DAVID PANNELL I want to tell you a true story about mud pies and Methodists. It happened long ago in a sleepy south Mississippi town. The story’s central character is a woman we’ll call Doris. Doris’ parents were Baptists, at least nominally. They often told little Doris and her siblings that the Methodists were a bad sort, not to be trusted. Deeper down, her parents were just unhappy people.