The Esquire magazine current cover is lustful, but that’s hardly surprising; who’s on the cover is our topic: Megan Fox. Movie star Megan Fox’s photo of her nearly completely exposed breasts would be more fitting for the cover of Playboy; however, my purpose for this blog isn’t to talk about Esquire’s cover but rather what Fox reveals during the magazine’s interview. The actress speaks candidly of her Pentecostal background and her love for speaking in tongues, known academically as Glossolalia. Fox tells of growing up in Tennessee where she started speaking in tongues at eight years-of-age. She talks about the energy of a Holy Ghost filled service and then relates it to witchcraft. “They’re going to hate that I compare it to this, but have you ever watched footage of a Santeria gathering or someone doing voodoo?” Fox says. “You know how palpable the energy is? Whatever’s going on there, it’s for real.” Did I hear that right? This starlet of soft-porn not only extols speaking in tongues but compares it to a satanic ritual? That’s not all. In the midst of casually dropping F-bombs she describes her own experience of getting the holy Ghost. “It’s as if your whole body is filled with this electric current.”
After being embarrassed by Katy Perry having scandalized her Pentecostal background and a promising career in Christian music for scantily-clad, high-sexualized performances, we had to wonder what’s next (Perry told Rolling Stone in a 2010 interview that, “Speaking in tongues is as normal to me as, “Pass the salt”) Now Fox is photographed in near-nudity while talking about the Bible’s Revelation and speculating about the Antichrist. She says she loves attending praise and worship services where she is ready to speak in tongues at any moment. Oh, she also believes in aliens and leprechauns.
What are we to make of this strangeness? Have Pentecostals gone from legalism to anything-goes-ism? I hopefully assume that Magen Fox and Katy Perry are an embarrassment to those who truly believe they are “filled with the Spirit”. But which charismatic or Pentecostal leader is going to stand up publicly and soundly judge such ridiculous behavior? First Corinthians chapter five (TLB) is uncompromising: “What I meant was that you are not to keep company with anyone who claims to be a brother Christian but indulges in sexual sins . . . Don’t even eat lunch with such a person.” You have to wonder where Fox’s speaking in tongues is really coming from. I’m not so sure that her ghost is all that holy.
