Worship: Against Glossolalia

In 2,500 measured, courteous and utterly lucid words. Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike last week denounced the excesses of glossolalia, the prayer practice in which the worshiper's tongue wags on and on in what seems like gibberish to skeptics. Once chiefly confined to members of pentecostal denominations, glossolalia has lately gained hundreds of adherents among Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, and even Yale students (TIME. March 29). To practitioners, "speaking in tongues" is good for ending alcoholism, repairing broken marriages and furthering the work of Christ. To California's Bishop Pike, it is...