‘Tongues’ debate surfaces again in SBC setting

FORT WORTH, Texas — When Dwight McKissic, a Southern Baptist pastor and trustee at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, spoke in a chapel on the Fort Worth, Texas, campus Aug. 29, he affirmed both speaking in tongues — and the seminary’s right to disagree with him on the subject.

The seminary did disagree, refusing to put a link to his remarks on its Web site. But it did post a statement, saying that it disagreed with McKissic’s embrace of a private prayer language and noted that the seminary would not distribute views critical of a sister Southern Baptist Convention entity, in an apparent reference to the International Mission Board, which last year adopted a policy against the appointment of missionaries with a private prayer language. Southwestern also noted it “may be harmful to the churches” to disseminate a view akin to McKissic’s and that some people may wrongly conclude that such a view is representative of Southwestern’s position.