What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?

"I don't know boy but it is my business to find out...."

“Learning begins with the Fear of the Lord” reads a mural on the wall of our high school’s auditorium. I didn’t know the religious fervor I would encounter, but the ‘fear of the lord’ has permeated our classroom, our staff assemblies, our morning announcements, and our beginning of the year orientation where we, as a staff, sang:
(3x)
I need you,
You need me
We’re all apart of God’s body
Stand with me agree with me
We’re all apart of God’s body
It is his will that every need be supplied
You are important to me I need you to survive

(7times)
I pray for you
You pray for me
I love you I need you to survive
I won’t harm you with words from my mouth
I love you I need you to survive

It is his will that every need be supplied
You are important to me I need you to survive!

I guess I underestimated the power of God in our public schools. As I stifled my child-in-church giggles of bewilderment, my co-worker said, “At least they didn’t march us downtown to go to church this year.” Perhaps this happens at all jobs. Maybe this is Bush’s payment plan for “No Child Left Behind.” Regardless, it was reassuring to leave that revival only to witness a red-faced teacher threaten to kill another teacher if he ever touched his stuff.

....

I now live within a brief walk to Reverend Charles Tindley’s Methodist Church on Broad Street in Philadelphia. The father of American Gospel, he penned “I Shall Overcome” (later “we”), “By and By (I’m going to see the Lord)”, “Stand by Me,” and “Nothing in Between.” He also wrote the song for which this post is titled, which I became familiar with after the Mississippi Records release of Washington Phillips, the dulceola (or fretless zither?) master. Phillips is also available on CD from JSP record’s compilation Spreading the Word: Early Gospel Recordings (B).