Nashville, USA - A debate has intensified over whether Southern Baptists should approve of speaking in tongues as an expression of religious devotion following a sermon at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The Rev. Dwight McKissic said in an Aug. 26 sermon during chapel services that he experienced a "private prayer language" while he was a student at the seminary.
McKissic, a seminary trustee and pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, said he disagreed with a recent decision by a Southern Baptist Convention panel to ban missionaries from speaking in tongues in private, as well as in public.
He was referring to a vote last year by the convention's International Mission Board to bar missionaries from speaking in tongues during private prayer. Previously, missionaries were discouraged from speaking in tongues publicly, but their private prayer was not monitored.
The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary had been posting streaming video of its chapel services, but declined to broadcast McKissic's remarks.
In a statement, seminary officials said they would not post "materials online which could place us in the position of appearing to be critical of actions of the Board of Trustees of sister agencies." Seminary leaders said they feared that "uninformed" people would consider McKissic's views as "the view of the majority of our people at Southwestern."
McKissic said in an interview that he respects the authority of the seminary, but believes its decision not to broadcast his sermon was "unnecessary censorship."