They shall mount up with wings as eagles.” At the time I categorized it with a number of songs that echoed a favorite text from the Book of Isaiah: “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. I knew it as a secular song that was being embraced by choirs and music educators. But I had recently emcee’d a concert by gospel great Dottie Peoples, and it was her version of “I Believe I Can Fly” that I played.
An ivory tower academic, I was (and am) lax in my engagement with secular popular culture, and I knew little about Kelly, his stardom and his ugly ways. Kelly’s song “I Believe I Can Fly,” I was spinning records for “The Uncloudy Day,” my weekly gospel music radio show at the radio station where I teach.
By Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Religion News Service
