congregation. From first grade through twelfth, I was enrolled in private Christian schools, most of those years in a strictly denominational school whose principal was also my pastor. Indoctrination began early and I was filled with the Spirit, speaking in tongues, at the age of six. We were part of a very strict church with stringent �holiness standards,� rules and regulations about how to live nearly every facet of life. My younger sister has never had her hair cut, we were not allowed to own a TV, go to the movies, listen to secular music, dance, wear make-up, smoke, drink, curse or participate in organized sports. These restrictions were all to protect our souls from the influence of �the world,� the unbelieving masses of people on their way to a burning lake of eternal fire called Hell. Being curious and independent by nature, I questioned each rule at one time or another and was given a detailed explanation each time. The questions themselves, however, were seen as doubt and sometimes outright rebellion. I knew that Satan was thrown out of Heaven for rebellion and so tried not to question the explanations, even when they seemed logically flimsy. After all, obedience was the virtue most valued by God, even more than faith. Even if I could not believe, I was expected to obey. |