Last April a 9-year-old African-American lad named Willie was kidnapped from his driveway in Atlanta, Georgia. After the man grabbed him, Willie explained later, and threw him in the back of his car, Willie just kept “praising God” with a song he learned in Sunday school. It was a song by Hezekiah Walker titled “Every Praise.” 

While he was singing, Willie said, his kidnapper yelled expletives at him.

“He told me, shut up you [blankety-blank] boy,” said Willie. Willie, however, kept singing until his kidnapper got tired of it and threw him out of the car. The kidnapper ordered Willie not to reveal what happened.

Willie’s mother said she realized what had happened to her son after he called her from a phone belonging to a woman who lived near the spot where Willie was thrown out. His mot…