Tongues of Fire
(Not Fire in Our Tongues)

Open Table Conference – June 27, 2021

Gaby Viesca

Lately, I’ve been paying close attention to the role that language plays in the shaping of our communities, our relationships, and the way we experience God. In the short time I’ve lived in the United States, I’ve seen a significant increase of violence, division, and polarization. And one thing I’ve noticed is that at the heart of so much of this violence and hatred is language: the things we say to each another (or about each other).

As we all know, language is a very powerful thing. It has the power to unite us or divide us, it has the power to inspire us, or put us down, it can bring comfort to others, or it can inflict pain. It’s a very powerful tool for communication. But besides being a powerful tool for communication, language happens to be one of the most powerful markers of identity of a person. Our language locates us within a particular culture, a particular group (oftentimes a particular ethnicity), and a particular context. In a country like the U.S., where there are so many different groups of people coexisting together, this difference in language and culture can be very difficult to navigate–especially when you’re not part of the dominant culture.

I don’t think I need to give a whole lot of examples to prove this point, but I do want to share one sentence that I hear a lot here in the U.S., and that is: “You’re in the United States, you speak English.” I don’t bring this up to be antagonistic. I’m not saying everyone in the U.S. holds this posture, I know that’s far from the truth. I bring this up because I want to trace its history. This is history that Christians need to remember.

We need to remember that, historically, so much of the expansion of Christianity has been intrinsically tied to different forms of oppression, domination, and abuse. That’s not news to anyone, I know. What is worth mentioning, however, is that during colonial times, one of the most common forms of domination and control came through the imposition of the conquerors’ language upon the conquered people.

Here is a brief excerpt from a letter written in 1609 by the London Council of the Virginia Company. This document included “Instructions” (that was the actual name of the document) for the governor of Jamestown to institute a plan, using force if necessary, to educate the children of the Weroances (Algonquian leaders) “in [the English] language, and manners;” for “if you intreate well and educate those which are younge and to succeede in the government in your Manners and Religion their people will easily obey you and become in time Civil and Christian.”¹ (Italics are mine)