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April 10, 2019
Grinnell, Iowa
Ramsey leaned against the wall, surveying the room. Twenty-three people huddled in small groups chatting quietly. Except for two elderly Pakistani men, everyone was white. Most were over forty. He was the youngest person there.
The Sullivan-designed Jewel Box Bank building had its last official financial transaction on May 17, 1999. Since then, it had become Grinnell’s visitor center and home of the Chamber of Commerce. Tonight, the building hosted Grinnell’s New Gnostic assembly. It was a curious group that had gathered. Gnostics were generally categorized as men and women who quested after a spiritual connection with God. Yet the faces in the room held no such indication of the spiritual journey. At first glance it could have been a meeting of the Elk
