Born of Conviction statement ‘an atomic bomb’: Methodist ministers fought racism in the 1960s

As a student at Millsaps in the 1970s, Joseph T. Reiff found his heroes in a group of ministers who forged “a crack in the armor of the closed society” that existed in Mississippi in the 1960s. 

In the fall of 1962, James Meredith had become the first black student at the University of Mississippi. The event sparked riots on campus that left two dead, 48 soldiers injured and 28 U.S. marshals wounded by gunfire.  

Mississippi pastors influenced by legacy of ‘Born of Conviction’ signers

It’s not like the 1960s, but Mississippi pastors today are sometimes forced to take stands on controversial topics – issues such as immigrant rights, health-care reform and the death penalty. 

The Rev. Chris Cumbest, pastor of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Ocean Springs, was influenced by the legacy left by Born of Conviction ministers. 

“I was born in 1962, so I wasn’t here long before it happened,” he said. “A part of my life has certainly been shaped by the fact that my parents were aware of what was going on.” 

Beth Israel in Mississippi to celebrate 150th anniversary

Beatrice Lehman Gotthelf, 91, is a third-generation member of Beth Israel Congregation who fondly remembers good times on the grounds, like her wedding day, Hanukkah dinners, outdoor picnics and the annual Sisterhood bazaar. 

She also recalls dark moments, like the year 1967 when the congregation moved into its present home on Old Canton Road, and local Ku Klux Klan members bombed the synagogue. 

“That was a very frightening experience, but thank goodness, we weren’t in the temple when it was bombed,” she said.  

A Lesson in Civil Rights: Rabbi Perry Nussbaum’s role in 1960s Mississippi examined

He was both admired and resented during Mississippi’s volatile civil rights era. Rabbi Perry Nussbaum became an outspoken voice against racism and segregation in Jackson during his 19 years as rabbi of Beth Israel Congregation, and his life was the topic of the first of 13 Jewish literacy classes that began Tuesday at the synagogue. 

Rabbi Allen Krause, a former assistant professor in the comparative religions department at California State University, Fullerton, led the event. 

‘The Little Preacher’ Samuel Green is a 7-year-old spiritual sensation

At age 5, he stood in the pulpit at Birmingham’s Ephesus Seventh-day Adventist Church wearing a pinstriped vest and tie while a woman sitting beside him wiped her eyes and waved her hands as he preached his first sermon called “Double For Your Trouble. 

It was about Job, a man who lost everything, continued to have faith in God despite his trials and was eventually given more than he lost by God as a reward for his devotion. 

Anniversary calls for recommitment: The Right Rev. Duncan Gray III to lead walk commemorating riot

As an eighth-grader at University High School in Oxford in 1962, Duncan Gray III was well aware of what was happening with the civil rights movement. 

On the evening of the riot at the University of Mississippi protesting James Meredith’s admission, Gray’s father, an Episcopal priest, went on campus to calm the swelling crowd and try to get students to go back to their dorms. 

A Lesson in Civil Rights: Rabbi Perry Nussbaum’s role in 1960s Mississippi examined

He was both admired and resented during Mississippi’s volatile civil rights era. Rabbi Perry Nussbaum became an outspoken voice against racism and segregation in Jackson during his 19 years as rabbi of Beth Israel Congregation, and his life was the topic of the first of 13 Jewish literacy classes that began Tuesday at the synagogue. 

$4M Hindu temple opens in Rankin: Mississippi’s Hindu population grows

Mississippi’s Hindu population has increased since Sampat Shivangi immigrated to the state in 1978, just as the population nationally has done. The Hindu population of America has grown from 1,700 in 1900 to 2.29 million in 2008. 

When Shivangi moved to Mississippi, only a handful of Indian families were living in the state. Today, “I would (estimate that there are) close to 1,000,” said Shivangi, chairman of the Hindu Temple Society of Mississippi’s Public Relations Committee. 

Violins, music: Remembering the Holocaust

In 1996, Israeli master violinmaker Amnon Weinstein embarked on a spiritual journey to collect and restore musical artifacts that once belonged to Jewish musicians killed by Nazis. 

He put out a call asking for violins with histories, some of which had been played by concentration camp prisoners. 

His mission was to restore the violins in his Tel Aviv workshop, as well as the memory of the victims.  

Fight Club: Sermon series teaches couples how to stabalize a rocky marriage

The boxing referee enticed the crowd and introduced the robed fighters. In one corner of the ring was Steve Theim, a former Army sergeant. In the other corner – Rachel Theim, a fitness instructor.

And standing between the married couple was Pastor Phillip Thurman, who used the fictional match to creatively introduce a new sermon series called “Ultimate Fight Club.” It’s designed to encourage couples to fight for their marriage instead of with each other.

Festival of Faiths: Groups building on MLK’s legacy

The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lives on, but some say his vision of peace and equality has not been fully realized. 

That’s why a group of Jackson residents representing an array of religious beliefs has united to promote the ideals that King envisioned. 

“His vision of the world has not yet been achieved, and we have an obligation to work together to achieve that,” said Michael Steiner, a member of Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation.

A pastor’s civil rights journey: From silence to activism

In 1964, Shaw native William McAtee, 77, became the minister at the Columbia Presbyterian Church in south Mississippi. Soon after, three young civil rights workers were killed outside Philadelphia 100 miles away. 

McAtee suddenly found himself working with other community leaders, trying to calm the volatile climate and improve race relations. 

He chronicles those days in “Transformed: A White Mississippi Pastor’s Journey into Civil Rights and Beyond” ($35, University Press of Mississippi). It’s a clergyman’s story of resistance in the face of oppression. 

Rabbi meets the road: Klaven to serve several congregations across the South

He was kicked out of Hebrew school for being a joker. A teacher lacking a sense of humor wasn’t willing to tolerate young Marshal Klaven’s antics. But little did she know the boy would become a rabbi.

“I had a serious teacher who didn’t tolerate any kind of ruckus in the classroom, and I was always trying to push the envelope a bit,” Klaven laughed. “Sometimes it pushed back. Maybe that’s still a part of me. I feel like if we don’t push a little bit and prod to see what’s out there, we will never know how far we can go.” 

Roaming rabbi finds a new home: After serving some 30 congregations across eight states, Appel is tapped to lead historic Chicago synagogue

At age 9, she dreamed of being an astronaut or a rabbi. 

Either job would have brought her closer to God, but Batsheva Appel chose the latter.

“Some of it was the really wonderful rabbis that I had been exposed to and the congregations that my parents had been exposed to,” she said. “My parents were always very involved in the community where we were, teaching in a religious school, singing in the choir, serving on the board of trustees.” 

A brotherly understanding: Service to honor Medgar Evers’ legacy

The virulent visitors did not dissuade her. When they dropped by to see her father, Judy Barnes clung to her faith. 

“As far back as I can remember, I questioned a lot of the racial slurs and remarks that I heard,” she said, “and I believed, as part of my Christian faith, that everyone truly is my brother and sister.” 

Barnes maintained those beliefs in the presence of white supremacists Sam Bowers and Byron De La Beckwith, who she said sometimes visited her father, an officer of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, at their Jackson home. 

Segregated Services: Hands still not joined on Sunday

Mary E. Gilbert often drove right by the large, intimidating church buildings in her community, never stopping to go inside because she feared she would not be accepted or welcomed. God would invite her in, if He were there, but would the all-white congregation be as hospitable? The thought kept her away. 

The 26-year-old Jackson State University student recently shared her feelings with a diverse congregation at Central United Methodist Church.

Sunday Morning Segregation: How much has changed since the days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the latest topic of The Medgar Evers/Ella Baker Civil Rights Lecture Series.

Holy Ghost Milestone: 100 years later, Catholic church still on a mission

Father Aloysius Heick, a 41-year-old German missionary, put his life on the line in 1905 when he attempted to establish a mission school in the Delta town of Merigold for poor African Americans. To avoid being lynched, he was placed in a piano box coffin and rolled out of town by a horse-drawn wagon. 

The experience did not detour Heick’s mission. Vicksburg, a city with a larger Catholic population, was more welcoming, and in 1906, he founded St. Mary’s Catholic Church, the Divine Word Missionaries’ first foundation in the South. In the next decade, the group would open African-American parishes in Jackson, Meridian, Little Rock, Ark., and Greenville. 

Learning about Judaism: History, theology, concepts of God

Stacy Dampf, a Presbyterian, grew up in Baton Rouge and sometimes felt like a religious outsider as a Catholic school student. 

After marrying a Jewish man, she decided to gain a new inside perspective on religion by attending Beth Israel Congregation’s Introduction to Judaism classes Wednesday nights through April 4. 

“As we started seriously dating, we had a lot of discussions about religion and what it meant to us,” she said. “My husband is interested in raising any future children we might have in the Jewish faith.

Resolution Invest in Jackson: Churches take an active role in civic affairs

Homeless and seeking support, Ruth McNeal was once a resident of Matt’s House, an emergency shelter for women and children in Jackson.

Facility leaders helped her find a place of her own, and today, McNeal frequently returns to voluntairily make beds and clean Matt’s House.

“It’s a blessing for the women who don’t have nowhere to go, and I thank God for it,” she said in a Meadowbrook Church of Christ video blog that chronicles the work church members have done at Matt’s House and another shelter.

‘Marriage is a Love Worth Fighting For’ coming to Brandon: Former teen star Kirk Cameron to speak at church 

If you’re marriage is experiencing “Growing Pains,” a former teen heartthrob turned Christian actor and evangelist has a message: Marriage is a “Love Worth Fighting For.” 

Kirk Cameron, who first gained fame as a 1980s sitcom star, will appear Aug. 18 at Crossgates Baptist Church in Brandon. 

“The Love Worth Fighting For marriage event is a very special event that came out of the movie ‘Fireproof,” Cameron said by phone. “That was a movie that so many people saw and loved that we decided to turn it into a live event and bring it to the community.” 

Actor Kirk Cameron speaks about the ‘Growing Pains’ of marriage 

Former teen heartthrob turned Christian actor/evangelist Kirk Cameron opened his presentation at Crossgates Baptist Church Saturday by leading the audience in the “Growing Pains” theme song, fitting lyrics for Cameron’s “Love Worth Fighting For” marriage event. 

“If you are a woman 30 to 40 years old, you may have had a crush on Mike Seaver,” he said, referencing his sitcom character and getting the fact that he was once a teen idol out of the way. “You loved mullet hair styles, parachute pants and probably listened to a little Duran Duran. There’s a name for that. It’s called ‘Seaver Fever’ … Guys, she should have YOUR poster on her bedroom wall now.” 

Joel Osteen to visit Jackson: Pastor of America’s largest church to bring ‘Night of Hope’

Ten years ago, when Laine Lawson Craft was going through a dark period with a failing marriage, financial problems and sick children, she turned on the television and found inspiration. 

“I came across this little man on TV,” she said. “He was preaching about a God that can do the impossible. Our problems were so huge, but Joel made us have seeds of belief that our God was bigger and greater than anything we faced. I am convinced that through Joel, God was able to enlarge our expectations of who God was and is, and we experienced marriage restoration, financial breakthrough, and children healed.” 

Churches, preserved or lost to time, remain a testament to ingenuity

St. Peter’s Catholic Cathedral in downtown Jackson will celebrate its 110th anniversary on Sunday. 

The modified Gothic building dedicated June 3, 1900, features stained glass windows copied from paintings by Raphael and Murillo; Carrara marble altars from the same quarry used by Michelangelo; and a Christ the Good Shepherd Venetian glass mosaic with the inscription: “There shall be one flock and one shepherd.” 

Church leaders were determined to keep the steeple after Hurricane Katrina damaged it. 

Churches honor Medgar Evers: Evers-Williams will speak at Sunday program

Medgar Evers’ life and legacy are an important part of Mississippi’s historic struggle for equal rights. 

That is why four Jackson Episcopal churches are coming together to hold an annual “Liturgy of Racial Reconciliation Commemorating the Life and Legacy of Medgar Wiley Evers” at 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral. 

Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of Medgar Evers, will be the guest speaker. The noted civil rights activist and former NAACP president currently lives on the campus of Alcorn State University, where she is a distinguished scholar-in-residence. 

Mississippi native battles sex trafficking

In 2006, while working in an impoverished area in the South African country of Swaziland, Clinton native Alli Mellon met a little girl who had been sold for sex.

“I was working in a slum area where young children and their mothers sold their bodies for something so small as a loaf of bread,” she said. “I held a 5-year-old girl on my lap, who regularly was sent by her mother to have sex with a grown man. The little girl would be sent to one abandoned car in the city dump, while the mother went to another car or behind a pile of trash with another man.” 

Ministry tunes into needs of new generation: First Baptist’s Static Bible study group seeks to keep 20-somethings in the fold

Static. It’s the grainy interference that blocks reception, preventing the transmission of communication. 

Those crackling and hissing technological disruptions can keep us from hearing or seeing a message. And it may be one of the reasons the emerging generation is leaving the church. Youth leaders at First Baptist Church of Jackson are trying to change that with a ministry called Static that targets the city’s 20-something population. 

Stewpot: Group that feeds the hungry expands services: Helping poor, disenfranchised in the community

With $2 million in pledges already committed, Stewpot Community Services is moving into the public phase of its fundraising campaign. The goal is $4 million. 

The Rev. Frank Spencer, chief executive officer of Stewpot, said the three-year Capital Campaign began in 2008 as an effort to renovate the organization’s facility.

“We were advised by our architect to repurpose the old sanctuary for the kitchen and make the eating space useful as a place where community events can be held,” he said. 

Switchfoot to the rescue: Mississippi concert to help restore civil rights leader’s music studio

His life as a civil rights leader and advocate of racial reconciliation inspired a 2009 rock song. 

Switchfoot – a nationally known, Dove award-winning rock band — released a track called “The Sound” (John M. Perkins Blues) last October on its latest album “Hello Hurricane.” It is about Perkins, the founder of Jackson’s John M. Perkins Foundation, who also appears in the video. 

The spiritual rock group from San Diego will perform at 7 p.m. today on the Belhaven University campus during an event called “An Evening with Switchfoot and Dr. John M. Perkins.” 

Ty Herndon: ‘The Man I am Today’: Mississippi native recounts pain, hope, prepares for local concert

Byram resident Wanda Adams met country music star Ty Herndon in 1995 through his tour manager. 

She forged a friendship with the artist that has spanned more than a decade, and because of that relationship, Herndon has granted Adams’ request to perform at her Byram church. 

He will sing music from his new Christian CD “Journey On” at 7 p.m. July 24 at the First Baptist Church of Byram. 

Ubuntu: Showing humanity towards others

Michelle Shrader decided to transition from speech therapist to pastor when she became aware of the class and racial divides in her Florida town. 

“I was really involved in leadership at an affluent, all-white church,” Shrader said, “and I was working in the school just across the tracks that had no resources and was primarily attended by children from low-income African-American families. 

“As my faith and leadership began to grow, I realized there was something that was not congruent with this, and I began to understand that my calling was bridging the divides in the world where we are separated from one another.”  

Wings of Song: Pocahontas native tours Ghana with renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers

Overcome with emotion, tears streamed down her face as she stood in front of Elmina Castle. Built by the Portuguese in 1482, the Ghana landmark once held thousands of Africans who were imprisoned in its dungeon and later sold as slaves. 

And there she was, centuries later, standing in the courtyard where men and women had been exchanged as merchandise, belting out black spirituals that doubled as freedom codes – songs written years later by American slaves using the Underground Railroad to seek independence in free states. 

Churches feed body and soul: Places of worship reach out to poor

Mississippi has both the highest obesity rate and the highest food insecurity rate in the nation. 

U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics report that 17.4 percent of Mississippi households don’t have access to adequate food because of lack of money or other resources. 

Times are tough. Budgets are tight, and people are hungry. That’s why many Mississippi places of worship, adhering to the principles of their faith, are reaching out to feed the poor. 

Behold Books: Mississippi religious educators tackle a variety of subjects

They spend most of their week enlightening college students about religion and spirituality. And when they’re not educating eager young minds, they’re writing about the topics they teach. 

Seven Mississippi educators – six religion and philosophy professors and a college president – have recently penned books. From belief systems, abortion and money management to Islam, Hinduism and atheism, a host of topics are covered. 

Britney Spears backup singer goes gospel

In her song “Oops I Did it Again,” Britney Spears tells the fictional boy whose attention she has deceptively stolen that although he thinks she’s an angel sent from above, the truth of the matter is, she’s not that innocent.

But Kelly Clinger, 28, was too innocent to continue a career in pop music after spending a year as one of Spears’ backup singers during the Kentwood, La., native’s first national “Baby One More Time” tour in 1999. 

Dances Crosses Many Lines: Beth Nielsen Chapman shares stage with Alabama troupe

She co-wrote the 1998 hit “This Kiss,” a song made popular by Mississippi native Faith Hill that became the soundtrack for the movie “Practical Magic.” It was nominated for a Grammy and was the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ 1999 Song Of The Year. 

Beth Nielsen Chapman has also written songs for Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Trisha Yearwood, Neil Diamond, Patty Griffin and Emmylou Harris, while producing numerous albums of her own. 

Christian artist Brandon Heath talks about ‘Blue Mountain’

When many Mississippians hear “Blue Mountain,” they think of the 135-year-old, private Christian college supported by the Mississippi Baptist Convention in the Appalachia region of Northeast Mississippi. 

It’s a place Christian singer Brandon Heath never knew existed when he created a fictional location called Blue Mountain, set in Appalachia, that is the theme of his new album by the same name. 

Cowboy Churches: Boots and Bibles

Dean Cook spent two years leading a Kentucky church before he rode back into town to create a church for horse enthusiasts. 

Last month, the Baptist preacher took the reins of His Brand: Cowboy Church in the Dirt, a Brandon nondenominational ministry. It’s one of at least 200 U.S. cowboy churches with the objective: Ride a horse; save a cowboy.

“I got to know a lot of people in Kentucky who were part of the cowboy community,” Cook said.

Faith and Finances: Churches preach economic responsibility

Marsha Wilson, 44, recently quit her job as a bookkeeper to stay home and help her two teenage sons improve their declining grades. 

The West Jackson family is now completely dependent on the income of her husband, Albert, a sheetrock finisher. Clinging to the belief that God will help her family through tough economic times, Wilson still knows there are some things she must do to help herself. 

A Message From Heaven: Widow receives message from late husband

To the outside world, their relationship sounds like a fairytale. 

Brandon resident Missy Parker, a teacher at Northwest Rankin Middle School, and Clinton native Ross Parker, a Mississippi College grad who had worked for Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Co. for more than 20 years, met four years ago while serving in Pinelake church’s singles ministry. 

They dated for two years and were married Oct. 16, 2010, becoming a blended family with four children.  

Jackson ministry helps young girls develop a postive DIVAA attitude

The word “diva” is often used to describe someone larger than life, demanding and self-centered, but the DIVAAS at Jackson’s Anderson United Methodist Church believe it’s better to be humble and giving. 

DIVAAS, an acronym for Developing and Inspiring Virtue in the African-American Sisterhood, is a ministry Senatobia native Kashelia Harrion created. It is designed to help meet the social, spiritual and academic needs of African-American girls recruited to the program in grades 7-9. 

Jackson Jewish Film Festival returns: Terrorism explored in several contemporary productions

The Jackson Jewish Film Festival returns to the area for the ninth time, bringing four films that will be shown Jan. 22-25 at the Millsaps College Recital Hall and the Historic Fairview Inn. 

The four contemporary Israeli and Jewish films include stories about the collision of different worlds, the life of newspaperman and Las Vegas icon Hank Greenspun, a nontraditional love story, and a man caught in a life-and-death situation. 

“Several of the films deal with terrorism,” said Marcy Nessel, who co-chairs the film festival committee. “It really forces you to take a look and see what life is like in other countries.”

Selah sees faith tested

Headed to her first piano lesson, 4-year-old Amy Perry insisted she wanted to sing instead. 

My mother told the piano teacher that she didn’t know if I was going to participate, but the teacher also taught voice lessons,” Perry said. “I went in with her, and about five minutes later, she came out and told my mom: ‘She’s not a piano player. She’s a singer.”

Today, the California native is one of three members of the nationally known singing group Selah that includes Todd Smith and Allan Hall. The group has sold 2 million albums, won the Dove Award for Inspirational Album of the Year four times and has repeatedly topped Christian music charts. 

Beliefs Run Deep: Mississippi tops several categories on national religion survey

The location of the Bible Belt’s “buckle” is a subject of debate, but a new report suggests it may be Mississippi. 

After analyzing data collected from 35,000 American adults who participated in the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s most recent U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, researchers ranked Mississippi first in four categories that measure religious commitment. 

They found that Mississippians have the highest percentage of people who believe religion is important. They pray the most. They attend church the most. And more of them are certain God exists.

Beer and the Bible: Would religious views change if ancient beer culture was better understood?

Dr. James Bowley, professor of the Department of Religious Studies at Millsaps College, told students that beer was very much a part of the ancient Eastern Mediterranean and Fertile Crescent during The Real Greek Week II. 

The recent event, sponsored by the Department of Classical Studies, was called “Have a Beer, Bible Reader,” and the description of the seminar asked, “Did Jesus drink beer, or was he strictly a wine man?”

“Playing off ‘Greek Week’ that sororities and fraternities on the Millsaps campus sponsor, the Classics Department of Millsaps had the excellent, and highly successful idea, of sponsoring ‘The Real Greek Week,’ which involves a week full of events for students and the general public,” Bowley said. 

Prayers accompany the president-elect

Sylvia Walker, a member of Magee’s Goodwater Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, is praying the new president of the United States will improve the education system, make higher education more financially accessible, positively affect the economy and promote unity. 

“One thing I like about him is he’s not just picking all Democrats or picking all black; he is living up to what he said he was going to do, unify,” she said.

Barack Obama will be inaugurated Tuesday as the 44th president of the U.S. Many around the nation will be praying for him and his vice president. 

Ministers’ actions in 1960 inspire Mississippi pastors today

It’s not like the 1960s, but Mississippi pastors today are sometimes forced to take stands on controversial topics — issues such as immigrant rights, health-care reform and the death penalty.

The Rev. Chris Cumbest, pastor of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Ocean Springs, was influenced by the legacy left by Born of Conviction ministers.

“I was born in 1962, so I wasn’t here long before it happened,” he said. “A part of my life has certainly been shaped by the fact that my parents were aware of what was going on.”

Churches may be gone, but not faith

They returned to the sites where, together, they had worshiped and found the structures destroyed.

But little things left undisturbed and religious icons not spared by last weekend’s tornado made them feel God remained in control amid the chaos.

Like the hymnal found in Hillcrest Baptist Church.

“One of the songbooks was open, and a piece of trash was lying across it,” said church trustee Gene Creel. “The song showing was ‘Til the Storm Passes By on page 543.” 

Churches reaching out to victims

Many Jackson metro-area churches are reaching out to tornado victims throughout the state.

Here are a few ways:

Rita B. Anderson, missions ministry assistant for Clinton’s Morrison Heights Baptist Church, said teams have been to Yazoo County every day this week, helping victims clean and restore the area. “Often that means protecting what is left of their homes with blue roofing tarps,” she said.

Judy Seabrook, director of operations for Jackson’s Meadowbrook Church of Christ, said church members collected enough funds to buy 25 blue tarps, three boxes of nails, and 18 flats of Gatorade.

Addiction-treatment facility struggling through hard times

Jackson resident Sondra Armstrong has watched family and church members transition from alcohol and drug addicts to productive members of society after their stay at My Father’s House of Freedom.

The treatment facility at 826 N. West St. houses a 12-step outreach program that has welcomed more than 400 men from the metro area.

One of many nonprofits that are struggling financially, the Vineyard Church ministry could close. Armstrong, a member of Flowood’s Vineyard Church, has helped with fundraisers for the center.

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