Friday was an interesting and awesome day. Velma served Evan and I an incredible breakfast with pancakes and peaches and coffee, and then we embarked on an hour long journey up to the Poarch Creek Nation near Atmore, AL. After going to the old Community Preservation Center, we were directed to the new one. There we met Robert Thrower, who is the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer. It was obvious that the new center was undergoing some construction, which is why there were no signs displaying its location. Robert gave us a your of the facility while giving us a bit of history about the Poarch and about himself, and, man, could that guy talk (we were with him about 3.5 hours, and he talked 90% of that time). While the history of the Poarch people was interesting, it was much more interesting to discover that Robert was ordained in the Southern Baptist Church 20 years ago and has also been a medicine man within the tribe for 10 years, something he also believes was a calling from God, which of course made Evan and my ears perk up.
Robert sees very little difference in what is believed and practiced by a medicine man and what is believed in practiced as a minister. He explained that being a medicine man does not require shamanistic practices such as spells, talismans, etc., although some medicine men do practice things like that. Instead, he says that being a medicine man incorporates the spiritual guidance and counseling of ministry with natural medicinal/healing practices creating a very holistic approach towards people. Robert was not coy with us at all, he clearly stated that he knew we would be trying to sniff out heresy in what he was saying, and if I learned anything from Robert it is that he certainly and wholeheartedly believes what he is saying. And honestly, from the descriptions he gave us of his ministry as a medicine man, I didn't see anything that was glaringly incompatible with Christian ministry. I heard a number of things that were worthy of further consideration/investigation, which Robert thoroughly encouraged and wanted us to get back to him on if we saw something that was out of line with Christian orthodoxy. "It's iron sharpening iron, man," he said.
After leaving Robert, Evan and I headed to New Orleans. Incredible time so far. We ate Po'boys, got beignets and coffee and then waited in line for 20 minutes at Preservation Hall for some jazz before we figured we could find jazz somewhere else without having to wait an unspecified amount of time to stand in a crowded room to listen to jazz. This is New Orleans, after all. So we walked out to the canal and sat there for awhile to cool off (thousands of people milling around crowded streets on a humid night makes for sweaty seminary students). By the water, we had great conversations (which have been pretty typical for the trip). We left the water front and went and sat in a restaurant on Decatur and listened to a decent Jazz quartet, while sippin' on cool drinks (I rediscovered my affinity for Tonic water and lime, something I acquired as a kid). All-in-all, an awesome time and I am looking forward to Saturday (except the heat during the day)!
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