A: Antioch Primitive Baptist Church, Oxford, Miss.

God directed us here. Working alphabetically through a list of churches in the county, we decide upon "Antioch Primitive Baptist." But the list gives no address or phone. The Saturday before, however, we stumble onto the sign, right under the water tower.

Providential. Primitive Baptists believe as much. Theologically, Antioch has not changed since 1836, the year of its founding (making the church one year older than Oxford). The acronym TULIP sums up the doctrine: Total depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Preservation of the Saints. The same in 2005 as 1836 – or 1638 for that matter.

The church is elegantly austere. Each window has a simple stained glass dove. We walk into the red carpeted sanctuary. Forty or so men, women and children bow their heads in common prayer. We take our place toward the back on the right. Nearly everyone seems to be a relative of the minister, Brother Max Ewing.

Though a non-believer, I feel at ease with Primitive Baptists. Not for reasons of gender. Women do not preach; no point in arguing this tenet. But the fact of predestination means my fate is sealed. No calls to the mourner's bench today.

Brother Wayne leads the congregation through a string of old timey hymns. Men and women shout out a number, Wayne pitches the hymn, begins in a crystalline tenor, then church joins in four part harmony. We tear through the hymnal. My throat starts to parch.

Kids wander back and forth, families drift in, find their seat. Brother Max's sermon meditates on 2 Timothy 4: "For the time will come when they will not stand wholesome teaching, but will follow their own fancy and gather a crowd of teachers to tickle their ears. They will stop their ears to truth and turn to fable." There is but one way; the rest, fornication, "you tolerate that Jezebel, the woman who claims to be a prophetess" (Rev. 2 20). Brother Max defines fornication broadly: whatever veers from Truth. Like women teaching. And Sunday School.With a left hand (that is slightly darker than the right) laying on the Bible, Brother Max makes one last point. Church closes with "Amazing Grace." Versus three and four lead to a line of handshakes that thread throughout the congregation. The voices dies down to just one or two people, and the rest exchange greetings. I feel welcomed."That's it," Brother Max says. "

See you next week. Same time. Same place." A pause. Brother Wayne pipes in, "same doctrine.