By the conclusion of the 2021-2022 season, Jackson State University head basketball coach Wayne Brent’s plan to retire had been public information. Brent became the JSU head coach in 2013 after a successful career as a high-school coach and an assistant coach at the University of Mississippi.

In his nine seasons with the Tigers, Brent amassed a 115-153 overall record and a 85-76 record in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Brent won one SWAC regular season championship in 2021.

JSU wasted no time in finding a successor for Brent. The Tigers’ new coach is well known in the Jackson area and has some head-coaching experience. Former Murrah High School star and NBA player Mo Williams accepted JSU’s offer to serve as the school’s new head coach. Williams spent the last two seasons coaching at Alabama State University.

In his two seasons at Alabama State, Williams had a 13-35 overall record and 12-24 SWAC record. He was an assistant coach at California State University at Northridge for two years before becoming the head coach at Alabama State.

Williams enjoyed a 14-year NBA career that included being a one-time NBA All-Star in 2009 and winning a NBA Championship in 2016. He began his professional career with the Utah Jazz but would only play there for his rookie season.

His most successful seasons came with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Williams had two stints with the Cavaliers and in his first time with the team he would make his lone All-Star team in 2009.

Williams would play for the Cavaliers and win his lone NBA title with the team. It is a historic championship as Cleveland came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Golden State Warriors.

Before going into the NBA, Williams went to the University of Alabama where he was successful there. He helped the Crimson Tide win the SEC regular season championship his freshman season of 2001-2002.

Williams was named Sporting News National Freshman of the Year and SEC Freshman of the Year. He would declare for the NBA Draft after his sophomore season of 2002-2003.

Read more sports coverage at jfp.ms/sports.

The University of Southern Mississippi has been picked as the preseason favorite to win the baseball crown in Conference USA. The league coaches gave the Golden Eagles six first-place votes, by far the most of any team.

Louisiana Tech University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte tied for second place with two first-place votes apiece. Old Dominion University and Florida International University each received one first-place vote.

Coaches named four USM players to the Preseason All-Conference USA team. Old Dominion led all schools with six players named to the team.

Golden Eagle infielder Danny Lynch was one of the four USM players named to the team. He finished last season with a .350 batting average, 12 home runs and 36 RBI.

The Juniper, Fla., native ended last season on an 11-game hitting streak. Lynch was named to the NCAA All-Regional Team in the Oxford Regional last season. He is one of three captains on this year’s team.

Joining Lynch on the preseason team was outfielder Gabe Montenegro, designated hitter Charlie Fischer and pitcher Ben Ethridge. All four players helped the Golden Eagles in their opening series of the season.

USM opened the season against the University of North Alabama this past weekend. The Golden Eagles swept North Alabama behind solid play from Lynch.

In the opening game of the three-game series, Lynch went 2-for-3 at the plate. He scored three runs, RBI and drew two walks. Southern Miss won the game 8-1as Lynch extended his hitting streak to 12-game dating back to last season.

Lynch kept his hitting streak alive in game two of the series but struggled at the plate. He went 1-for-4 batting and failed to score or drive in a run in USM’s 7-3 victory.

Southern Miss swept the series with a 14-1 win in game three. Lynch went 2-for-5 at the plate with a run scored.

Over the series, Lynch went 5-for-12 at the plate with 4 runs and one RBI and a .417 batting average. He earned two walks and struck out just once in the three-game series.

During a midweek game against the University of South Alabama, Lynch saw his 14-game hitting streak, dating back to last season, come to end. Lynch went went 0-for-4 at the plate with two walks and a run scored. South Alabama would go on to win 6-5 in 13 innings.

Southern Miss hits the field again this weekend against Jacksonville State University. The three game series starts Friday, Feb. 25, and ends Sunday, Feb. 27. The Friday and Saturday games start at 6 p.m. and the Sunday game starts at 2 p.m.

Both teams playing in Super Bowl LVI haven’t fared too well in big games past. The Cincinnati Bengals are 0-2 in the Super Bowl and the Los Angeles Rams are 1-3 moving from two different cities.

Cincinnati lost both Super Bowls to Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers. Super Bowl XVI saw the Bengals lose 26-21, and Cincinnati lost 20-16 in Super Bowl XVIII.

Los Angeles lost 31-19 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XIV at the end of Terry Bradshaw’s career. The Rams tasted victory in Super Bowl XXXIV with a 23-16 win over former Alcorn State University great Steve McNair.

Tom Brady stopped the next two Super Bowl trips for the Rams. In a bookend to his New England career Brady won his first Super Bowl and last as a Patriot against the Rams. The Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVI 20-17 and Super Bowl LIII 13-3.

Los Angeles joins the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the second-straight team to host the game in their home stadium. Tampa Bay won last year as Brady won his seventh Super Bowl.

Cincinnati has been on a fairytale run to Super Bowl LVI with wins over the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the AFC. Every postseason game for the Bengals has ended with an interception that ended the game or led to the game winning points.

The Bengals ran out the clock after an interception against the Los Vegas Raiders and used an interception to beat the Tennessee Titans and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bengals won the turnover battle in all three games.

Los Angeles opened the playoffs destroying division rival Arizona Cardinals. The Rams needed a last second field goal to put down Brady and the Buccaneers. Los Angeles used the 49ers’ mistakes to reach the big game.

The Rams are built to win now as they have traded several draft picks for a spot in this Super Bowl. Matthew Stafford is one of the biggest trades as he will start Super Bowl LVI instead of Jard Goff, who started Super Bowl LIII for the Rams.

Cooper Kupp is the star of the Rams show leading the NFL in just about every receiving category this season. He will be the main target for Stafford against the Bengals.

Two former LSU Tigers make the offense go for the Bengals. Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase. The two have picked up where they left off after terrorizing SEC defenses in route to the national championship.

Both teams feature solid defenses that are good at shutting down the run. The Bengals are the fifth best run stopping defense and the Rams are sixth in rushing yards per game.

Neither team is great at stopping the passing game with the Rams 22nd and the Bengals 26th in passing yards per game. The team that can run the ball to help mix with the passing game will have the better advantage.

Both quarterbacks come in as former number-one picks, and both played in the SEC. Both teams enter the Super Bowl as the fourth seed from their conference. The head coaches of both teams are under 40 years old.

Cincinnati feels like a team of destiny as one of the more unlikely teams to reach this game. The Rams were expected to be here with their win-now attitude with big trades.

Much like Brady and the Patriots win over the Rams, this game feels like a young Burrow will out shine the older Stafford. This game feels like it will end on a field goal and rookie Bengals kicker Evan McPherson is 12-for-12 in the playoffs.

Super Bowl LVI will be played on Sunday, Feb. 13, with kickoff at 5:30 p.m. U.S. Central Time on NBC.

Final Prediction: Bengals 27, Rams 24

This preview does not necessarily reflect the views of the Jackson Free Press. Read more sports coverage at jfp.ms/sports.

A handful of players in Super Bowl LVI have ties to the Magnolia State. Most played college football in Mississippi and a couple left the state after successful high-school careers to play during college.

When the Cincinnati Bengals clash with the Los Angeles Rams, a total of five players will have connections to our state. Two players will take the field for the Bengals and two more for the Rams, with the possibility of a third player.

Former Clinton High School star Cam Akers might be the most renowned player for most around Mississippi. Akers is a former Gatorade Player of the Year for Mississippi in 2016 and played college football at Florida State University.

The Ram drafted Akers in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. He enjoyed a successful rookie season and was expected to play a larger role in the 2021 season. That was until he tore his achilles in the preseason.

Thought to be lost for the entire season, Akers returned for the final week. He has contributed to the Rams offense throughout the playoffs and should be on the field at Super Bowl LVI.

Another Rams player with ties to our state is wide receiver Van Jefferson. His biography says he played college football at the University of Florida, but before being a Gator, he was a Rebel.

Jefferson began his career at the University of Mississippi before the NCAA hit the school with new sanctions. He left the Rebels to finish out his college career with the Gators.

The Rams drafted Jefferson in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. He is in his second year with the team and started all 17 games with 50 catches for 802 yards and six touchdowns.

Darrell Henderson played his high school football at South Panola High School and was named Gatorade Player of the Year for Mississippi in 2014. He went on to play his college football at the University of Memphis.

The Rams drafted Henderson in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Henderson ran the ball 149 times for 688 yards and five touchdowns. He currently is on injured reserve, and his status for the Super Bowl is not currently known.

Cincinnati has a player on offense and a player on defense with ties to our state. One started out as a player for the Rams and the other started as a player for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Wide receiver Mike Thommas was selected out of the University of Southern Mississippi in the sixth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. He is in his sixth year in the league and has caught five passes for 52 yards with no touchdowns.

Cornerback Mike Hilton played every defensive back position while at the University of Mississippi. His time with the Rebels prepared him for playing in the NFL as one of the best defensive backs in the SEC.

Hilton was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars and bounced to the New England Patriots before finally finding a home with the Steelers. He spent four seasons with Pittsburgh before joining the Bengals.

This season has seen Hilton rack up 43 tackles with two interceptions and a forced fumble. He took one of his two interceptions back for a touchdown against the Steelers.

Cincinnati and Los Angeles will meet in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday, Feb. 13, with kickoff at 5:30 pm. The Bengals are looking for their first Super Bowl win as a franchise and the Rams are looking for their first title since 2000.

Read more sports coverage at jfp.ms/sports.

“We have a plan to make Roe irrelevant or completely reverse it,” Kevin Theriot, the vice president of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center for Life, told a crowd of anti-abortion activists at the Evangelicals for Life Conference in Washington, D.C. The event, which Right Wing Watch first reported, took place on Jan. 20, 2018—two days before the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which ended state bans on abortion nationwide.

ADF is a Christian legal organization with ties to Christian dominionists that works through state legislatures and federal courts to enshrine the views of the Christian right into law and government policy. The plan Theriot previewed included a draft piece of legislation his organization crafted that state legislatures could use to ban abortion at 15-weeks gestation.

Within weeks of his remarks, the Mississippi Legislature passed the ADF’s proposed bill, and the governor at the time, Phil Bryant, signed it into law, sparking a federal court battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court this month.

“The decision is ripe for overturning. We think we have justices in place that will understand things have changed since Roe was decided,” Theriot told EWTN’s “Pro-Life Weekly” program in November 2020, mere weeks after U.S. Senate Republicans confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett to join the nation’s high court. The ADF vice president said the Mississippi law his organization’s attorneys drafted could serve as the vehicle to strike down Roe.

On Dec. 1, 2021, Barrett was one of nine justices who heard Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office implored the court to overturn down Roe v. Wade and uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, also known as the Mississippi Gestational Age Act. Barrett, like most on the majority GOP-appointed court, appeared ready to oblige the state’s request.

‘A Christian Worldview In Every Area of Law’

Alliance Defending Freedom’s founders included Mississippian Don Wildmon, who also founded the Tupelo-based American Family Association. Wildmon and the others in the group of nearly three dozen conservative Christians who launched the organization in 1993 as the Alliance Defense Fund envisioned it as a counter to the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed overt efforts to mix religion and government and was known for its support of abortion rights and the rights of sexual minorities..

Six years after launching, the ADF created The Blackstone Legal Fellowship, a Christian summer training program for up-and-coming attorneys. In the ADF’s 2000 tax filings, the organization explained that the Blackstone program “provides cutting-edge legal education” and also offers attorneys access to “up-to-date developments in the areas of religious liberties, the sanctity of human life, and traditional family values.”

“As a rigorous internship for exceptionally capable and highly motivated law students, the Blackstone Fellowship inspires a distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law, and particularly in the areas of public policy and religious liberty,” the ADF’s IRS tax filings say.

“With this ongoing program, it’s ADF’s goal to train a new generation of lawyers who will rise to positions of influence and leadership as legal scholars, litigators, judges-and perhaps even Supreme Court judges—who will work to ensure that justice is carried out in America’s courtrooms.”

The ADF’s description of itself in those tax filings is emblematic of “full-blown” Christian dominionist thought, Frederick Clarkson told the Mississippi Free Press on Dec. 3, 2021. He is a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, a Boston-area think tank that monitors anti-democratic movements and ideologies including Christian dominionism and white nationalism.

“That’s the idea that conservative Christians should be dominating every aspect of society,” he explained. Adherents to dominionism often talk about a “biblical worldview” or talk about “building the kingdom,” he added.

Christian dominionism is a religious and political movement that began in earnest during the 20th century and includes a cross-section of various denominations. Many who subscribe to it do not self-identify as dominionists, though, Clarkson noted.

“Not everyone is going to say, ‘Hey, I’m a dominionist. I’m all about theocracy.’ Not many people are going to say that, but this body of theological thought has been percolating throughout the evangelical world for decades,” he said. “If you think that America should be a Christian nation, well, what should that look like? And that’s where the dominionist agenda comes in. It’s not just any conservative thinking.”

Dominionist goals reach far beyond abortion, he said.

“While abortion and Roe and Dobbs are what we’re looking at in the heat of the moment, this is just one battle in a larger war for the world,” Clarkson said.

The Mississippi Free Press twice requested a phone interview with Alliance Defending Freedom to discuss its role in drafting the 15-week abortion ban, the Dobbs case and its views on Christian dominionism. An ADF spokesperson asked the MFP to submit written questions instead. MFP policy is not to conduct interviews for stories by providing written questions in advance, however. The ADF declined the interview opportunity, choosing instead to submit a statement on Dec. 6, but did not address the topic of dominionism.

“It is typical for legislators to reach out to legal organizations that have relevant experience when drafting legislation,” ADF Director of the Center for Life and Senior Counsel Denise Harle said in the statement. “Alliance Defending Freedom is the largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, and the sanctity of life. ADF worked with legislators in Mississippi to protect life because, at the end of the day, life is a human right. The Supreme Court should uphold Mississippi’s law protecting the unborn children and their mothers, and overturn Roe.”

A ‘Strategic’ Plan to ‘Eradicate Roe’

Five days before top ADF leaders spoke at the 2018 Evangelicals for Life Conference, three Republicans in the Mississippi Legislature—Sen. Joey Fillingane of Sumrall, Sen. Angela Hill of Picayune and House Rep. Becky Currie of Brookhaven—introduced identical bills in their respective chambers, all titled “The Gestational Age Act.” The legislation would ban abortion after 15 weeks, offering exceptions only for cases of “severe fetal abnormality” or danger to a woman’s health.

At the Evangelicals For Life Conference, ADF senior counsel Denise Burke explained that the organization’s lawyers had written the legislation and given it to Mississippi lawmakers as the opening salvo in their “strategic” and “comprehensive” plan to “eradicate Roe.” Right Wing Watch’s Peter Montgomery reported those remarks in 2018.

The idea, Burke said at the time, was to force abortion-rights groups to file a lawsuit that would get the core of Roe all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I can guarantee you that they will not be able to ignore a 15-week limitation, which is in essence limiting abortion to the first trimester. We’re kind of basically baiting them, ‘Come on, fight us on turf that we have already set up and established,’” Burke said at the 2018 conference, journalist Arielle Dreher reported in the Jackson Free Press that year.

Mississippi lawmakers had already banned abortion at 20 weeks with a bill then-Gov. Phil Bryant signed into law in 2014, but that legislation did not spark a legal battle because the state’s only abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, only performs the procedure until the 16th week of pregnancy. But a 15-week ban in the Magnolia State was just enough to ensure that it would reduce the time period for which people could already access abortion.

Burke explained that ADF’s lawyers had “very carefully targeted states based on where we think the courts are the best, where we think the governors and the A.G.s and the legislatures are going to do the best job at defending those laws.”

“Once we get these first-trimester limitations in place, we’re going to go for a complete ban on abortion, except to save the lives of the mother,” the ADF lawyer said at the 2018 event.

“Both Theriot and Burke said the movement also needs to be working in parallel to change hearts and minds, including those of people living in predominantly pro-choice states, to prepare for the ‘50-state battle’ that will commence the day after Roe is overturned,” Right Wing Watch reported in 2018. “The legislative and legal push Burke outlined will be coordinated with media and public relations campaigns, they said.”

Less than two months later, Mississippi lawmakers passed Rep. Currie’s copy of the ADF’s 15-week ban after a majority of lawmakers declined to amend it to add exceptions for rape and incest. Bryant, a Republican, signed it into law on March 19, 2018, almost six-and-a-half years after Mississippi voters handily defeated a Personhood initiative, which would have banned abortions starting at the moment of fertilization.

On the same day Bryant signed the 15-week ban into law, the state’s only abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, filed a lawsuit to block enforcement of the law—just as ADF’s attorneys had hoped. Then-Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, vowed to defend the law in Jackson federal court. Judge Carlton W. Reeves of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi issued a stay, preventing the ban from going into effect while he considered the matter.

‘Co-Regents With God’

On Feb. 22, 2018, a group of self-described “prophets” and “apostles” from a movement within pentecostalism known as the “New Apostolic Reformation” came together at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., to pray against the “deep state” and for a “supernatural” shift at the nation’s high court. A crowd of about 1,300 believers joined them for praise, worship, preaching and even a dance performance by a Native American participant wearing traditional headdress.

Self-described prophets Dutch Sheets, Cindy Jacobs and Chuck Pierce organized the event, known as “The Turnaround: An Appeal to Heaven.”

The conference borrowed its name from the historic Appeal to Heaven flag the U.S. Continental Army used under the command of General George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Sheets and others have helped repopularize the relatively obscure flag, which is white and features a green pine tree at its center, as a symbol of Christian nationalism over the past decade.

“It’s not just an American flag, although it was used in our history. It’s really a kingdom flag,” said Sheets, referring to the biblical kingdom of God. He wore a U.S. Marshals pin on his chest. Atop a transparent, acrylic podium in front of him sat a folded-up Appeal to Heaven flag and a large wooden gavel. He told the audience that a U.S. marshal he met had given him the pin and recounted a dream in which God raised up “an army of special forces.”

“We’re always supposed to have been wearing these badges and slamming these gavels, because that’s who we represent: the ultimate judge and the king,” Sheets told the crowd, banging the gavel into the podium. He said God had revealed to him a year earlier that the early days of the Trump administration would experience 10 months of turbulence followed by three years of a national “turnaround” back to God.

Jacobs shared a similar message when she spoke.

“We are God’s enforcers in the earth for his will to be done,” Jacobs declared, calling on believers to “convene the courts of heaven” and for “an army of young people full of the Holy Spirit” to replace unholy politicians and bureaucrats. Like Sheets, she carried a gavel.

Taking Control of ‘Seven Mountains’

The New Apostolic Reformation dates back to C. Peter Wagner, who began preaching in the 1950s and died in 2016. He taught that God had begun preparing the world for a “third great awakening” that would sweep the earth before the apocalyptic events foretold in the Book of Revelation take place.

As part of this awakening, Wagner taught, Christians would take dominion over the “seven mountains” or “seven spheres” of cultural influence: family, religion, education, business, government, media and the arts. (Some adherents of the belief, known as “seven mountains dominionism,” instead combine media and arts into a single category and add the military as the seventh “mountain”). Top Mississippi state officials, including Gov. Tate Reeves, attended a prayer event in May 2021 hosted by an organization that openly adheres to “seven mountains” beliefs.

While most earlier evangelicals believed Jesus would only establish his kingdom on earth after his return and that the state of the world would get worse until that time came, Wagner taught that Christians would instead establish God’s kingdom on earth as a precondition for Christ’s return. God will facilitate a transfer of wealth to the righteous and “pour out his Spirit” in the final days, Wagner told followers.

He was drawing on ideas from the 1940s Latter Rain Movement—a revival-style Pentecostal movement whose adherents believed God was restoring a “five-fold ministry” that included not only pastors, evangelists and teachers, but also apostles and prophets like those in the Book of Acts.

One such prophet in the Trump Hotel ballroom in February 2018 was Damon Thompson, a traveling evangelist from South Carolina. Since the 2000s, Thompson has preached dozens of times at churches in South Mississippi. Also present was Lou Engle, an anti-abortion crusader who rose to fame among the faithful as part of a group known as the “Kansas City Prophets.”

The latter “prophet” teaches the predominantly younger crowds who flock to hear him that Jan. 22, 1973, marked a turning point in history as the day the U.S. Supreme Court ended state bans on abortion with its Roe v. Wade ruling. The generations born after that date, Engle and others in his movement claim, are destined to establish God’s kingdom on earth.

Engle claims that Roe v. Wade was Satan’s attempt to stop the generation that followed from fulfilling its mission, akin to the order by Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus that all firstborn Hebrew male infants be slain lest one should rise up to challenge his supremacy; or to King Herod’s order of mass infanticide in the Gospel of Matthew in an attempt to prevent the Christ child from fulfilling his destiny.

In “The Keys to Dominion,” a teaching guide Engle sells on his website, the preacher tells Christians that “the church’s vocation is to rule history with God.”

“We will govern over kings and judges and they will have to submit. … We’re called to rule! To change history! To be co-regents with God,” the guide says.

Shouting hoarse prayers in the Trump Hotel ballroom in February 2018, Engle asked God to clear the nation’s courts of unrighteous judges and to remove and replace any members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who would block Trump’s nominees from being seated.

“(God) changes times and kingdoms; he raises up kings and brings them down. … We needed to believe God for the judges to be removed, to resign or reform,” Engle said as his body bobbed to a phantom beat.

‘Back Alleys Are Where Abortions Belong’

The New Apostolic Reformation and its leaders present the most visible form of Christian dominionism today, but thinkers outside of Pentecostalism first laid the groundwork for Christian dominionism and the modern religious right, Frederick Clarkson told the Mississippi Free Press. He pointed to the Calvinist theologian R.J. Rushdoony, the father of the 20th-century movement known as Christian Reconstructionism. He was born in New York in 1914 to survivors of the Armenian Genocide who had escaped the Ottoman Turks’ massacre of their people on horseback.

Rushdoony, an orthodox Presbyterian, explained that Christian “dominion men” with a “dominion mandate” would come to rule the earth in his 1973 tome, “The Institutes of Biblical Law.” Over time, he explained, they would advance a “biblical worldview” that would ultimately include the enforcement of Old Testament biblical law.

In July 1994, Paul Jennings Hill stood outside an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Fla., and assassinated the clinic’s doctor, John Britton, along with his bodyguard, retired USAF Lt. Col. James H. Barrett. Hill justified his actions by citing Rushdoony and the Christian Reconstructionist beliefs he had learned in the 1970s at the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss., under the tutelage of Dr. Paul Bahnsen, whose controversial Reconstructionist ideas had led to his dismissal from the seminary after just four years.

After the Pensacola slayings, one early Reconstructionist leader, Gary North, wrote a letter to Hill, accusing him of a “vigilante theology.” Abortion, North wrote, was a sin, but God had “tolerated abortion without bringing justice against societies that practice it” because it “has been illegal in most societies.”

“In the language of the pro-abortionists, abortion has generally been performed in back alleys. This is where abortion should be performed if they are performed,” North wrote. “Back alleys are the perfect place for abortion. They are concealed. … They are unsafe places, placing murderous mothers under risk. Back alleys are where abortions belong.”

But as a Reconstructionist, North believed that the goal of Christians should be to work gradually to take over and dominate society from the bottom up by slowly converting the masses to a “biblical worldview” and system of law—not through centralized government nor vigilante violence.

As Clarkson recounted in a 2016 article on dominionism, “Rushdoony and many Reconstructionists believed in a vastly decentralized form of government.” North once said it would not be “possible to ramrod God’s blessings from the top down, unless you’re God.” They believed in a form of Christian dominionism that would gradually ascend, perhaps over a period of hundreds of thousands of years—but not in a single generation or on the whims of a sudden political takeover.

The Reconstructionists’ ideas soon spread far beyond Calvinist and Presbyterian circles, including to many evangelicals, charismatics and Pentecostals who had previously stayed out of the political fray. But their patient willingness to wait thousands of years if necessary for God’s kingdom to seize the worldly reigns of power was not so contagious.

“Some people feel it would take thousands or tens of thousands of years, but some people are in a big hurry,” Clarkson told the Mississippi Free Press.

Shaping Modern Dominionist Movement

While Calvinism tends toward an intellectual approach to religion and theology, Pentecostalism, which includes hundreds of denominations and independent, non-denominational churches, is much more experientially oriented. Unlike Calvinists, Pentecostals believe in the modern occurrence of spiritual “gifts” such as prophecy, speaking in tongues and supernatural healing.

Despite their differences, including the timeline for Christian dominionism, Reconstructionists and Pentecostals held a series of dialogues throughout the late 20th century to flesh out a common set of goals and principles.

After one series of Reconstructionist-Pentecostal dialogues in Dallas in 1987, Clarkson notes, Christian Reconstructionist pastor Joseph Morecraft declared that “God is blending Presbyterian theology with Charismatic zeal into a force that cannot be stopped.” (“Pentecostal” and “Charismatic” are often used interchangeably or to describe largely overlapping Christian sects that believe in spiritual gifts).

Those dialogues, Clarkson told the Mississippi Free Press, shaped the modern dominionist movement and much of 21st-century American politics.

“That opened the door to political action that brought about the Christian Right that we see today,” Clarkson said.

“So as elements of Pentecostalism adopted these ideas, then we began to see what we now call the New Apostolic Reformation, and they were able to package it in a way where you didn’t have to have a P.h.D. In theology to understand. So they talked about simply dividing up all of society.

“They said, well, there’s seven main sections of society, and you need to figure out which ‘mountain’ you need to be a part of trying to conquer in order to build the kingdom of God. Really smart marketing. That’s what we’re talking about here.”

In his 2008 book, “Dominion! How Kingdom Action Can Change the World,” Wagner, the NAR and Seven Mountains theology pioneer, put it simply: “We have an assignment from God to take dominion and transform society.”

‘The Battle To Take The Land’

Like Engle, Alliance Defending Freedom’s CEO and general counsel Michael Farris has long sought to use the levers of society to establish Christ’s kingdom on earth. He founded the Home School Legal Defense Association, an ADF affiliate that has spent years lobbying state governments to make it easier for Christian parents to homeschool their children. (Rushdoony emphasized the necessity of Christian homeschooling to equip future generations for Christian dominion).

In the first chapter of his 2005 book, “The Joshua Generation: Restoring the Heritage of Christian Leadership,” Farris made a bold claim: “I have met countless future senators, governors, presidents, and Supreme Court justices.” He was describing his meetings with parents of homeschooled children, where he says “dreams of generational greatness burn brightly.”

“These moms and dads truly believe that their children are called to be the leaders of the future. … They believe that their own children, in many cases, have unusually high prospects for being particular people who will rise to the top levels of government, law, journalism, media, religion, art, business, and science,” he wrote, referring to the seven mountains Wagner taught. “I think they are absolutely right.”

In the book, Farris explained that the point of advocating for homeschooling rights in state legislatures was never simply about homeschooling itself.

“While those battles are important and will always continue to some degree, homeschool freedom is not the end goal. It is a means to a far greater end,” Farris wrote. The Christian homeschool movement can judge its long-term success, he said, by evaluating their results against a passage in the Book of Hebrews that describes godly heroes “who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames … and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.”

The end goal of the Christian homeschooling movement, he said, was to raise a generation of children who would do those very things in the “Christian assignment of redeeming the culture.”

“How should we judge our success? … Do we see our children administering justice, gaining what was promised, shutting the mouths of lions, and quenching the fury of the flames? … Have they become powerful in battle?”

Public Schools ‘Essentially Satanic’

Farris and others like him, Clarkson said, fear that sending children to public schools is the same as “turning them over to institutions that are essentially Satanic and teaching children things that are not only non-Christian, but anti-Christian.”

“The idea of Christianizing schools or taking these children out of the public schools and into private Christian academies or homeschool has been in the works for a long time,” he said. “They managed to get right-to-homeschool as part of the Republican platform under Reagan in the 1980s. This has been a long-term process.”

In his book, ADF’s Farris compared the upcoming generation to Joshua, who according to the Book of Joshua led the ancient Israelites to the promised land after they had spent decades wandering in the wilderness.

“In short, the homeschooling movement will succeed when our children, the Joshua Generation, engage wholeheartedly in the battle to take the land,” Farris wrote.

This reporter shared that quote with Clarkson.

“You know, that’s not a metaphor,” Clarkson said. “Sometimes it’s hard when listening to this stuff to figure out, well, is that a bunch of hyperbole, is that metaphorical? I think a lot of the rhetoric has made the full transition from metaphor to actualization. … If people are serious about their beliefs, they find ways to act on them. And I think one of the failures of our society is that these folks were not taken seriously, and they’ve been able to fly underneath the radar.”

In 1998, Farris founded Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., a college that rejects federal financial aid and requires students to sign a Christian “affirmation of fate.” Among its alumni are former Trump White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah and U.S. House Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a North Carolina Republican who attended but did not graduate from the college.

Farris’ activities also include pushing legislation related to “religious freedom.” He helped draft the 1993 U.S. Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Mississippi lawmakers passed a controversial state version of the same law in 2014 with assistance from the ADF despite concerns from civil-rights advocates that it would legalize anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

After ADF’s original CEO and general counsel, Alan Sears, stepped down, Farris accepted the role in January 2017—the same month Trump took office.

“Things are not going well in our country. If you look at the courts, you look at the culture, you look at decisionmakers, even in Congress,” Farris explained in a video introducing himself as the ADF’s new leader at the time. “And I was acutely aware of these things, and frankly was feeling my homeschool work was not broad enough for the dangers I was seeing and was concerned about.”

That same year, Trump appointed conservative jurist Neil Gorsuch to replace former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who had died a year earlier while President Barack Obama was still in office. Because Scalia was a conservative jurist and known opponent of abortion rights, though, the replacement did not significantly change the balance of power on the Supreme Court when it comes to Roe v. Wade.

Later in October 2017, Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett, who was then a Notre Dame law professor, to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

ADF Paid Barrett Thousands For Speeches

During now-Justice Barrett’s confirmation hearings in July 2017, then-Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota noted that her financial disclosures included a $2,100 payment from ADF in 2015 and another $2,100 payment from the group in 2016.

“ADF, for those who are not familiar with it, is a far-right group that files cases and lobbies for policies that ADF characterizes as ‘defending religious liberty.’ But when you actually take a look at ADF’s work, it’s clear that the group’s real purpose is to advance an extreme version, or vision, of society,” Franken said during the 2017 hearing.

“The Southern Poverty Center, which tracks hate groups,” he continued, “describes ADF as a group that has ‘supported the recriminalization of homosexuality in the United States and criminalization abroad,’ … ‘has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of transgender people abroad,’ ‘has linked homosexuality to pedophilia,’ and ‘claims that a homosexual agenda will destroy Christianity and society.’”

Then, Franken (who would resign months later amid unrelated allegations of sexual misconduct) turned his attention to the Blackstone Legal Fellowship.

“In addition to the lawsuits it files, ADF also runs a training program for law students and young attorneys who share its views,” Franken said. “Professor Barrett, if my understanding is correct, the payments you’ve received from ADF were connected to presentations you’ve delivered at ADF’s training seminars. Is that right?’

“Yes, I gave a one-hour presentation on constitutional law,” replied Barrett, who was then a law professor at Notre Dame University.

“And you delivered these presentations to law students participating in the Blackstone Legal Fellowship program. Blackstone is an ADF program,” the senator continued. “Were you aware of that when you accepted their invitation to speak?”

“I, I—I actually wasn’t aware until I received the honorarium and saw the ADF on the check or maybe when I saw an email and saw the signature line,” Barrett answered. “But yes, ADF is the organization that sponsors the Blackstone—”

“So you weren’t aware of it?” Franken said.

The nominee once again said she could not remember “exactly” when she became aware that the training seminar was linked to ADF.

“By the time I spoke, I was aware,” she said.

But during her confirmation hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court a little more than three years later, Barrett revealed that she had also given three earlier lectures to the Blackstone Legal Fellowship in 2011, 2013 and 2014. She did so after the Senate Committee on the Judiciary requested she provide an exhaustive list of decades worth of public speeches to various organizations.

In its 2000 tax filings, the ADF explained that once fellows complete the Blackstone program, they will have “caught a vision for how God can use them as judges, law professors, and practicing attorneys to help keep the door open for the spread of the gospel in America.”

The ADF also said in the filings that it had “effectively equipped attorneys to battle the homosexual agenda, defend parental rights, and protect religious freedom” with a separate training program known as the National Litigation Academy.

On Oct. 31, 2017, the U.S. Senate confirmed Barrett to the appeals court, with support from all Republicans and just three Democrats. But within evangelical and New Apostolic Reformation circles, calls would quickly mount for Trump to next elevate her to the highest court in the land.

Continue reading “The Christian Dominionist War On Abortion, Part II” here.

This story originally appeared in the Mississippi Free Press. The Mississippi Free Press is a statewide nonprofit news outlet that provides most of its stories free to other media outlets to republish. Write shaye@mississippifreepress.org for information.

Just a few seasons ago, the Mississippi State University women’s basketball program had grown from ranking near the middle of the pack in the Southeastern Conference to national championship contenders.

Head coach Vic Shaefer built MSU into a power as the Bulldogs began to challenge fellow SEC power University of Southern Carolina. The program reached notable high points, winning the conference regular season championship in 2018 and 2019.

The Bulldogs won their first SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament in 2019 and celebrated a thrilling victory over yearly power University of Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament. MSU reached unprecedented heights with back-to-back appearances in the Women’s NCAA Tournament National Championship Game in 2017 and 2018.

Things have slowly broken down since the Bulldogs lost to the University of Notre Dame in the 2018 title game. MSU would reach the NCAA Tournament in 2019 before bowing out in the Elite Eight.

Soon, Schaefer would leave to take the head coaching job at the University of Texas at Austin. His replacement Nikki McCray-Penson would leave after just a single season to focus on her health.

COVID-19 concerns canceled the 2020 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, and MSU wouldn’t even get into the 2021 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament—the first time since 2014 the Bulldogs didn’t reach the Big Dance.

This Monday, Jan. 24, MSU star and leading scorer in the SEC Rickea Jackson announced she was entering the NCAA Transfer Portal. Jackson was averaging 20.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in the 15 games she appeared in this season.

Jackson won the Gillom Award, which is given to the best women’s basketball player at a four-year university or college in the state of Mississippi, in 2020. She was named to the SEC All-Tournament Team in 2020 as well. The coaches also named her 2020 SEC All-Freshman Team and Second-Team All-SEC.

The Detroit, Mich., native made her announcement on Instagram after spending three seasons playing for the Bulldogs. Jackson can’t enter the WNBA Draft this year because she won’t turn 22 in this calendar year. She will turn 21 in March of this year.

Jackson is taking advantage of the new transfer portal rule that allows players to transfer to another school one time without having to sit out a year. Jackson could transfer to UCONN, South Carolina, Texas or any other school and play right away.

MSU currently is 12-7 overall and 3-4 in SEC but will be without Jackson for the rest of the season. The Bulldogs will host the University of Texas A&M next on Sunday, Jan. 30, with tipoff at 3 pm on the SEC Network.

Read more sports coverage at jfp.ms/sports.

Jackson State University President Thomas Hudson recently appointed Josiah Sampson III as the university's new vice president for Enrollment Management, effective Jan. 18. While in the position, Sampson will manage scholarships and financial aid on behalf of JSU. He also will also lead the charge on strategic enrollment-management planning for the university, as well as the registrar and records services.

Sampson, a JSU alumnus, most recently served as provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, N.C., where he was in charge of developing and supervising new programs, increasing faculty and student research, advising and mentoring faculty and students, faculty development, and accreditation,.

Born and raised in Jackson, Sampson graduated from Callaway High School before enrolling at JSU, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in biology. Enrolling there was a simple decision, Sampson says, because the university had long been a staple for his family. His grandmother's house was located on the site of what is now the JSU Student Center, and he was enrolled in an early-childhood education program at JSU during kindergarten. His father, Josiah Sampson Jr., was a professor of music and an orchestra director for the university, while his mother, Woodie Sampson, served as an adjunct professor of sign language. Both his parents also graduated from and even met at JSU, Sampson says.

Sampson earned his master's degree in education administration and supervision at Tennessee State University and a doctorate in biomedical sciences from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., with a research focus in cancer biology. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

His teaching career began with the Mississippi Baptist Medical Center’s Medical Technologist program, where he assisted in teaching laboratory techniques to medical-technology students. He also served as a biology instructor at James B. Murrah and Robert M. Callaway High Schools in Jackson. At Callaway, he served as assistant band director for both marching and concert bands.

In 1999, Sampson moved to Nashville, Tenn., where he began teaching biology, chemistry and physical science at Hunters Lane Comprehensive High School. He also served as a math and science teacher, principal-designee and public-relations correspondent for Murphy Alternative School in Nashville.

Sampson formerly held a position as an assistant professor of biological sciences at Elizabeth City State University, where he chaired and worked on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Campus Security Initiative, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. He also served as chairman of the Joint Council for disciplinary appeals and on the Academic Appeals and Re-entry Committees, the General Studies Advisory Board and the HBCU-UP undergraduate program. Sampson was also an assistant band director and advisor of several student groups at the university.

In 2018, he served as dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala. While there, he also served as the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation and Harte Honors College director and as co-advisor to several student organizations.

While teaching in Jackson, Sampson has served as a Boy Scouts of America scoutmaster. He has also been a member of the board of trustees for Clark Memorial United Methodist Church in Nashville, where he taught for the couples’ ministry, and has also been chapter president and served on committees with the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. At Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church in Elizabeth City, N.C., he served as a deacon and vice-chair of the Diaconate Ministry.

"It is an honor and a pleasure to be able to come back to JSU and work for my alma mater," Sampson says. "My service at other places has been wonderful, but being able to do so at home is much more meaningful because of that powerful connection I feel through my family and history with this university. I want to be able to have a strong impact on enrollment management here and support all of our students in their successes as they attend our university."

Sampson and his wife, Daphny Sampson, have been married since 2011 and have six children.

Mississippi State University is losing its record breaking wide receiver after just one season with the program. Redshirt sophomore wide out Makai Polk has announced he will enter the 2022 NFL Draft.

Polk started his college career at the University of California for the 2019 season. He appeared in all 13 games and made four starts. He caught 16 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns.

In the unpredictable 2020 season, he appeared in four games with two starts. The Richmond, Calif., native caught 17 passes for 183 yards and one touchdown. He entered the transfer portal after playing in his final game.

Polk started slow at MSU early in the season. He didn’t gain 60 or more yards receiving in either of the first two games. Things started to come together in the third game of the season as he went off for 136 receiving yards on 11 catches with one touchdown.

He would finish the season with 1,046 receiving yards on 105 receptions with nine touchdowns. It would be one of the best pass catching seasons in MSU history as Polk rewrote the record book in one season.

Polk set the single season record for most receiving yards breaking a record that stood for nearly 45 years. The wide receiver broke Mardye McDole school record with his 1,096 yards season.

He also broke Fred Ross’ single-season reception record with his 105 catches. That shattered the 88 catches Ross made during his record setting season.

Polk led the Bulldogs in nearly every single receiving statistic. He led the team in catches, receiving yards, touchdowns and scoring.

In the Southeastern Conference, Polk led the conference with the most receptions. He finished one catch ahead of University of Kentucky wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson.

Polk finished sixth in the SEC in receiving yards. He finished just 35 yards behind University of Tennessee wide receiver Cedric Tillman for fifth place.

The Bulldogs receiving unit took another hit when Jackson, Miss., native, Malik Heath entered the transfer portal. He caught 34 passes for 442 yards and five touchdowns.

Polk will learn which team he will be playing for if he is selected when the 2022 NFL Draft kicks off on Thursday, April 28. The draft runs until Saturday, April 30.

If Polk isn’t drafted he could sign with a team as an undrafted free agent. Polk will need to make a great showing at the NFL Combine if he gets an invite to help him move up draft boards.

Read more sports coverage at jfp.ms/sports.

The University of Mississippi enjoyed its first 10-win regular season in school history. Head coach Lane Kiffin brought his high-powered offense to Oxford and retooled the defense in just this second season.

Success is a double-edge sword as it brings wins to the program but means players sometimes leave early for the NFL. The Rebels are in the midst of several offensive players having declared for the 2022 NFL Draft.

Quarterback Matt Corral made his intentions known to leave UM for the NFL before the Rebels final home game of the season. The record-setting quarterback was injured early in the Sugar Bowl against Baylor University.

Another key piece to the Rebels offense has also declared for the NFL Draft. Running back Snoop Conner is leaving after his junior season, and his departure leaves the Rebels then at the position.

Conner finished second on the team in rushing this season with 647 yards on 130 carries with 13 touchdowns. He caught 14 passes for 89 yards but didn’t find the end zone as a receiver.

The Hattiesburg, Miss., native burst onto the scene in 2019 as he ran for 512 yards on 81 carries with five touchdowns. He caught just six passes for 60 yards and no touchdowns.

His second season with the Rebels in 2020 saw him rushing for 421 yards on 93 carries with eight touchdowns. He added 82 yards on 12 receptions without a touchdown through the air.

Leading rusher Jerrion Ealy has also declared for the NFL Draft. He along with Conner and Corral accounted for a good deal of the Rebels’ offensive production.

UM will have to rebuild its back field heading into the 2022 season. Three major playmakers are leaving the program after helping rebuild it under Kiffin.

Conner now will turn his attention to the 2022 NFL Combine and any on campus workouts before the draft. He will look to improve his draft stock and rise up the draft boards with his pre-draft workouts.

The 2022 NFL Draft will be held in Los Vegas from April 28 to April 30. It will be the 87th NFL Draft in the history of the league. College football players at least three years out of high school are eligible for the NFL Draft.

Underclassmen have until Monday, Jan. 17, to declare for the draft. A list of approved underclassmen will be released to all 32 NFL teams on Friday, Jan. 21.

Read more sports coverage at jfp.ms/sports.

The Mississippi Public Health Association named Tanya Funchess, an assistant professor of public health at the University of Southern Mississippi, as president-elect for the organization in November 2021. Funchess formally assumed her new position in December 2021 and is set to become acting president by 2023.

As president-elect, Funchess is responsible for preparing and presiding over meetings and conference calls, working with the president and executive director on implementation of strategic goals, representing the association at affiliate or professional events and serving as chair of the MPHA Board of Directors and MPHA Health and Racial Equity Committee.

"Our mission at the Health and Racial Equity Committee is to ensure equity in everything MPHA does as an agency, as well as diversity in governance and leadership," Funchess says.

“The purpose of the Health and Racial Equity Committee is to coordinate and develop policies that proactively promote the elimination of health disparities and (to work toward) the achievement of health and racial equity in all of Mississippi,” she adds. “The committee serves to also make sure MPHA governance and leadership are looking at all of its initiatives and activities with a racial and health-equity lens.”

Funchess has been an assistant professor with USM since 2018 and has been affiliated with MPHA for more than 15 years and active with the organization for five. She has also served in various leadership roles at the Mississippi State Department of Health for 17 years.

Born and raised in Magee, Miss., Funchess graduated from Magee High School and earned her associate degree in general business from Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Wesson, Miss., before enrolling at USM. She earned her bachelor's degree in business administration from USM in 1986, a master's degree in management from Belhaven University in 2003, a master's degree in public health from USM in 2005 and a doctorate in health administration from the University of Phoenix, Ariz., in 2012.

After graduating from USM in 1986, Funchess worked as a retail manager for a company called Shoe City in Georgia and Virginia before later returning to Magee. After 13 years with the company, she decided to branch out of retail and took a position with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, where a fellow employee informed her of an open position at the Mississippi State Department of Health as branch director of the Tobacco Nurse Program. There, she oversaw 52 registered nurses in 52 school districts across Mississippi who were responsible for teaching tobacco education in their school districts.

"My work with the Tobacco Nurse Program was a key factor in sparking my interest in public health," Funchess says. "Working with those nurses, I gained an understanding of the prevalence of mortality rates in Mississippi and how some people, no matter what, just don't have the same opportunities to be healthy and live in a healthy environment as others. I wanted to dig deeper and see why those disparities were there, and to develop programs to help those vulnerable communities."

In addition to her work with USM and MDHA, Funchess has also served as director of MSDH's Chronic Disease Bureau, which oversees Mississippi's diabetes, heart and cancer programs. She also served as assistant director for the Office of Tobacco and as director for the Office of Health Disparity Elimination. Funchess presently serves as board members for both the Simpson County Technical Center Community Advisory Board and for the Institute for the Advancement of Minority Health.

“What drives my work every day is that I want to see populations who have been marginalized for whatever reason get the opportunities to thrive,” she concludes.

Funchess and her husband, Chaucer Funchess, have been married for 23 years and have a 16-year-old son named Chanse Funchess.

The Mississippi Association of Broadcasters recently named Elayne Anthony, chairwoman of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Jackson State University, as the next president of the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters. Anthony, who currently serves as vice president of MAB and will be the first journalism educator in the state to hold the position, will begin her term in 2023. She will replace Derrick Rogers, who has served on the board of MAB for roughly four years.

As chairwoman of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Anthony works with students and JSU faculty and staff on curriculum, scheduling and enrollment. She also serves as secretary to the treasurer of MAB and has been a member of the organization's board for four years.

When she assumes her new position in 2023, Anthony will coordinate with MAB's headquarters in Ridgeland and with owners and general managers of television and radio stations across Mississippi to offer services such as legal counsel and webinars, as well as in sales, research and aid in acquiring resources from the National Association of Broadcasters.

Anthony was born and grew up in Jackson and graduated from Jim Hill High School, where she was named Miss Jim Hill. She enrolled at JSU and received her bachelor's degree in speech communication with an emphasis on broadcasting in 1973 and a master's degree in educational technology in 1977. She later received a doctorate in organizational communication and broadcast law at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1980.

"The reason I first got into journalism was because there were a lot of statements I wanted to make," Anthony says. "I wanted to get out there, do research, report and work as an anchor. I especially wanted to work the education beat during a time when there were very few women and African Americans in the field."

After graduating from JSU, Anthony began an internship at WJTV Channel 12, an affiliate of news station CBS, and later began producing the channel's evening broadcasts. She later served as the station's first African-American female news anchor for four years. After receiving her doctorate, Anthony joined the faculty at JSU for a year, later going into administration and serving as head of the Department of Mass Communication. She also served as spokesperson for the board of trustees for Jackson Public Schools.

She went on to hold the position of assistant superintendent of communications, staff development and pupil placement for JPS before moving on to Belhaven University, where she served as a professor of communications and chair of the Department of Communications for 17 years. While there, she received the Mississippi Humanities Council Teacher Award in 2014 for outstanding teaching.

Anthony has been a professor at JSU for more than 10 years. She originally served as director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Mass Communications before being appointed head of the department. Under her leadership, the department received national accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

In addition to her work with JSU, Anthony has served on the Mississippi Board of Health since 2007 and currently serves as co-chair of the Audit Committee and chair of the Communication Committee for the Board. She is also a member of the Blood Services Board.

"The thing I take the most pride in regarding my work is all my current students and the ones I've served over the years who are now working in the media," Anthony says. "I've been glad to be an assistant to them along the way and to be able to watch all the work they've done on the local, regional and national levels."

Anthony and her husband, Eddie Anthony, have been married for 38 years and have a son named Willard Anthony and a grandson named Aiden Anthony.

The University of Mississippi women’s basketball team is off to a red-hot start this season. The Rebels dropped the opening game of the season and haven’t lost a game since. UM is off to a 13-1 start coming out of conference play, at the time of this writing.

During the two games the team played in the West Palm Beach Invitational, senior guard Angel Baker enjoyed two outstanding performances. She helped the Rebels to wins in both games and a scoring threat off the bench.

Against Texas Tech University, Baker scored a team-high 24 points after she went 11-for-13 from the field and 2-for-3 from the three point line. She added two rebounds and two steals in the 65-50 victory.

Baker scored 11 points to help the Rebels take down No. 18 University of South Florida and added three rebounds and one steal in the 61-53 win. It was the first win for UM against a ranked non-conference foe since 2007.

The Southeastern Conference named Baker co-SEC Player of the Week for her efforts against Texas Tech and South Florida. She shared the honor with University of South Carolina player Destanni Henderson.

Over the two games, Baker averaged 14.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assist per game and went 16-of-26 from the field. Baker is averaging 9.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists. She has 15 steals and two blocks on the season as well.

The Indianapolis, Ind., native transferred to the University of Mississippi after playing three seasons at Wright State University. She was the Horizon League Tournament MVP in the 2020-2021 season and helped the Raiders reach the round of 32 in the 2020-2021 NCAA Tournament.

She has made five starts this season and played in all 14 games for the Rebels. Baker has scored double-digits in four games this season. She grabbed a season-high eight rebounds against Mississippi Valley State University.

The Rebels were supposed to start SEC play on Thursday, Dec. 30, against the University of Arkansas, but a positive COVID test and contact tracing postponed the game. UM's upcoming game on Sunday, Jan. 2, against number-one ranked South Carolina has also been postponed.

Mississippi might be able to hit the court on Thursday, Jan. 6, against the University of Florida to open SEC play. Longer and it would mean starting SEC play against the University of Tennessee on Sunday, Jan. 9.

No make up date for the Arkansas or South Carolina game has been announced by the SEC.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — James B. Tucker, an attorney who prosecuted corrupt Mississippi public officials during a 30-year career with the Justice Department, died Tuesday. He was 82.

His death was announced Wednesday by the Butler Snow law firm, where he was a partner in private practice after he left government service. Tucker was retired from the firm. The announcement did not include the cause of death.

Tucker earned a law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1966. After a few years of private practice in Mississippi's capital city of Jackson, he moved to Washington in 1971 to become a traveling attorney for the U.S. Justice Department.

Tucker returned to Jackson in 1972 as an assistant U.S. attorney for the southern half of Mississippi. For about 20 years, he was chief of the criminal division for the district.

Among the high-profile cases Tucker handled were the prosecutions of dozens of Mississippi county supervisors and private contractors in the 1980s during Operation Pretense, a probe of corrupt purchasing practices.

Ray Mabus was state auditor in the mid-1980s and worked with federal authorities on Operation Pretense. He told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Tucker “was that rarest of public servants — he always tried to do the right thing.”

“He went looking for public corruption. He did not duck it,” said Mabus, a Democrat who served one term as governor and eight years as Navy secretary after he was auditor. “It sort of offended him that people were stealing public money.”

In 2000, Tucker was appointed to serve as U.S. attorney for southern Mississippi. When Tucker retired from the Justice Department in 2001, then-U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran praised him.

“I have an enormous amount of respect and appreciation for the way James Tucker has carried out the important responsibilities of his job,” said Cochran, a Republican. “He was a true professional in every respect. He was completely honest and trustworthy, and he was tenacious in bringing to justice those who violated the laws of the United States.”

In addition to his work at Butler Snow, Tucker spent more than 20 years as an adjunct professor at Mississippi College School of Law.

He was a Judge Advocate Generals Corps officer for the U.S. Naval Reserve and retired as a captain.

Tucker was inducted into the University of Mississippi law school hall of fame in 2016. The U.S. attorney's office for southern Mississippi has a staff award named in his honor, the James B. Tucker Award for Superior Prosecutorial Service in Criminal Justice.

Dorothy “Dot” Benford, a longtime political activist and 2020 Democratic nominee in Mississippi’s 3rd Congressional District who also ran unsuccessfully for several political offices in the state for many years, died of natural causes on Sunday, Dec. 26, at age 79.

Benford worked on the campaign for Sen. Henry Kirksey and the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination of Rev. Jesse Jackson. In 2007, she lost against Charles Stokes in the Democratic runoff for Hinds County tax assessor. She also ran for Jackson City Council and the District 2 Congressional post.

In 2017, Benford began to serve as Democratic Committeewoman covering Wards 1 through 7 in Jackson. She later ran for Mississippi Public Service Commission in 2019 but lost to De'Keither Stamps in the Democratic runoff. In the 2020 election for Missisisppi’s 3rd Congressional District, she ran against Republican incumbent Michael Guest, receiving one-third of the popular vote, but ultimately lost the race.

While Benford disliked doing media interviews, she did make an exception and granted the Jackson Free Press an interview in 2009.

During her interview, Benford addressed a number of plans to change and revitalize Jackson that she hoped to implement should she hold office, including reopening the Jackson Zoo's former swimming area as well as adding a new picnic area and making admission free in order to attract more visitors.

She also advocated to renovate abandoned and blighted properties in Jackson rather than demolishing them as the City has had a practice of doing.

Benford detailed how she sought to select a full-time police chief for Jackson rather than maintain the sheriff position and that she wished to frequently evaluate every member of the police department and promote people in the department based upon those evaluations and merit. In addition, she wanted to see Jackson's former jail moved back into the city rather than have those arrested in Jackson be taken to Raymond County Detention Center and brought back to Jackson for court.

Lifelong Jackson native Johnny Hubbard has served as an adjunct professor of jazz education at Jackson State University since January 2015. He also served as interim coordinator of jazz studies within the JSU's department of music from September 2020 until May of this year, when he left the position.

In addition to his professorship, Hubbard serves as director of JSU's secondary jazz ensemble and the university's Jazz Combo group, which is a smaller group of four to five players.

"I feel that it's my mission to work with students who may have no prior experience with jazz and show them how to approach the genre," Hubbard says. "I love being able to teach aspiring musicians about all the history and tradition behind the music."

Hubbard grew up attending Jackson Public Schools and graduated from Lanier High School in 1990 before enrolling at JSU, where he played tuba for the university's Sonic Boom of the South Marching Band, string bass for the JSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Orchestra, and electric bass for Jazz Ensembles I & II.

In 1995, Hubbard postponed his studies with JSU before graduating and entered the workforce. He began working as a performing musician in 1999 at the Hilton Hotel in Jackson for five nights a week, playing alongside a jazz pianist, which he did for over four years. He returned to JSU in 2008 to finish his degree and to work as an assistant professor. He received his bachelor's degree in music education in 2009 and a master's degree in the same subject in 2011. While finishing his degree, Hubbard also began mentoring the JSU Jazz Combo group during the fall of 2010 and spring of 2011.

Hubbard established his own music business, JH Music Enterprise, in 2008. There, he teaches music lessons and chart arrangements for school ensembles and various artists. He also completed a weeklong drill design program in Dallas, Texas, under the leadership of drill designer Dan Ryder in order to expand into the field. Drill design refers to the drills that marching bands perform at large events such as halftime shows.

Over the course of his career, Hubbard has performed alongside artists such as Cassandra Wilson, Wallace Roney, Steve Turre and Bobby Watson and appeared as an upright bassist in the 2014 film “Get On Up.” The Mississippi Jazz Foundation named Hubbard as an honoree of the organization's Distinguished Service Award in November 2019. The award recognizes jazz musicians and educators for consistent growth and commitment to musicianship and creativity.

"I felt privileged and honored to receive such an award from a foundation that brings so many artists with incredible style to perform here in Mississippi," Hubbard says. "I am continually searching for opportunities to inspire, encourage, mentor and train young musicians through the advancement of jazz education and the promotion of performance. I am grateful to all my former band directors and others who mentored me throughout my career, and I feel that spirit of gratitude is what makes me realize the significance of what I do as a music educator."

Hubbard and his wife, Latoya Hubbard, have been married since 2009 and have an 11-year-old son named Jayden.

While other college football programs in Mississippi have had several high points this season, Jackson State University's momentum has become undeniable. The Tigers are enjoying an unprecedented run of success.

Since JSU hired Deion Sanders as the school’s new head coach in football, making national news, Sanders has endeavored to change the culture around JSU’s sports offerings, and those efforts have paid off at a rapid pace.

JSU’s games have been highly televised this year. Rivals.com named Jackson State as having signed the No. 1 recruit, with ESPN's Travis Hunter ranking Sanders as the No. 2 recruit in college football this year—thus marking Sanders as the highest-ranked recruit to sign with a Football Subdivision Championship school.

Raking in awards, JSU has gone 11-1 this season and has won its first Southwestern Athletic Conference championship since 2007. The Tigers are enjoying a renaissance that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future as long as Sanders stays in Jackson, Miss.

The Tigers have one more mission to finish off this nearly perfect season: JSU is set to face South Carolina State University in the Celebration Bowl.

COVID-19 forced organizers to cancel last year’s Celebration Bowl, but the game returns for 2021 as the champion of the SWAC meets the champion of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. South Carolina State enters the game at 6-5 overall but 5-0 in MEAC play. The Tigers and Bulldogs will get to showcase the two top HBCU conferences at the highest level of play.

JSU enters the game averaging 29 points per game and only giving up 13.5 points per game. South Carolina State scored 24.4 points per game and allowed teams to score 27.6 points per game.

Both teams average around 350 yards per game on offense, but they do it in different ways. JSU gains most of its yards through the air at 255 passing yards per game and just 95.1 rushing yards. SCS uses a more balanced offense with 210.2 yards passing per game and 141.9 yards rushing per game.

Defense is where JSU has an edge in this game. The Tigers only allow 255.9 yards per game on defense ,and the Bulldogs allow 353. JSU has the offense to score points and the defense to stop South Carolina State’s offense.

The MEAC has dominated the Celebration Bowl since it began in 2015, going 4-1 over the same time frame. Only Grambling State University has carried the SWAC to a victory, and Alcorn State University is 0-3 in the game.

I predict that JSU gets it done with a 34-18 win and finishes the season with 12 wins and even more momentum heading into the 2022 season. The Celebration Bowl kicks off at 11 a.m. with ABC providing the national broadcast.

This sports editorial does not necessarily reflect the views of the Jackson Free Press. Read more sports coverage at jfp.ms/sports.

To few’s surprise, the University of Mississippi offense has been explosive and exciting in the 2021 season. The Rebels brought back quarterback Matt Corral and head coach Lane Kiffin.

Defense, though, was another matter for the Rebels going into the 2021 season. UM finished dead last in the Southeastern Conference in defense in 2020. The unit gave up 519 yards per game and 38.3 points per game.

That left little margin for error for the offense because the defense couldn’t make many stops. If the Rebels wanted to finish better than the 5-5 record from 2020, the defense would have to improve.

While it wasn’t a worst-to-first improvement, the UM defense did in fact score better in 2021. The unit only allowed 427.8 yards per game and 25 points per game. That is 91.2 yards fewer per game and 13.3 fewer points allowed per game for the past season.

The defensive improvement helped UM win 10 games for the first time in the regular season and a New Year’s Six Bowl game against Baylor University. These changes for the better didn’t go unnoticed around the conference when postseason honors were distributed.

On Tuesday, Dec. 7, the league office named Defensive lineman Sam Williams 2021 First-Team All-SEC. Williams took advantage of an extra year of eligibility due to circumstances regarding COVID-19.

Williams enjoyed his best season with the Rebels in 2021. He has a school record of 12.5 sacks with the bowl game still to be played. His sacks place him in fourth place at the FBS level.

The Montgomery, Ala., native finished with 56 total tackles, 30 solo tackles, 15 tackles for a loss, eight quarterback hits, four forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one pass break-up. His 56 tackles are the most for a UM defensive lineman since 2018.

Williams is currently in third place on the school’s career sack list with 22.5 career sacks. He is seventh in career tackles for a loss in school history with 32.5. Williams is the only Rebel to make First-Team All-SEC. Corral and running back Jerrion Ealy were named 2021 Second-Team All-SEC—Corral at quarterback and Ealy as an all-purpose player.

Two Rebels were named to the 2021 SEC All-Freshman Team. Offensive lineman Eli Acker and defensive back Tysheem Johnson earned the honor.

UM doesn’t return to the field until Saturday, Jan. 1, in the AllState Sugar Bowl against Baylor with kickoff at 7:45 p.m. on ESPN. A victory there will get the Rebels to an 11-win season.

Read more sports coverage at jfp.ms/sports.

As part of a dynamic team that brings a holistic approach to workforce development, Jackson resident Devin Winsett has served as a social worker with the Refill Jackson Initiative since June 2021. Previously, he worked with Refill as a Jackson State University social-work intern beginning in 2019 while studying social work in college.

The Refill Jackson Initiative (136 S. Adams St.) is a nonprofit group that opened in downtown Jackson in 2019 and works with young adults aged 18 to 24 who are not currently working or in school.

The nonprofit offers an eight-week training program, half of which participants spend in classrooms on the building's second floor developing workplace skills such as resume building, interview skills, professional dress, financial management, anger management, answering phones, sending emails, presenting oneself, filling job applications, and maintaining personal health and well-being. Participants spend the other half of their time performing on-the-job training with supervision at off-campus sites that work with Refill.

As a social worker for Refill, Winsett's duties include helping young people overcome external barriers they may face, such as food or housing insecurity, as well as helping people gain access to mental-health or other services they may need to overcome challenges in their lives. He also teaches a financial-education course that covers bank-account management and saving, and he helps participants prepare for the National Career Readiness Assessment exam. Other instructors teach courses in other areas and disciplines.

"What I most enjoy about my work with Refill is being able to take a unique approach to social service through the lens of workforce development," Winsett says. "The approach is deeply client and goal-focused and allows me to work personally with others to address the barriers they face and help them become independent and empowered."

Born in Pascagoula, Miss., Winsett graduated from East Central High School in Moss Point, Miss., before enrolling at Millsaps College. He received a bachelor's degree in sociology in 2016, after which he spent a year teaching English as a second language in Mexico. Winsett then spent a year working with Americorp in New Orleans, La., teaching 7th- and 8th-grade math before taking a position as a case-management worker in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he worked with young adults in a group home.

"Working as a teacher in New Orleans is what gave me my first inclination toward social work," Winsett says. "Working with the young people there, I started wanting to be able to help them with the problems they faced outside of the classroom, either at home or with local or systemic challenges they might be facing. I wanted to start working one-one-one with people and building a strong rapport with them."

Enrolling at Jackson State University in 2019, Winsett earned a master's degree in social work in 2021. While at JSU, he began a social-work internship with Refill Jackson. The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily forced the program to cease operations, but Winsett was able to return to the program later that year as an instructor to help the nonprofit adapt to changes the pandemic necessitated, such as class-size adjustments and dividing up students into two separate cohorts to limit health risks.

In addition to his duties with Refill Cafe, Winsett has also been working as an adjunct professor of sociology at Millsaps College since August 2021.

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 who are interested in the Refill Jackson Initiative program can apply at refilljackson.org/apply.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Supporters and opponents of abortion rights rallied, blared music and shouted taunts Wednesday during protests in Mississippi's capital as the state took center stage in a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court case that could end a nationwide right to abortion.

Outside Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, men took turns on a loudspeaker urging women to repent of their sins and keep their pregnancies. Some protesters carried graphic posters depicting aborted fetuses.

“What crime has your child committed to deserve to have its arms and its legs pulled off of its body and its head crushed in the womb?” Gabriel Olivier said over a microphone as he paced outside the fence of the clinic in Jackson.

Hours later, more than a 100 people attended an abortion rights rally at a Jackson park near the Governor's Mansion, some holding signs reading “Abortion Heals” and “SCOTUS Can’t Control Our Destiny — We Do.”

A group of preachers walked into the crowd waving red Bibles and shouting scripture as they tried to drown out speakers. Abortion-rights supporters surrounded the preachers and held signs above their heads.

During the rally, Mississippi resident Patricia Ice spoke about receiving an illegal abortion in Michigan when she was a teenager in the late 1960s.

“The boyfriend wasn’t so committed to me or the relationship," Ice said. "I was too young to get married.”

Ice said her boyfriend found a woman in Detroit who claimed to be a nurse and said she would do the procedure for $350. Ice said she went home after the abortion terrified she would have complications. She said she couldn't tell friends or family because they would have been upset.

“I don’t want us to have to go back to those days,” Ice said. “I don’t want to go back 50 years to those days — thinking about it makes me shudder.”

Hundreds of demonstrators also gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday as the justices heard nearly two hours of arguments about a 2018 Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The Supreme Court has never allowed states to ban abortion before viability, the point at roughly 24 weeks when a fetus can survive outside the womb. But the court’s conservative majority signaled it would uphold the Mississippi law and may overturn a nationwide right to abortion that has existed for nearly 50 years under the court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

The office of Mississippi’s Republican attorney general, Lynn Fitch, asked the court — remade with three conservative justices nominated by former President Donald Trump — to use the case to overturn the 1973 ruling.

Her office co-sponsored a gathering at an agriculture museum in Jackson for people to listen to the court arguments.

“Each and every state is different, and we need to recognize that Mississippi has been trampled on by other states and other beliefs,” said Omarr Peters, with Students for Life, which helped organize the event.

Andy Gipson, a Republican who co-sponsored the Mississippi abortion legislation, said lawmakers sensed their bill was historic, and he had the same feeling during the court’s arguments. Gipson, now the state’s agriculture commissioner, said he wants people decades from now to remember Mississippi was not afraid to “take a stand for life.”

Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, recently doubled its hours to treat women from Texas, where a law took effect in early September banning most abortions at about six weeks, and from Louisiana, where clinics are filling with Texas patients.

As patients arrived Wednesday, some protesters tried to stop them to talk. Clinic escorts wearing rainbow-striped vests directed patients’ cars into a parking lot and walked with the women from their vehicles into the building. Music blared from inside the clinic fence to try to drown the protesters out.

Cory Drake, one of the clinic escorts, said anti-abortion protesters often harass patients who have already made up their minds to end their pregnancies.

“I’m tired, have been tired for a while, of women being second-class citizens, not being able to have access to medical facilities as everyone else should, and of being harassed when they should have the ability to see a doctor," Drake said.

A Supreme Court decision is likely months away, and the Jackson clinic will continue operating. The clinic — known by supporters as the Pink House — is in Jackson’s eclectic Fondren neighborhood, a short drive from the Mississippi Capitol, where legislators have been voting to restrict abortion access for decades. On many days, the clinic is enveloped by a cacophony of noise from bullhorn-wielding protesters outside its fence and clinic escorts who blare rock music inside the perimeter.

The clinic’s director, Shannon Brewer, said Wednesday from Washington that it was “energizing” to be around abortion rights supporters in the nation's capital but waiting several months for a decision will be difficult. In the meantime, she said: “We're going to keep seeing patients ... as many days as we can.”

Alabama native Dr. Phillip Burch moved to Jackson and took on the position of chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at Children’s of Mississippi hospital in October. He previously served as Heart Center executive co-director, surgical director of pediatric cardiac transplant and chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Utah/Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.

Pediatric cardiothoracic surgery deals with congenital heart disease in children, which refers to heart defects such as misaligned pathways or holes that need patching, Burch says. Roughly 30 to 40 percent of the surgeries his department performs are on newborns and infants, while others involve heart conditions that children are born with but are not critical until later in life for these children, whereupon operations may be required.

As chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, Burch holds an administrative role in directing the department's resources and in mentoring junior physicians. He also works with leaders of other divisions that his department works closely with, such as the intensive care unit, which provides critical after-surgery care to children such as ventilators and IV drips.

Burch was born in Decatur, Ala., and graduated from Hartselle High School. He enrolled at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where he received a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1994. Burch earned his medical degree at the University of South Alabama in Mobile in 1998 and later completed his general surgery residency at the University of Louisville in Kentucky in 2004.

After completing his residency, Burch began a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine in 2006 and completed his congenital cardiac surgery training at the University of Utah School of Medicine 2008. He joined the UUSM faculty as an assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery and later served as the division's interim chief for two years and as chief for around three years. He left UUSM in 2017 and took a position as a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, where he remained until taking his current position with Children's of Mississippi.

"I took this position with Children's of Mississippi because I wanted to be somewhere closer to home and have a positive impact for children and their families in Mississippi," Burch says. "We have a strong framework here to deliver excellent care with excellent physicians. With the recent opening of the Sanderson Tower here, we now have excellent new facilities to grow and develop our heart center further."

The Sanderson Tower opened on Nov. 2, 2020, and includes new surgical suites and a new catheterization lab as well as private neonatal and pediatric intensive-care rooms, a pediatric imaging center and outpatient clinics for pediatric cardiology and other specialties. The tower is named for Sanderson Farms CEO and board chairman Joe Sanderson and his wife, Kathy Sanderson.

Burch and his wife, Tamara Burch, have been married for 26 years and have two daughters, 14-year-old Sophia and 11-year-old Lola.