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Christopher Willett, Former Mississippi Pastor, Expected to Plead Guilty to Sex Crimes, Could Face 25 Years in Prison Former Mississippi pastor Christopher Willett is expected to plead guilty to multiple sex-crime charges in a case that has shaken both the local community and the wider church. Prosecutors say Willett, who previously served as pastor of a Presbyterian congregation in Crystal Springs, could face up to 25 years in prison depending on the outcome of the sentencing. According to reports, the charges stem from allegations that Willett sexually abused a minor and used digital communication to lure the victim. Authorities say the investigation began after the victim reported the abuse to local law enforcement, prompting a broader inquiry into the pastor's conduct. (Jubilee Cast; 3.16.26)READMORE>>>>>> Churches burned in 2006 mark 20 years of God’s blessings More than 100 people from Alabama and Mississippi gathered recently at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Panola to mark the 20th anniversary of what Pastor Bob Little calls “a blessing in the blaze.” Four churches in Pickens County, Miss.—including Galilee—were burned the night of Feb. 7, 2006, a few days after five churches were torched in Bibb County, Ala. Three college-aged students confessed to burning the Bibb County churches, and then two of the three also targeted the Pickens County churches. All three were convicted and served time in federal prison. Marvin W. Wiggins, Bibb County Circuit Judge, who presided over some of the trials and hearings related to the case, served as guests. (Baptist Standard 2.16.26) READMORE>>>>> |
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January 8, 2026: Picayune Item: Hyde-Smith Highlights Expanded First Responder Benefits
Mississippi Baptist Medical Center welcomes its first baby of the new year
Joshua Maurice James Collins. That’s the name of the first baby born in 2026 at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson. The seven-pound, 10-ounce baby boy was welcomed into the world at 12:16 a.m., making him the first of the new year at the downtown Jackson facility. “It is always a blessing to welcome the first baby of the year at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center,” said Bobbie Ware, CEO/Administrator. “It fills us with hope and excitement for the year ahead.” (WLBT; 1/1/26)READMORE>>>>>
Joshua Maurice James Collins. That’s the name of the first baby born in 2026 at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson. The seven-pound, 10-ounce baby boy was welcomed into the world at 12:16 a.m., making him the first of the new year at the downtown Jackson facility. “It is always a blessing to welcome the first baby of the year at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center,” said Bobbie Ware, CEO/Administrator. “It fills us with hope and excitement for the year ahead.” (WLBT; 1/1/26)READMORE>>>>>
October 30, 2025: Mississippi Today reported: Vice President JD Vance and Erika Kirk, the widow of slain political activist Charlie Kirk, called for a generational realignment around conservative Christian values at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday. About 10,000 attendees packed into the Sandy and John Black Pavilion on the university’s Oxford campus. It was the latest stop on a tour of college campuses across the nation by the conservative grassroots organization Turning Point USA, founded by Charlie Kirk. “Your generation is living at a crossroads, and we are witnessing in real time the battle raging for the soul of your generation,” said Erika Kirk.
November 4, 2025: The Baptist Paper reported: More than 700 people made commitments to the Lord Jesus Christ during the recent GO TELL AMERICA Crusade in Brookhaven, Mississippi from among the 10,000 who attended the four-night event, according to event organizers. There were 40 churches and more than 500 volunteers who assisted with the crusade, led by Evangelist Rick Gage and his GO TELL AMERICA team from the Atlanta, Georgia, area. Gage was joined by evangelists Adrian Despres, Runks Runkles and Luther Martin. Additionally, Rush of Fools served as the worship band.
January 25, 2024: Aaron Renn reported: Per the article, some people have called this persecution: Ashton Pittman, editor of the Mississippi Free Press, said Avell's story was a rare example in the U.S. of "actual religious persecution of a Christian by the state." I beg to differ. The city may be heartless here, but this is the sort of zoning dispute people of all stripes run into all the time in cities. It’s not unusual for even those who have followed all the rules to end up in kafkaesque situations. (Also, it’s not clear if his case, which is in a municipal court, is actually a criminal one).
February 4, 2024: USA Today reported: In a historical election, the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi chose Rev. Dr. Dorothy Sanders Wells as its new bishop Saturday, making her the first woman and first Black person elected to lead the church. The selection continues a trend in Mississippi as Sharma Lewis was elected as the first Black woman to become the Mississippi United Methodist Church bishop in November 2022. Wells will become bishop-elect on May 1 and work alongside Seage before being ordained on July 20.
March 20, 2024: Christian Post reported: "There's a very long tradition of what is included and what is not included in the Bible," historian and author Jemar Tisby, who holds a master of divinity from Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, said. "What has caused outrage with this Bible is that it includes the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and even the lyrics to a Lee Greenwood song," Tisby said. "So it's adding to the Bible, and it's adding specific political documents to the Bible that completely erase the separation of church and state." Tisby believes the Trump-endorsed Bible is "[playing] on people's devotion to God and their love of country, either of which by themselves could be innocuous or even good." However, he believes that this Bible is perniciously "blending the two."
January 5, 2023: Christian Post reported: Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal nonprofit specializing in religious freedom cases that represented Booth, announced Wednesday that the school district has reversed its decision and will now allow the child to wear her “Jesus Loves Me” face mask as part of a settlement agreement ending a federal lawsuit. “No student should be singled out for peacefully expressing her religious beliefs,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom. Today’s students will be tomorrow’s legislators, judges, educators and voters. That’s why it’s so important that public schools demonstrate the First Amendment values they are supposed to be teaching to students.”
January 14. 2023: Canton News reported: For the fourth year in a row, Mississippi Christian Living (MCL) has taken nominations for Christian Leaders of the Year, and, this year, Cantonian Angela Carson was selected.
Carson is the founder and executive director of the Canton-based Pine Grove Association, which serves youth, the elderly, the Hispanic community and others.
She is the founder and president of Carson Consulting Services, which offers training, consulting and coaching for nonprofits, small businesses and government entities.
She is a member, secretary and Sunday school teacher at Priestley Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, Canton.
Carson is the founder and executive director of the Canton-based Pine Grove Association, which serves youth, the elderly, the Hispanic community and others.
She is the founder and president of Carson Consulting Services, which offers training, consulting and coaching for nonprofits, small businesses and government entities.
She is a member, secretary and Sunday school teacher at Priestley Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, Canton.
Jan 27, 2023: WBUR reported: Here & Now's Jane Clayson speaks with Rev. Jason Lawrence Turner of the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church about the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers.
February 1, 2023: Madison County Journal reported: A House bill that would limit access to gender reassignment surgeries for children under the age of 18 and prevent the use of public funds has the support of Gov. Tate Reeves and many Madison countians.
Since passage of House Bill 1125 two weeks ago, Reeves has been encouraging the Mississippi Senate to “get it to my desk as soon as possible.”
Since passage of House Bill 1125 two weeks ago, Reeves has been encouraging the Mississippi Senate to “get it to my desk as soon as possible.”
February 13, 2023: Christianity Today reported: The United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, allowing the state of Mississippi to pass a law banning all abortions except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest that have been reported to police. The clinic that gave its name to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case shut down in July. It was the state’s only abortion provider, so while women may still travel to Florida, New York, or Illinois to terminate a pregnancy, abortion has effectively ended in the Magnolia State. The state health office estimates this will result in an additional 5,000 babies being born in Mississippi in 2023. The pro-life movement there is eager to celebrate each of these precious lives, but they’re also aware of other upsetting statistics: Mississippi has the highest rate of preterm births—over 30 percent more than the national average. The state has the highest infant mortality rate in the US, with nearly 9 of every 1,000 babies dying. And for the infants who live to be toddlers, 28 percent will live in poverty.
February 23, 2023: The Ashbury Collegian reported: Several members of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee have expressed outrage over an amicus brief that was submitted in April regarding a reopened case of a sexual abuse survivor. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported on Oct. 27 that the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lifeway Christian Resources and the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee had signed the brief, yet the article was the first time members of the Executive Committee had heard of it. Mississippi Baptist pastor Adam Wyatt, a member of the Executive Committee, tweeted, “We had no working knowledge of this as a board. Poor excuse, I know. But it’s true.” “This is deplorable. Unconscionable. Evil,” tweeted Virginia Baptist pastor Chris Davis. “The SBC is lending its voice against a survivor in a case in which it is not named. This is legal cruelty. And it goes against all the good faith efforts within the SBC to support survivors.”
February 23, 2023: Baptist Press reported: New Faith Mission Ministry in Griffin, Ga.; St. Timothy’s Christian Church in Baltimore, Md.; Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss.; and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., were deemed to be not in friendly cooperation because of female senior pastors.
August 25, 2023: Christian Century reported: The Christianity Today editor and former Southern Baptist leader is gravely concerned about the soul of US evangelicalism. Losing Our Religion is a tale of disillusioned love. Russell Moore affectionately recalls his childhood growing up in a Southern Baptist church in Mississippi, giving his youthful heart to Jesus, and completing seminary and doctoral training in Southern Baptist seminaries. He was so deep into the subculture, he quips, he knew the code language by heart. “The Lord has called Brother Jones from the pastorate into itinerant evangelism” could mean only one thing: “moral failure.” Moore’s rise in the Southern Baptist ranks was so rapid it seemed almost predestined. In time he would teach systematic theology at his alma mater and function as dean and chief academic officer. In 2013, he became president of the denomination’s prestigious Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He served as a frequent and winsome guest on network television newscasts. (I should know; CBS News once bumped me for him.)
November 17, 2023: Rolling Stone reported: For a generation, a collection of Mississippi cattle breeders, led by a Pentecostal preacher named Clyde Lott, have tried to breed the perfect heifer to bring to Israel so its ashes may be scattered over the beginning of a new world. As recently as September 2022, five red calves were shipped by Texan rancher and minister Byron Stinson to Ben Gurion Airport. The red heifer is a very literal prophecy, but it also works double time as a symbol of the way Christian Zionism fundamentally works. It’s a prophecy of a new world born out of the ashes of living beings, a fantasy of consumption and destruction that will lead to a new and holy world. The remains of living beings other than cattle are necessary, as well — which is part of why Christian Zionists have also been working so hard to shape American foreign policy. The more military aid funneled to Israel and the more death and destruction erupt in the Middle East, the closer believers come to witnessing global-scale conflict — or the “Battle of Gog and Magog” as prophesied by Ezekiel, a precursor to the Second Coming and the ultimate vindication of Christian faith.
The Southern Baptist Convention has ousted an Oklahoma church whose pastor defended his blackface performance at one church event and his impersonation of a Native American woman at another.
The Executive Committee of the nation's largest Protestant denomination voted Tuesday that Matoaka Baptist Church of Ochelata "be deemed not in friendly cooperation with the convention" — the official terminology for an expulsion.
The church's pastor, Sherman Jaquess, dressed in blackface for a 2017 church Valentine's Day event, in which he claimed to be impersonating the late soul singer Ray Charles. Jaquess wore dark facial makeup, a large Afro wig and dark glasses and smiled broadly as he sang a duet. Some in the crowd can be heard laughing during the video of the performance.............Another Facebook photo, published by the Examiner-Enterprise of Bartlesville, also surfaced, showing Jaquess dressed as a Native American woman at a "Cowboys and Indians" night at a church camp. The photo shows a man dressed as a cowboy, holding an apparently fake gun to Jaquess in jest while a boy dressed as a cowboy is poised with raised fists next to him. In a Facebook post earlier this year, Lewis wrote: "He didn't just mimic Ray Charles, he distorted the features and culture of African Americans and also Indigenous Americans with his offensive Pocahontas caricature. He is promoting the hatred that sees African Americans and Indigenous Americans as not only different but less than. "
Jaquess defended his actions when they came to light, saying he was playing tribute to Ray Charles and that he doesn't "have a racist bone in my body," according to the Examiner-Enterprise.
Jaquess, who has campaigned against public drag shows, said in a sermon posted on Facebook that his "dressing up like Pocahontas" was not a drag performance because it wasn't sexual. Drag performers are generally described as entertainers who dress and act as a different gender. In the sermon, Jaquess said he has "Cherokee blood in me but I put some brown makeup on. ... I was trying to look like a Native American woman." He acknowledged in the sermon that several people were leaving the church amid the controversy.
--NPR: (Associated Press): Southern Baptists expel church as pastor defends blackface and Native caricatures 9.19.23
The Executive Committee of the nation's largest Protestant denomination voted Tuesday that Matoaka Baptist Church of Ochelata "be deemed not in friendly cooperation with the convention" — the official terminology for an expulsion.
The church's pastor, Sherman Jaquess, dressed in blackface for a 2017 church Valentine's Day event, in which he claimed to be impersonating the late soul singer Ray Charles. Jaquess wore dark facial makeup, a large Afro wig and dark glasses and smiled broadly as he sang a duet. Some in the crowd can be heard laughing during the video of the performance.............Another Facebook photo, published by the Examiner-Enterprise of Bartlesville, also surfaced, showing Jaquess dressed as a Native American woman at a "Cowboys and Indians" night at a church camp. The photo shows a man dressed as a cowboy, holding an apparently fake gun to Jaquess in jest while a boy dressed as a cowboy is poised with raised fists next to him. In a Facebook post earlier this year, Lewis wrote: "He didn't just mimic Ray Charles, he distorted the features and culture of African Americans and also Indigenous Americans with his offensive Pocahontas caricature. He is promoting the hatred that sees African Americans and Indigenous Americans as not only different but less than. "
Jaquess defended his actions when they came to light, saying he was playing tribute to Ray Charles and that he doesn't "have a racist bone in my body," according to the Examiner-Enterprise.
Jaquess, who has campaigned against public drag shows, said in a sermon posted on Facebook that his "dressing up like Pocahontas" was not a drag performance because it wasn't sexual. Drag performers are generally described as entertainers who dress and act as a different gender. In the sermon, Jaquess said he has "Cherokee blood in me but I put some brown makeup on. ... I was trying to look like a Native American woman." He acknowledged in the sermon that several people were leaving the church amid the controversy.
--NPR: (Associated Press): Southern Baptists expel church as pastor defends blackface and Native caricatures 9.19.23
Associational Missions Directors and Mississippi Baptist Convention Board staffers were presented with the disturbing reality of the spiritual state of the state during a day-long presentation Sept.7 at Garaywa Camp and Conference Center in Clinton. Scott McConnell, executive director of Nashville-based LifeWay Research, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, told attendees that studies and survey data indicate Mississippians have become less religious over the years, baptisms are largely children and teens, and more people are leaving Mississippi churches than joining.
In the nation as a whole, McConnell said, population growth has stalled and with that, Americans are less likely to believe the Bible is true and God cares about them.
Statistics available for the years 2008-2018 show the most decreasing religion in Mississippi is Evangelical Christians, while the most increasing group is no religion — atheists, agnostics, and no preference. Along with an aging population, McConnell said, research suggests that a major factor in the decline of evangelistic activity is that 41% of Christian men and women of retirement age are not evangelizing, compared to the 12%-29% of non-evangelizing Christians in younger generations. As McConnell stated, “There is no retirement from evangelism.”
McConnell suggested that Mississippi Baptists can take positive steps to revitalize the spiritual state of the state by:
— Engaging in more evangelism of adults.
— Beginning new works to reach those not being reached today (new Sunday School classes/small groups, new church plants, new ministries).
— Adjusting conversations with the unchurched by meeting them where they are and helping them understand the Gospel.
— Supporting and encouraging pastors and church leaders.
--Lindsey Williams; The Baptist Record; McConnell: Mississippians increasingly turning away from religion 9.26.23
In the nation as a whole, McConnell said, population growth has stalled and with that, Americans are less likely to believe the Bible is true and God cares about them.
Statistics available for the years 2008-2018 show the most decreasing religion in Mississippi is Evangelical Christians, while the most increasing group is no religion — atheists, agnostics, and no preference. Along with an aging population, McConnell said, research suggests that a major factor in the decline of evangelistic activity is that 41% of Christian men and women of retirement age are not evangelizing, compared to the 12%-29% of non-evangelizing Christians in younger generations. As McConnell stated, “There is no retirement from evangelism.”
McConnell suggested that Mississippi Baptists can take positive steps to revitalize the spiritual state of the state by:
— Engaging in more evangelism of adults.
— Beginning new works to reach those not being reached today (new Sunday School classes/small groups, new church plants, new ministries).
— Adjusting conversations with the unchurched by meeting them where they are and helping them understand the Gospel.
— Supporting and encouraging pastors and church leaders.
--Lindsey Williams; The Baptist Record; McConnell: Mississippians increasingly turning away from religion 9.26.23
December 9, 2023: Christian Post reported: The United Methodist Church has approved the disaffiliation of 142 Mississippi congregations, joining more than 7,000 churches that have left the mainline Protestant denomination since 2019. At a called session held at Anderson United Methodist Church of Jackson on Saturday, the UMC Mississippi Conference approved the disaffiliations of 142 churches in the state..
December 16, 2023: Fox News reported: A Mississippi Navy reserve pilot instructor who admitted to beheading a statue of the satanic half-man, half-goat Baphomet inside the Iowa State Capitol told Fox News he was simply engaging in "Christian civil disobedience." Michael Cassidy said he decided "spur of the moment" to travel north to Des Moines and take action against the statue, which had been permitted to be erected not far from the rotunda's Nativity display for Christmas. He told "Jesse Watters Primetime" he wrecked the statue then went straight to Capitol security to tell them what he did.
Jan 11, 2022: A federal court has approved a consent decree that will allow developers to construct the Abraham Church of God and Cemetery, the first Islamic mosque in the city of Horn Lake in DeSoto County, Mississippi, over the initial objections of local officials.
July 31, 2022: Mississippi Today reported that during his eight years as governor, Haley Barbour, like most other Mississippi politicians, did nothing to make that forgiveness more inclusive by creating a system that would make it easier for the literally tens of thousands of people convicted of felonies to have their voting rights restored.
Most Mississippi politicians wear their Christianity on their sleeve. The primary tenet of the Christian faith is forgiveness and redemption. Yet, they do not see as part of that forgiveness and redemption the restoration of voting rights for people convicted of felonies. Multiple studies have made the argument that restoring voting rights increases the odds that people who have been convicted of felonies will become productive members of society.
Most Mississippi politicians wear their Christianity on their sleeve. The primary tenet of the Christian faith is forgiveness and redemption. Yet, they do not see as part of that forgiveness and redemption the restoration of voting rights for people convicted of felonies. Multiple studies have made the argument that restoring voting rights increases the odds that people who have been convicted of felonies will become productive members of society.
September 14, 2022: Messenger reported: Deacon Jesse Lomax and Pastor’s Aide Sandra Walker were busy working at the back entrance of the church as people came and went bringing cases of bottled water and donations for the cause. “I reached out to some local pastors and churches and the local community,” Hill said. “We spoke with Brother Bradshaw in Crockett on the radio on Sunday. We want to make this water effort a big success.
November 4, 2022: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported: The Trustees of Blue Mountain College have approved the new name of Blue Mountain Christian University. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal said that the transition is under way. The 2023 freshman class will be the first to attend under the new name.
It's the latest change in names for an institution that began in 1873 as Blue Mountain Female Institute. The private college was independently owned and operated until being turned over to the Mississippi Baptist Convention in 1920.
It's the latest change in names for an institution that began in 1873 as Blue Mountain Female Institute. The private college was independently owned and operated until being turned over to the Mississippi Baptist Convention in 1920.
Suspect arrested in torching of 2 black churches in what Democrat claims was tactic to suppress votes
Investigators at the Jackson Police Department have arrested 23-year-old Devin McLaurin on suspicion of starting seven fires across Jackson, Mississippi, Tuesday, including two at historically black churches, one of which was completely destroyed. 11.11.22
Investigators at the Jackson Police Department have arrested 23-year-old Devin McLaurin on suspicion of starting seven fires across Jackson, Mississippi, Tuesday, including two at historically black churches, one of which was completely destroyed. 11.11.22
December 23, 2022: Natchez Democrat reported: The Rev. Israel Hanchey, a Vidalia native, is planting the seeds of a new church in Natchez, he said. While still in its early beginnings, Resurrection Church doesn’t have a building.
Hanchey said the first church service will be held at 2 p.m. Jan. 1, 2023, New Year’s Day, at Magnolia Bluff’s Casino Hotel.
Hanchey said the first church service will be held at 2 p.m. Jan. 1, 2023, New Year’s Day, at Magnolia Bluff’s Casino Hotel.
December 22, 2022: The Architects Paper reported: Clarksdale, occupies a 4.8 acre site of a historic church whose congregation relocated following dwindling membership. A majority Black and underserved town of roughly 15,000, Clarksdale’s fraught history of disinvestment has overtaken its legacy as a cultural hub in Mississippi, leaving its residents without the structural support to thrive in a tourism economy. The school aims to be one step in reversing rising poverty rates and the proliferation of vacant lots, as it prepares children in Clarksdale and surrounding counties for college on a tuition-free basis.
March 25, 2021: The Freedom From Religion Foundation is urging the junior senator from Mississippi to recant recent Christian nationalist comments she made in defense of voter suppression. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith defended a voter suppression bill in Georgia during a Senate Campaign Finance Committee hearing this week. The bill, if passed, would implement a number of undemocratic voter suppression tactics, including prohibiting early voting on Sundays. This is a thinly veiled attempt to restrict voting by Black Georgians, who often vote after church as part of a “Souls to the Polls” campaign.