Jackson Free Press

Let's say a meteorite crashed to Earth and landed on the Jackson Free Press' offices, resulting in a broken pinky toe on my left foot. According to a new state law, it would be up to me to prove to my bosses that I wasn't high as a kite when said celestial projectile descended on Fondren.

Who hasn't bothered to file campaign-finance reports for the primaries?

Cross-posted from CJ Rhodes' WordPress blog by permission:

Dear Mr. Speaker,

I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. My name is CJ Rhodes and I am a resident of our Capital City. I also pastor Mt Helm Baptist Church, Jackson’s oldest historically black congregation, which is situated within Downtown’s Farish Street Historic District. We are in the shadow of the State Capitol and this year we’re celebrating 180 years of ministry. Our establishment dates back to 1835 when our enslaved ancestors worshiped under watchful eyes in the basement of First Baptist Church, Jackson. We remained a part of First Baptist’s congregation until 1865. At that time we were delivered from bondage by the Almighty’s outstretched arm. With the benevolence of Thomas and Mary Helm, members of Jackson’s First Presbyterian Church, Mt Helm (named in their honor) was founded as an autonomous Baptist congregation and has played a vital role in religion and racial uplift ever since.

Brother Gunn, it was with great joy that I read your Facebook status about how your Christian convictions caused you to reconsider the Confederate flag following the tragic massacre that occurred at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. I salute your courage and thank you for publicly sharing your change of heart. I know that you are a Southern Baptist elder and I assume that has something to do with your pastoral and political concerns for that flag’s offense to my people. I am blessed to see how the SBC is having a great awakening regarding race in the country. To God be the glory!

In recent days several members of your denomination have taken prophetic stands against the idolatry of white superiority and have called for the removal of the Confederate flag. Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (where you serve as a Trustee), wrote, “Racial superiority is a sin as old as Genesis and as contemporary as the killings in Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. The ideology of racial superiority is not only sinful, it is deadly.”1 Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd prophesied at the 2015 Convention that now is the time to lead racial justice and reconciliation, decrying all racism as sin.[2] Dr. Russell Moore, Mississippi Gulf Coast native and President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, powerfully avers:

White Christians ought to think about what that flag says to our African-American brothers and sisters in Christ, especially in the aftermath of yet another act of white supremacist terrorism against them. The gospel frees us from scrapping for our “heritage” at the expense of others. As those in Christ, this descendant of Confederate veterans has more in common with a Nigerian Christian than I do with a non-Christian white Mississippian who knows the right use of “y’all” and how to make sweet tea.[3]

Before these public proclamations another great Southern Baptist was led of the Holy Spirit to respond once again to racial reconciliation. Dan Jones, the …

Mississippi pastors, community leaders and a Hattiesburg church have filed a federal lawsuit challenging House Bill 1523, the third legal challenge to the "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act."

The plaintiffs have sued the governor (who recently received a Religious Freedom Award), the attorney general, the executive director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services and the state registrar of vital records, asking the federal court to issue an injunction blocking the bill from becoming state law on July 1.

The lawsuit says that "with the passage and approval of that bill, the Legislature and the Governor breached the separation of church and state, and specifically endorsed certain narrow religious beliefs that condemn same-sex couples who get married, condemn unmarried people who have sexual relations, and condemn transgender people."

The plaintiffs will be represented by Jackson-based lawyer Rob McDuff and the Mississippi Center for Justice.

Read the complaint here. The press release from the MS Center for Justice has been reproduced, verbatim, below:

Ministers, Community Leaders, and Activists File New Lawsuit Challenging House Bill 1523

A group of Mississippi ministers, community leaders, and civic activists, along with a Hattiesburg church, today filed a new lawsuit in federal court in Jackson challenging House Bill 1523. The lawsuit claims the controversial measure violates the principle of the separation of church and state contained in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The plaintiffs, represented by longtime civil rights lawyer Rob McDuff and the Mississippi Center for Justice, are asking the federal court to issue an injunction blocking the bill from taking effect on the scheduled date of July 1.

The lawsuit follows an earlier case filed by the ACLU challenging HB 1523 on different grounds. The ACLU suit also seeks an injunction prior to July 1.

Today’s lawsuit focuses on the language of Section 2 of HB 1523, which reads: “The sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions protected by this act are the belief or conviction that: (a) Marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman; (b) Sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage; and (c) male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.”

The lawsuit claims that by enacting HB 1523, the Legislature and the Governor “specifically endorsed certain narrow religious beliefs that condemn same-sex couples who get married, condemn unmarried people who have sexual relations, and condemn transgender people.” The lawsuit notes that the bill provides special legal protection exclusively to people holding those beliefs, but not for those who have different beliefs.

“The people bringing this lawsuit, like thousands of people in Mississippi, do not subscribe to the religious views set forth in the bill, and do not believe the government should be interfering in religion by choosing some religious views over others,” McDuff said.

“Ensuring that government maintains neutrality on religious beliefs and respects …

A season for the ages for the Mississippi State University women’s basketball team just keeps getting better and better. The program reached the Sweet Sixteen for the second year in a row, but these Bulldogs didn’t want to go home in the first game of the second weekend.

MSU’s task in the Sweet Sixteen was to find a way to slow down Kelsey Plum of the University of Washington, who happens to be the all-time leading scorer for women’s NCAA basketball and has set the single-season record for scoring.

The Huskies star ended up scoring 29 points, but on 10-of-25 shooting and 3-for-8 from the three-point line. MSU harassed Plum all game long with a suffocating defense that rarely gave the guard open looks at the basket.

Even with the stellar defense on Plum, Washington stayed in the game until the fourth quarter. That is when Bulldogs center Teaira McCowan put the team on her back and carried them.

In the first three quarters, McCowan scored six points before exploding for 20 points in the final quarter alone. No player was more dominant in the game than the Bulldogs center, who nabbed 12 rebounds and made a career-high six blocks.

Washington had no answer in the paint for McCowan, as she grabbed rebound after rebound and put missed shots back for easy buckets. A close game for three quarters saw the Bulldogs pull away in the 75-64 victory.

MSU used its depth to wear Huskies out, with 11 players getting into the game and seven playing double-digit minutes. Star guard Victoria Vivians came off the bench and scored 13 points, and rounds-one and -two leading scorer Blair Schaefer scored 10 points. Another impressive fact is that 10 of the 11 players who saw action scored at least two points.

The win propelled MSU to its first Elite Eight appearance in program history. But then Baylor University stood in the Bulldogs’ way of reach the Final Four, and the two teams put on a show on Sunday night.

During that game, each team seemed to battle back after the other made a run to either tie or take the lead. Just when it seemed like one team was about to put the other away, the game tightened up again.

It might not have been a masterpiece for every second, but it was two teams making big shot after big shot. The smallest Bulldog on the floor, Morgan William, ended up taking and making most of those big shots for MSU.

William entered the game after scoring 11 points on 4-of-16 shooting in the team’s other three games during the NCAA Tournament. She exploded for 41 points on 13-of-22 shooting, 6-of-8 from three, and 9-of-10 from the free throw line, with seven assists and zero turnovers.

William hit shots no matter which Bear tried to guard her, and even hit deep three-point shots when Baylor …