Old Time Religion in Crisfield

Religion in Crisfield, Enon Baptist Church of Deliverance

Old Time Religion

Traditional Gospel song dating to 1873

Give me that old time religion give me that old time religion
Give me that old time religion it's good enough for me.

It makes me love everybody makes me love everybody
Makes me love everybody it's good enough for me
Well it was good enough for mother it was good enough for papa
It was good enough for sister and it's good enough for me
Give me that old time religion... 

It will do me when I'm dying it will do me when I'm dying
It will do me when I'm dying it's good enough for me
It will take us all to heaven it will take us all to heaven
It will take us all to heaven it's good enough for me
Give me that old time religion...
Give me that old time religion...
Yes it's good enough for me.

A news photographer spends most of their time shooting assignments. While on the roads coming and going from assignments we run upon little gems that make for good feature shots - happy shots, I call them, with no story - just people doing everything things.

I  took a day off from shooting last week going to Salisbury to run errands and see a movie - Inception - I recommend it. I was burned out from all the shooting I had been doing the past two weeks and left my cameras at home. Coming back I was thinking about how much I enjoyed my day not taking photos. When we neared our home we took the usual long way as most everyone around here does, and headed to the city dock to see who was there and to enjoy the beauty of the bay. One can never get enough of the every-changing scenery and like a snowflake, no two evenings are ever the same.  

Just before we got to the city dock I saw sometime I had not seen in a long time. An old-time camp meeting. I was suddenly refreshed. When you cover events no matter what kind, it's a given that a news photographer will show up. And those little gems photographers run upon are nice but they are so used to them that they take the shot without much thought, at least after years of shooting. But this was different. This was not a gem. It was a diamond. It was life going about its business,  not waiting for a camera to show up.

I told my husband to step on the gas. When we got home I helped him throw our packages on the front porch, grabbed my wide-angle lens and sped away.

As a little girl growing up in Georgia I remember seeing  camp meetings strewn  out along the rural roads like breadcrumbs, especially when we traveled to South Georgia. The big tents didn't impress me so much as the small gatherings. The people in these photos reminded me of those days - it was a slice of of Americana pie, a throw-back to a time when many preachers gave their messages not in churches but surrounded by the nature - God's tapestry, I call it.

I hope you enjoy this little  photo essay. You can read about it in the August 11th edition of the Crisfield-Somerset County Times. Live out of the area? Get a subscription and bring a little Crisfiled into your home. It won't raise your blood pressure like those big city papers do.

"Sister" Selena is a member of Enon Baptist Church of Deliverance in Crisfield. She got her "calling" while on a trip to Africa this past April.