Yes, Richard, I love the spirit behind "Scandalize My Name".

I should mention that in the rendition of that song that I heard, the last line of the verse was "Scandalize my name". There was no "too" in that last line. So, instead of the way the song is written on that website I quoted from {as sung by the great Paul Robeson}, the song went like this:

I met my preacher the other day
And gave him my right hand
As soon as ever my back was turned
He scandalized my name

-snip-

I recall that there was a Mudcat thread in the past year in which folks discussed church practices such as "extending the right hand of fellowship". However, I can't remember the name of that thread.

Here's an excerpt from an article that refers to "extending the right hand of fellowship":

"...the Baptist tradition of extending the right hand of fellowship to new members finds its scriptural basis in Galatians 2:9: "and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised" (NRSV). Furthermore, to this day, extending the right hand of fellowship to new members continues to be the norm among American, Southern, British, and Canadian Baptists".

http://www.mcmaster.ca/mjtm/2-r3.htm


-snip-

Unless I'm remembering it incorrectly, in my Black Babtist church, and other Black Baptist churches, "extending the right hand of fellowship" meant shaking hands and also exchanging hugs at the end of the formal Sunday church service. This was a way of demonstrating and reaffirming the connectedness {one family under God} of all persons who had attended that church service-whether they were actual members of that particular church, or whether or not they were "born again" members of any church.

In the context of this thread, the point I want to make was that this custom didn't seem fake to me, but certainly within churches, as within all other communities there are people who smile in your face, and will talk about you "soon as your back is turned".

Which reminds me of another great song from the great Son House:

Grinnin' in Your Face by Son House (transcribed from a record)
Don't you mind people grinnin' in your face,
Don't mind people grinnin' in your face,
Just bear this in mind-
A true friend is hard to find;
Don't you mind people grinnin' in your face.

You know your mother will talk about you,
Your sisters and brothers, too;
Yes, don't care how you're trying to live,
They'll talk about you still...
Yes, but bear this in mind,
A true friend is hard to find;
Don't you mind people grinnin' in your face.

Repeat first verse

You know they'll jump you up and down

thread.CFM?threadID=1309

Here's a link to a funky* YouTube video of this song by an group called BluesCulture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqFsilhXnZU&feature=related


* In this context, "funky" is a compliment.