In this project I am exploring the question of the politicization of language in Paul's letter to the Corinthians. This endeavor is deeply influenced by my experience as a first generation immigrant from Indonesia to the United States. I struggle with the hegemony of English as the dominant language. Although on the surface America may appear as a multicultural society and the land of immigrants, people are still subjected to the dominance of the imperial language. The idea of becoming American is both politically and socially tied to the ability to speak English. The propaganda of a “melting pot” society simply means that one needs to subject oneself to the dominant culture rooted in the hegemony of English. As an immigrant whose native language is not English, I see English not only as a means of communication but also as a political apparatus imposed on others by the dominant culture

I shall approach the Pauline writings from this perspective or horizon of language as a political struggle. My topic revolves specifically around Paul and the politics of language in the church of Corinth, particularly on the instruction on the use of tongue(s) in public gatherings in 1 Corinthians 14.

I shall argue, first, that Paul’s strategy in dealing with the complex problem of multilingualism or tongue(s) in the Corinthian church may be seen as a politically aggressive act of homogenizing and unifying language in public gathering, resulting in an ethnic othering – silencing, negating and subjugating tongue(s). I shall further argue that the disruption and disorder that the practice of tongue(s) brings to the ordered language of the communities may be viewed as a form of decolonial resistance against the hegemony of a colonial language.