December 16, 2013
Gibberish
The interpreter for the deaf who signed for speakers
at Nelson Mandela’s funeral has been employed for many events. However, at this
funeral he was exposed as an imposter and a fraud who ‘spoke’ gibberish to the
deaf when President Obama and other dignitaries spoke. Event organizers are now
saying while the man is able to interpret; he is not a trained professional. When
interviewed later the man excused his actions by saying he was schizophrenic
and had seen angels descending in the stadium during the event. This gives me a
whole new perspective to add to my thoughts on speaking in tongues and about those
who step forward to interpret. Paul
reminds us, “So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your
tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking
into the air.” (1 Cor 14:9 NIV)
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Gail;
-----Note that Paul was careful to say, “So it is with you…you speak…with your tongue…what you are saying…” And we speak a lot. In fact, the overwhelming majority of what we say is us speaking.
-----I have not the audacity to think God could not speak through a person’s tongue. And I rather believe He does when He needs. Does such come in the languages of angels spoken by one and needing interpretation by another? At one time, some of it did. If it had not been happening, Paul would not have written about it as if it were happening (note I Cor 14.) And stuff is mimicked in this world enough to make “counterfeit” a very useful word.
-----Yet, I would not trade my experience with a Pentecostal church for anything. Even while I was attending there, I was pondering the possible unreality of what was happening. There was often an outbreak of “angelic tongue” by someone in the congregation. Even the preacher would stop his sermon (I Cor 14:30) so the gibberish could spout freely to its full end. Then silence. It was always an eerie, expectant silence of suspense rarely lasting more than several seconds mocking a shortened version of eternity. Then cracks the silence, a lone voice quavers forth underlined and framed by the hush it broke. But not always was it just one. Once a voice escalated up out of its owner’s uncertainty from the back of the sanctuary. I don’t remember what she was saying. But I remember she only got a handful of words into her interpretation when a more confident male voice boomed forth from the middle parts of the congregation. He said nothing the same as what she had been saying, not even conceptually close. I remember that because I didn’t think the Holy Spirit would be interrupting Himself with something different than what He began to say. I very much doubt He’d been sitting in the storeroom imbibing communion wine.
-----So, what happened? Maybe most people there were psyched into a “holiness” game. This is my tentative conclusion. I also suppose surely that a few there were not psyched by a game, but truly were in well developed stages of Biblical sanctity. I fraternized with some (I couldn’t say I was quite fellowshipping at that stage of my attitudes.) These weren’t show boaters like most there were. If you could gibber, your boat had chrome. If you could gibber forth during a sermon, your boat had a flag. But if you could interpret, it had a fog horn!
-----This church wasn’t unlike all the rest I’ve attended. Every denomination forms its own brand of gibberish. I’ll never forget the “gotta replace the old folks with kids” gibberish coming wrapped up in the “do as the Romans do” gibberish of the contemporary psychosis. Nor can I forget its “if you don’t like what we’re doing, there’s another church down the street” interpretation.
-----We simply have to remember that the good sense we make most often comes from the Word of God, and occasionally by a puff of inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Pretty much everything else is our own gibberish.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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