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L 3. THE HOLINESS PEOPLE |
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The "Holiness55 preachers frankly tell their congregations that they want them to have a good time in church. As one said, "I believe God would like to look down and see his little children dancing before his altar like we are.55 It is in character for his wife to play a guitar or a piano and to lead and compose inspirational songs. Musical instruments—from fiddles to saxophones—are played in church and the hymns sung are the liveliest of revival tunes, Negro and white. Speaking in tongues, holy dancing, public confession of sin, handling of rattlesnakes and of fire, all these offer amusement and an opportunity for individual expression to the bitterly poor of America. Like the rural Negro church services, the Holiness meetings are a sort of American folk theater, and their recent mushroom growth in every part of the United States, across barriers of race and language, proclaims their firm basis in the folkways of America. |
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KEEP YOUR HANDS ON THAT PLOW
A No. 1397. Elihu Trusty, Paintsville, Ky., 1937. See Sh, 2:292; Whi, p. 115. A hymn of the Holiness Church sung by the sect that believes in foot washing-. Also sung: as a Negro spiritual. |
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