Being that I come from a conservative baptist background, I had the misfortune of belonging to a penecostal church when my family and I moved to n. ca.. I couldn't get past the fact that the pastor's wife wanted so bad for me to speak in my heavenly language. I thought that it would be more important to strive for love, but she was hung up on the speaking in tongues. There was a reason for that in Acts. They had many different tongues they had to preach to, and for that reason they spoke in tongues. They also believe you can lose your salvation, which I consistently opposed. When you accept Christ, truly accept Him, He bought you and you aren't your own any longer.
I really like the way you think.
A story here.
My brother works with a guy...hardware engineer...who in his mid-20's...met a very nice & conservitive woman (divorced, 1 kid)...who was reformed Pentecostal (a drifter). For old fashioned minded guys, she was a perfect 10. He married her and had a daughter. By mid-30s...she decided it was time to go back to hardline Pentecostal, which he went hand-in-hand with her. She was quickly accepted back into the church, and of course, did the tongues routine. He was educated, an engineer, very logical and common-sense minded...and couldn't get this whole thing into his mind. Her entire family...after almost three years of getting him into the tongues routine...felt he could never be in the inner circle. So they suggest she might find a better husband. She was still a very dedicated woman and stood by the husband but these week-after-week episodes at the church didn't make for much of a relationship. Last I heard...five years later...still married but he isn't invited to family functions, nor would he go anyway.
Its a faith that demands you be in their inner circle or else you are labeled an outsider. Its their system and they are free to do so. There is no reason to demand changes amongst the group. But the tongues routine is more of a joke and out of 10,000 verses in the Bible...its rather amusing that you circle one verse and concentrate strictly on one alone to base your religion. Its a great book...seems like you would want to base a religion on its entire contents.
Most modern (if you can call them that) pentecostal churches don't seem to 'require' that any longer. There's a new Word-oriented movement in most of these churches now. I can't speak for the south, but in the north they seem to be steering away from trying to make people speak in tongues.