Since Tim Townsend’s May 10 “Keep the Faith” column and Pamela Dolan’s post following the Archbishop of Sudan’s visit to St. Louis, I have been thinking about the role language plays in religion, particularly in the Christian tradition.

This past Sunday, as we celebrated the festival of Pentecost, four readers stood before our congregation reading the account from the Acts of the Apostles. And when they came to the moment when the disciples started speaking in other languages, they each began reciting the passage in different languages. It was a powerful moment, a dramatic cacophony to simulate the event of Pentecost.

“And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.” (Acts 2:6)

The celebration of Pentecost reverberates with the meaning of history. It represents the dramatic reversal of the tower of Babel, that ancient account of the origins…