Methodists and Specialists

I'm not sure what the relationship was between Methodists and Calvinists, but I do know that the Methodists never believed in predestination. The Methodist Church spun off of the Anglican Church which, in America, is called the Episcopalian Church. At some point the Methodists broke up into several factions and then, at another point, most of them merged back together. The Free Methodists were one group that never rejoined the flock, and it seems that the African Methodist Episcopalians didn't either. I knew that the Blacks used to have their own church, but I didn't know that they were still separate until I read about the latest mass shooting in South Carolina. According to the newspaper accounts I have read, the church in question is an African Methodist Episcopal church, A.M.E. for short. Maybe they only stayed separate in the South. I never saw any Blacks in Elsdon, but that's probably because no Blacks lived in the neighborhood. If one had showed up, it may have raised a few eyebrows, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have been told to go elsewhere.

When the Elsdon Church building was first erected, it was a Methodist Episcopal Church. You might remember the sign on the outside that said "Elsdon M.E. Church". Since it was cast in concrete and was part of the wall they never bothered to change it after the big merger. The early Methodists would be considered holy rollers today, and some of their doctrine might still be on the books, but nobody pays any attention to that stuff anymore, except the Free Methodists, which is why they never merged back with the mainstream Methodists. I understand that, sometime after I left Chicago, the Elsdon Church either went out of business or moved to the suburbs. My mother told me that the building was converted into a non-denominational community social center which, in  my opinion, is not so far away from what it was when we went there. The impression I had was that most of the congregation didn't care about Methodist doctrine, they just went to Elsdon because it was the only church in the neighborhood that wasn't Catholic.

I find it curious that you say humans are so incurious. Of course, some of them are more curious than others, but I'm pretty sure that it has always been that way. I read somewhere that specialization of labor is one of the main human traits that distinguished our ancient ancestors from the other animals of the forest. Some of them were spear chuckers and some of them were spear makers, which enabled both groups to get really good at what they did for a living. Of course the women were the mothers who kept the home fires burning while the men were out making spears and chucking them at hairy elephants.

The really deep thinkers probably became shamans and medicine men or women. Sometimes one guy held down both jobs, but often there was a shaman, who was usually male, and a medicine person or healer, who was usually female. While the chief or headman was the boss, the shaman was the power behind the throne. Some of his influence was likely due to hocus pocus, but I think most people were happy to trust their spiritual well being to a specialist like the shaman. You've got to chuck a lot of spears to bring down a hairy elephant, but it only takes one good shaman to invoke the aid of the spirits who, if they're pissed at you, can make your spears all miss the mark, which might aggravate the hairy elephant and encourage him to stomp all over you.