Years ago, when we were in our mid 20s, a friend told me that as a teenager he would pretend to speak in tongues in church. Why?, I asked, astonished. And how did he get away with it? Wasn’t he obviously faking? He explained: When everyone around you seems possessed by the Spirit, marked as holy, one of the saved, nothing is more natural than to join in. Otherwise, you seem to be not holy, not one of the saved. Though his pretense-laden action was not innocent, “faking it” is too harsh for the way he gave himself over to social enthusiasm. The sounds, empty of meaning, expressed real emotion: eager piety and servile fear.
He was sincerely pious, but others looked more pious, and that threatened his moral identity and social status. Plus, there was a public code of how to express piety, which he could use to reassert his moral identity. The situation was enough for him and his friends both to produce the gibberish and to provide cover, making it seem like grace.
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