Give Me That Old Time Religion

When I was a young boy, growing up along Highway 82 in Texas, I saw a billboard on the loop around town that simply stated: “Give me that Old Time Religion”. While I didn’t grow up in a church that sang these old hymns, I did recall the lyrics from an old hymnal found in a little country chapel. The yellowed lyrics leapt off the page in my mind, speaking of how this said religion was good enough for parents, St. Paul, and the Hebrew Children.

The hymn originated from the Black Spirituals and was taken on tour by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. It later received wide spread fame through Charlie Tillman’s gospel books. In a simple way, it calls the singer and listener to orthodoxy - recognizing that we are all called to a deeper tradition, to be a part of a “great cloud of witnesses” [Hebrews 12:1], and to recognize that our faith should lead to action; that is, making me “love everybody”.

Ironically, sometimes ancient ways can seem new when they seem so foreign. This orthodoxy sought in the lyrics of this hymn have been quietly planted in the Mississippi soil. Like a carefully trained grape vine, the Orthodox, Apostolic, Christian faith has been humbly growing since immigrants to Mississippi planted it along the undulating, snaking Mississippi River. As the Psalmist wrote: “a vineyard has Thou brought out of Egypt…Thou hast made a way for it, and hast planted its roots, and the land was filled…even unto the river its shoots” [Psalm 79, LXX]

The purpose of Orthodox Mississippi is to chronicle the lives of the men and women who have found this “Old Time Religion” of the Biblical, Christian Orthodox faith which traces her roots back to Pentecost. These are the stories of immigrants, native Mississippians, citizens of our cities and countryside, cradle and convert, students in our universities, and sailors of our sea coast - all who have followed this call to the Orthodox faith.